With the holidays around the corner, we’re seeing all kinds of incentives being marketed to shoppers these days, from coupons to free shipping offers to sales promotions of all shapes and sizes.
There’s no doubt that consumers want to stretch their dollars as far as possible this year, so these promotions go a long way. However, these aren’t the only ways for businesses to boost their sales this holiday season.
A great trend emerging in the consumer world is driven by cause marketing. More and more companies are realizing that consumers are interested in more than discounts and free gifts. They want the dollars coming out of their pockets to multi-task. What do I mean by this? More and more consumers want to spend money on products that give back to charity. (For more on this topic, read one of our previous posts, Do You ‘Shop For A Cause’?) Companies are listening. Here in the U.S., you see this most commonly during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October and around the end-of-year holiday season.
It’s a brilliant strategy to adopt because everyone ends up a winner. Consumers get excited by the fact that their money is not only going towards their purchases, but also towards meaningful causes. Meanwhile, brands see a boost in sales (assuming they market their promotions effectively) and get the chance to take advantage of these charity-driven promotions to garner new press opportunities. And, of course, the charities that benefit from these percent-of-proceeds promotions end up raising funds without having to do much on their end beyond spreading the word.
With all of this in mind, I was inspired to launch a virtual shop that features products and brands offering a percent of proceeds from all purchases made in their online shops shops to Glamour Gone Good. The brands currently participating in the Glamour Gone Good virtual shop are:
CLOTH
Good For Your Girls
SalonSpa.com
Stop Traffick Fashion
The Glamour Band
Stop by the Glamour Gone Good shop and maybe you’ll find the perfect gift for a loved one or a little treat for yourself. If you’re interested in contributing to the shop, it’s not too late to contact us. Or, simply help us spread the word.
Perhaps this blog post and our own shop will inspire you to develop a percent-of-proceeds promotion of your own to support causes near and dear to the hearts of your consumers. If you want some help, email us at info@glamourgonegood.org.
Bruce Burtch, an entrepreneur in the world of cause marketing, summed up his work in five words: “Do well by doing good.” Cause marketing is a mutually beneficial, cooperative effort between a business and a nonprofit organization. In this way, nonprofits receive exposure and support while corporations simultaneously promote their business. In 1976, the Marriot Corporation partnered with March of Dimes for one of the first true cause marketing campaigns. Marriot sought to promote the opening of their theme park, Great America, while March of Dimes hoped to greatly increase fundraising by the program’s deadline. The end result? The most successful promotion in the history of Chapters West of the March of Dimes and a record-breaking opening for Great America.
But cause marketing isn’t just a thing of the past. In 2009 alone, $1.57 billion was spent on cause marketing. And as marketing, communication, fundraising, and shopping transition to an entirely online world, applications like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have become the new tools of the trade. Thinking about starting your own experiment in online cause marketing? Examine it from the perspective of both nonprofits and corporations and learn from the experiences of previous partnerships. Finish off with some general tips for online cause marketing and you’ll be doing well by doing good in no time!
For Nonprofits: First, nonprofit organizations must understand that both parties are equally important in a cause marketing relationship. In the same way that nonprofit organizations couldn’t accomplish many goals without a corporate partner, businesses need nonprofits to succeed. For example, nonprofit organizations have expertise in areas that corporations find crucial. Who better to decide where money should be spent than the workers who are on the ground facing the issues everyday? Therefore, nonprofits should feel empowered. However, in fulfilling their obligations to a corporate partner, an organization must critically assess what they can offer and potentially shift their approach in order to maximize results. And in a corporate world where all that matters is the bottom line, nonprofits must discover ways to measure and report their impact in order to prove that cause marketing is a worthwhile strategy for both parties.
When it comes to online cause marketing in particular, the success of a partnership depends mainly on the nonprofit’s activity in the social media world. Businesses look for nonprofits with a strong base of followers and support, but more than that, they need a partner who can mobilize support to actually create change.
For Corporations: Businesses are now realizing is that social good motivates consumer change. A recent study found that 89% of Americans (ages 13 to 25) would switch brands of a similar quality and price if one was associated with a good cause. However, with the increasing prevalence of cause marketing, consumers have become adept at detecting PR schemes versus sincere philanthropic efforts. Therefore, it is important for corporations to find a delicate balance between a cause that is relevant to their company but is also meaningful to consumers. Above all, corporations must care about the cause everyday, not just at the time of a transaction. In an article from the Good Works section of Advertising Age, the author summed up the formula for a successful cause marketing partnership from a corporation’s side: “Engage, don’t just sell. Educate, don’t just market. Find a nonprofit partner that makes sense. And if consumer donations are involved, be open and specific about what they are accomplishing.”
Online Cause Marketing in Action To see how others have put online cause marketing to work in the real world, look for resources like Mashable’s list of “5 Winning Corporate Social Good Campaigns.” They include examples like Crate and Barrel’s DonorsChoose gift certificates, in which customers chose among education initiatives to invest in online using gift certificates provided by the store. Next, check out Target’s “Bullseye Gives” Facebook campaign, which combined crowd sourcing, social media, philanthropy, and a contest. Over a two-week period, Target encouraged its Facebook fans to choose among 10 nonprofits to receive a $3 million prize. And don’t forget one of the most prominent examples of online cause marketing today: the Pepsi Refresh Project. If you don’t know how it works, Pepsi accepts 1,000 new ideas every month to benefit charity. Next, anyone can vote for up to 10 ideas every day. Every month, Pepsi awards grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 (totaling $1.3 million every month) to winners in categories like health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education.
Tips and Tricks Before you launch your own online cause marketing campaign, remember a few crucial tips. First, be aware of your different audiences across different social media outlets. Your Facebook fans may not be the same as your Twitter followers, so treat them as separate entities. Don’t just collect supporters for mere appearances; mobilize them by asking them to vote, join other platforms, donate money, or share content. When it comes to timing, run campaigns for as long as you can without causing supporter fatigue. Sometimes short and sweet is best, as evidenced by one-day Twitter campaigns.
When getting into the nitty-gritty of what social media outlet is the best, it depends on your campaign’s goals. If you simply want to connect with other like-minded individuals and groups to share and learn, Twitter might be best for you. For the ability to send detailed information to supporters and allow supporters to connect more easily, Facebook or Causes on Facebook is the way to go. For filmmakers in the cause marketing world, YouTube can also be an effective tool to motivate followers. And the next big thing in social media? Location-based marketing tools like FourSquare and Gowalla. Since these applications are not as common as Facebook or Twitter, the key is enlisting them, not just waiting for them to join. And since it is projected that in people will use the Internet on their phones as much as on their computers within five years, you can be ahead of the game by learning these tools now.
What tips can you give to Non-profits or Corporations interested in Cause Marketing Online?
About the Author: Vivanista is a member-based, lifestyle community for fundraising volunteers. Sharing of unique insights, expert tips and a spirit of giving empowers members to improve their own lives and the lives of others.
A couple weeks ago, Glamour Gone Good issued a survey called Skin Care Brands Gone Good. The survey focused on three socially responsible campaigns launched by three different skin care brands: Dove, Clean & Clear, and philosophy. Below are our findings and some additional thoughts.
Background information on survey takers:
100% of respondents were female
75% of respondents are between ages 25 to 34
25% of respondents are between ages 35 to 49
100% of respondents use skin care products on a daily basis
THE RESULTS:
Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty was the overwhelmingly popular choice amongst all survey respondents with 100% of respondents saying they would support the campaign, if they are not already doing so.
Conversely, Clean & Clear's Join the Surge program seemed to have the least impact on survey takers. While 100% of survey takers felt either somewhat or highly motivated to support Dove's and philosophy’s campaigns, none of them felt the same way about Join the Surge.
There are a few possible reasons for this. First of all, the Join the Surge campaign is targeted at teens. Given that 100% of respondents were ages 25 or above, they were clearly not the target audience for the campaign. So, it’s not a huge surprise that they did not respond as excitedly to this program as they did to Dove's and philosophy’s socially responsible campaigns.
In addition, as the survey results would indicate, our respondents were most interested in campaigns that had the strongest relationship with the charities involved in their campaigns. Along those lines, the overwhelming majority of respondents felt that philosophy’s shop for a cause campaign is most successfully supporting its charities (it clearly communicates to its consumers which charity each "shop for a cause" product benefits and it donates 100% of net proceeds to that charity.) Meanwhile, neither Dove nor Clean & Clear clearly communicates to the consumer its strategy for supporting its charity partner(s). An important question left lingering in our minds is what kind of financial contribution either brand is making to its charity partner(s), if any.
Most importantly, 100% of survey takers responded that they prefer brands that invest in multi-year, multimedia campaigns. So, it’s no surprise that Join the Surge did not excite respondents since the campaign lasted only three months while both Dove's and philosophy's campaigns have been going on for at least a few years.
Why does any of this matter?
This survey and its results were an interesting experiment that reinforced some important lessons for brands engaging in socially responsible and charitable activities. They are as follows:
1. Consumers want specifics. They want to know exactly how brands are supporting the charities around which they develop their campaigns. Slapping a logo on promotional materials with a vague ‘We Are A Proud Supporter Of’ message is no longer relevant for today’s sophisticated, savvy consumer.
2. Consumers want a long-term commitment. Heavily promoting a campaign that will only last a week or a month will not have as great an impact on a brand’s consumer base as a campaign that lasts all year or is repeated annually. People are forgetful, so it's critical to develop a campaign that is sure to leave a lasting impression. If a brand really wants to woo its consumers, it must think of its charitable campaigns as long-term relationships, not quick flings that are here today and gone tomorrow.
3. Consumers want brands to care about what they care about. All too often, brands align themselves with causes or issues of special significance to their CEOs and founders. Unfortunately, those issues or causes may not always resonate with their consumers. Meanwhile, brands that listen to their consumers and develop campaigns that truly speak to them are in a better position to increase consumer brand loyalty and boost sales of products and services tied to those campaigns. While not all brands have the resources to conduct formal market research and talk to focus groups, they can all reach out to their most loyal consumers, survey them and, most importantly, engage them in meaningful dialogue to find out exactly what moves them.
What other important lessons can we learn from our consumers when it comes to developing meaningful and successful socially responsible campaigns?
These days, you don’t have to look too far to see companies you love giving back to the community in their own ways. Hair salon chains are no exception.
Have you heard of something called Hair Cuttery? Chances are you have, given that they have over 800 locations all over the United States. My own neighborhood has seven Hair Cuttery locations within a 10 mile radius.
So, what makes Hair Cuttery so great? Just a few days ago, the company ended its 11th annual ‘Share a Haircut’ program. Take a look at what they had to say about it:
“We know a new haircut on the first day of school can help a child feel more confident and can make a big difference to start the next academic year,” said Dennis Ratner, founder and CEO of Hair Cuttery. “In these troubled economic times, we all need to do whatever we can to help those in need.”
From August 1-15, for every youngster (up to 18) who comes into any Hair Cuttery and gets a haircut, the company will donate a free haircut to a needy child in that community. Since beginning the Share a Haircut program, Hair Cuttery has donated over 500,000 free haircuts nation-wide! This year we're shooting for 60,000-that's a lot of haircuts!
Clearly, the program works. Otherwise, it wouldn’t continue to see the light of day. It’s simple to understand and even simpler to execute. And, did you notice that there’s no mention of cash anywhere? Hair Cuttery has successfully found a way to leverage its assets – the 800+ salon locations and accompanying hair stylists – to make an impact on a grassroots level in the lives of children with limited resources by offering them free haircuts every summer just before the school year begins.
So, they’re not saving lives or giving away millions of dollars to charity. Does that make the program any less successful? Nope. Brilliant, ain’t it?
And, the best part? You can do it, too.
Some key lessons we all can take away from the Hair Cuttery and its ‘Share a Haircut’ program include:
1. Developing a promotion anchored in charity can have all kinds of positive ripple effects like increased consumer brand loyalty, increased employee job satisfaction, and great marketing and PR results. The key is to strategize with your team on what kind of promotion makes most sense for your brand. Think about what kind of cause you wish to support and what level of results you hope to achieve. Those critical decisions will help you determine the call-to-action of your campaign, when and for what duration of time you should execute it, how you want to market it, and who will need to get involved to help make it happen.
2. Giving comes in multiple forms. Making an impact in your community doesn’t need to require boatloads of cash or even commitment to a single charity. Other ways to give back include donation of products and/or services and, of course, staff time. Figure out which of those forms of giving makes most sense for you and develop your campaign around that.
3. A small gift can go a long way. Lots of companies, especially smaller ones, have gotten the impression that you need tremendous resources to pull off a charitable campaign worth its salt. That’s not true. In a nutshell, the Hair Cuttery gives free hair cuts to kids for two weeks a year. The impact of the program is so large because it has 800+ salons to carry out the campaign. That ends up being a LOT of free haircuts! So, think about what kind of impact you’re looking to make: A huge one in a few people’s lives or a small one in a huge number of people’s lives? There’s really no right or wrong answer here. It all depends on what you can and want to do. Either way, a gift is a gift and someone’s going to appreciate it!
What else can we take away from this program? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
With the holidays around the corner, we’re seeing all kinds of incentives being marketed to shoppers these days, from coupons to free shipping offers to sales promotions of all shapes and sizes.
With all of this in mind, I was inspired to launch a virtual shop that features products and brands offering a percent of proceeds from all purchases made in their online shops shops to Glamour Gone Good. The brands currently participating in the Glamour Gone Good virtual shop are:
