Cause Marketing

Tom’s of Maine is one of those companies that’s a shining example of social responsibility done right. It’s never been about flavor-of-the-month cause marketing or flashy ad campaigns or even gimmicky product extensions like bubble-gum flavored toothpaste. It’s always been about quality products, customer service and a core mission to giving back. And they are [...]

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Hollywood is world famous for many things – celebrities, sunshine, and shopping among them. But a new Hollywood attraction is the first of its kind: Environmentaland, an eco-themed park that opened this month at Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue. The park is expected to entertain adults and kids alike, with attractions including an energy-generating [...]

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Follow @TheChildFund to Donate Gifts to Kids Around the World Nonprofits have had much success harnessing the power of the social web (specifically, Twitter) in generating awareness for their causes and motivating action. From Stacey Monk’s Tweetsgiving initiative to the multi-location Twestivals, and countless campaigns in between, Twitter has become a viable cause marketing channel [...]

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A “plant-a-tree” campaign doesn’t necessarily leap to mind as the pinnacle in innovative cause marketing. In fact, when I first heard about Government Solutions Group, a company that facilitates cause-related marketing between brands and state parks, it conjured images of elementary school students filing into fields with their seedlings tucked inside paper cups for a [...]

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Over the weekend, I caught a commercial for Walden University, one of the many online education institutions that’s popped over the past decade. But unlike the other universities that boast the benefits attending classes online and accelerated degree programs, Walden focuses on cultivating the social change leaders of tomorrow. Their new positioning, “A higher degree. [...]

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Last week I featured Greenwala founder, Rajeev Kapur in my Philanthropy in Five series, and I was impressed with his goals for the site as well as his ideas for helping to push eco consciousness into the mainstream in fun, creative ways. Well, he just rolled out one such endeavor with “Greenwala Contests,” a series [...]

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This month, Hamburger Helper launched their ‘Land A Helping Hand’ campaign in partnership with Feeding America, featuring Beyonce as their official celebrity spokesperson. Causes often use celebs and high profile figures as a way to reach the mainstream market and quickly generate mass exposure, so I wasn’t all that surprised to see the golden-flocked femme [...]

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Last week, Cone Inc., the leader in cause branding, research and innovation, in partnership with Intangible Business, unveiled their latest study,”‘The Nonprofit Power Brand 100,” marking a departure from more traditional financially-valuated rankings. This first-of-its-kind research explores the unique relationship between nonprofit brand image and financial performance, and revealed that some organizations may be leaving [...]

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This week, the blogosphere was a buzz with the launch of Alice.com, a direct-to-consumer start-up committed to helping you never run out of toilet paper again. And a whole bunch of other consumer packaged good items that are always a hassle to run out to the store for. From Tech Crunch to Mashable to Venture [...]

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It’s no secret that Microsoft is often on my list as examples of big corporations still wrapped in an old way of thinking under the guise of faux consciousness. And I haven’t been overly impressed with Microsoft’s innovation platform or social responsibility efforts… until now. With the launch of their new decision engine (and the [...]

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People, when asked, generally want to do the right thing. But outside their own desire and a vague sense of “you should,” how much and how fast do people change their behavior when it comes shopping? For many, not fast enough. How can that change? One promising answer is Ecounit, one of the top 10 [...]

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I’m typically skeptical when big corporations launch “green” initiatives, automatically assuming that their newfound eco-consciousness stance is an attempt to grab today’s earth-minded consumer, and elevate their brand in the process. And more often than not, that’s unfortunately the case, using causes and environmental issues to create the perception of social responsibility, while their commitment [...]

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Social media has opened the door floodgates when it comes to causes getting the word out to consumers, but with the overwhelming amounts of information available online (and that’s an understatement), it’s often difficult to ensure message retention, or even that your issue will rise above the clutter as other organizations vie for attention. So, [...]

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As someone who spends a good amount of time on Twitter, I’ve had the great fortune of connecting with some truly amazing people, many of whom continue to educate me on cause marketing — sometimes without even realizing it. One such person is Cyan Banister, founder of Zivity, an online portfolio site for models, artists [...]

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On the social web, the only thing that exceeds the number of social media “experts” and “gurus” out there are the number of names for those who practice it. From social media marketers to customer engagement specialists, everyone seems to be selling something. But while the term social marketing has nothing to do with social [...]

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Yesterday, Zemanta, an application that suggests tags, links, photos, and related articles to enrich your blog based on keywords extracted from the text of your posts, launched its “Blogging for a Cause” campaign. Putting up $3,000 of their own money, Zemanta is asking bloggers to write about their favorite nonprofits, the top five of which [...]

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When attempting to connect consumers with causes, there is no greater tie than tapping into the local community. While high profile causes are important, often tmes, unless it affects someone directly, it is difficult to forge that compelling personal connection. And there are many types of local causes that need support, where consumers can relate [...]

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With so many companies jumping on the “do good” bandwagon, even more names have emerged for the concept itself — cause marketing, cause-related marketing, cause branding, green marketing, conscious marketing, marketing with meaning, social good marketing, social change marketing and a slew of others. Even the umbrella term of corporate social responsibility is often used [...]

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One of the reasons cause branding campaigns work so well is because it allows consumers to make doing good part of their regular routine. Someone can buy a cup of coffee and feel a sense of purpose without having to do any extra leg work. This ease of giving is magnified by Social Actions, a [...]

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Most cause marketing discussions center around marketing the company, product, or service that has partnered with a non-profit organization. Few focus on nonprofits marketing themselves as a means to gain awareness for their cause. And fewer still, discuss how causes can rally support from a government standpoint. But, for many nonprofits, this is a critical [...]

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Consumer brands heavyweight Procter & Gamble is done sitting on the social media sidelines. Recent rumors have revealed the company has determined that social media is the future of marketing. This isn’t surprising, with the great success and evangelism-charged growth of smaller, values-driven companies such as Seventh Generation. Fast-growing Seventh Generation is now also distributing [...]

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While the definition and nomenclature around cause marketing varies considerably, there are certain elements that everyone can agree on from an execution standpoint. It must be a) transparent, b) authentic, and c) integrated. The belief is that if a cause marketing initiative upholds these tenets, it will be effective in connecting the consumer, company, and [...]

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Photo credit: Nick Dunlop With cause marketing becoming an increasingly hot topic, many companies are “cause washing” their brands, similar to that of greenwashing, in an attempt to create the perception of social consciousness without an authentic connection to the cause. Other companies use charitable donations as a promotion to increase sales with only a [...]

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Anyone who’s heavily immersed Cause Marketing, is already well aware of Cone Inc., and it’s virtually impossible to perform a search on the topic without inevitably returning several results with Cone’s many research studies or commentary. They have spent the past 28 years advising businesses and nonprofits on effective cause engagement, and are without question, [...]

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Cause Marketing initiatives come in all shapes and sizes from cause-branded products to community events. But only one comes in a brightly colored deck of cards with opportunities for affecting change through real life activities. Akoha, the world’s first social reality game, is built on the premise of bridging the on- and offline worlds in [...]

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By and large, a cause marketing initiative works best when a company is deeply committed to a particular social issue, and incorporates a greater platform for change than merely transactional efforts. While it has value to tie the proceeds from sales to a particular cause, it has the potential to confuse the landscape if it [...]

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It’s not too difficult to spot the brands who have hopped on the cause marketing bandwagon recently, tying their promotions to a charity in the hopes of sparking increased sales and reaping the halo benefits of goodwill for their image. Today’s consumer is smarter and more informed, and wants to do business with socially responsible [...]

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Call me cynical (and you’d be right), but I think that humans as a species have a couple of basic tenancies. We want life to be better and want to do less to make it so. In other words, we want more comfort and convenience at less cost. That is why we live in a consumer based society with disposable products. We also focus almost entirely on short term gain vs. long term gain. There are obviously exceptions to these rules – like our friends the Mennonites – but in general I think this holds true.

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This series on Cause Marketing has begun the important work of defining the distinctions between cause marketing, cause-related marketing and corporate social responsibility, revealing subtle differences of each and highlighting the short- and long-term impact of those endeavors. But waxing philanthropic will only take us so far. Viewing these concepts in practical application to assess [...]

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As companies and marketers continue to attempt to decode Cause Marketing in determining how best to incorporate it into their efforts, a new conundrum emerges. One that centers around Corporate Social Responsibility and the overall cultural philosophy of a company. For some, it becomes a separation of Church and State issue whereby cause-related activities do [...]

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