Cause-Related Marketing...Making It Count
Spending on cause-related marketing is expected to hit $1.5 billion in 2008, according to the IEG Sponsorship Report. Those dollars benefit worthy causes and the companies who support them
Today’s consumers are socially conscious, so cause-related marketing matters to them. But they’re also more savvy these days, and are keenly aware of any cause-related efforts that seem too self-serving.
A study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology showed that a company’s reputation has a lot to do with how their cause-related marketing is received.
- Participants who viewed an anti-drinking and driving message sponsored by the non-profit organization, MADD, attributed more positive, society-serving motives to the sponsor.
- Participants who viewed the same ad sponsored by a beer company attributed more negative, self-serving motives to the sponsor.
The study also demonstrated that even when told why the marketers were participating in cause-related marketing, consumer attitudes didn’t change. If the company had a negative reputation, their altruism was seen as self-serving.
In her blog, Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing, Katya Andresen discusses four essentials of cause-related marketing that companies and nonprofits would do well to incorporate.
- Suitability. Are your company and product really a good fit with a particular nonprofit? Does it make sense for an SUV manufacturer to partner with Greenpeace, for example. According to Katya, “you want a fit that makes sense to the consumer – it’s stickier that way. You also want a fit that makes sense to the partners, who should look for a deeper win-win. An ideal partnership is one where the cause and company’s objectives reinforce each other.”
- Authenticity. “Authenticity is about the company walking the talk of the cause.” Is your company living out the message it claims to support?
- Transparency. Nonprofits are required to be transparent about how their funding is used. It’s not enough for consumers to hear you say that a portion of proceeds benefits a charity. “Both the company and the charity need to say what amount of money is going where to do what. Very, very clearly…Err on the side of openness.” People are paying attention.
- Selling Point Research shows consumers will buy cause-related products over those that don’t have a charitable tie-in, price and quality being equal. Alignment with a cause is not a unique value proposition, unless you have the same price and quality. If you don’t, you need other selling points.
Cause-related marketing can be good for your company – but you must make sure that it’s done well, and done right.
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