America's Association Printer
Fall 2007, Volume 2 Issue 2
Cause Marketing Energizes Associations
By Steve Drake
Cause marketing offers associations and not-for-profits an opportunity to energize members, generate new sources of revenue and support worthwhile endeavors.
What Is Cause Marketing?
Cause marketing is NOT the industry sponsorship programs that many
associations offer. Most industry sponsors support association programs
with a goal of influencing associations’ members to buy products.
In cause marketing, the corporation is trying to reach your members’
customers or society in general with a message that “together, we can do something good for society.”
Three Reasons to Get Involved
1. Eight in 10 Americans prefer to do business with companies and organizations that support causes.
2. Among the 72 million people in the emerging Generation Y population, 50% would switch brands and two-thirds would switch retailers for one with a good cause, assuming price and quality are equal.
3. 91% of consumers say they have a more positive image of a company or product when it supports a cause.
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Given this response, is it any wonder that IEG’s Sponsorship Report shows cause marketing budgets have grown from $120 million in 1990 to $1.44 billion in 2007?
At first glance, you may think cause marketing applies only to 501(c)(3) charitable foundations. In reality, trade associations and individual member societies can become involved in cause marketing campaigns that can benefit your association and its members.
Creating a successful cause marketing program often involves “connecting the unconnected.” Thus, with a bit of innovative thinking, non-501(c)(3) associations can join with corporations and a 501(c)(3) organization to create a campaign that energizes its members while supporting the common good.
Three Cause Marketing Forum Halo Award Winners provide examples of creative thinking of for profit corporations as well as not-for-profit organizations.
Return to Warmth Campaign
Sam’s Clubs and Aquafina joined with Keep America Beautiful for a nationwide plastic bottle recycling program that – combined with a school-based program – helped divert more than 37 million plastic bottles from the waste stream. In addition to helping increase Aquafina sales at Sam’s Club stores and raise funds for local Keep America Beautiful programs, the recycled bottles were used to make 100,000 fleece jackets which were donated to children in need.
Thanks & Giving Campaign
This campaign became part of the largest fund-raising effort of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Starting at the Thanksgiving holiday, Target Corp. offered its customers the opportunity to purchase a “plush elephant gift card holder” with $1.50 of the purchase price donated to St. Jude. Supported with national advertising, in-store materials and product placements, Target sold more than 200,000 elephants and donated $300,000 to St. Jude.
Healthy Habits Campaign
Colgate-Palmolive Company earned a Halo award for its Healthy Bedtime Habits for a Lifetime program conducted with the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) non-profit. Launched in conjunction with the back-to-school season, the multilayered program promoted reading and brushing teeth as healthy bedtime habits while engaging Colgate retailers and local RIF chapters. Colgate donated book collections and organized in-store readings while RIF helped publicize free dental-care visits to Colgate’s mobile Bright Smiles Bright Future vans. Parents and children could complete a Web-based reading and brushing log and receive a free toothbrush.
All three of these Halo award winning campaigns involve major corporations and large not-for-profits. But, cause marketing applies to any organization, regardless of size and scope.
In Michigan, AMC owner Donn Eurich organized an Adopt a Soldier’s Family program for his client the Midwest Carwash Association and launched it on Veteran’s Day. Consumers were invited to purchase an Adopt a Soldier’s Family decal. Participating MCA members matched the donations which were then provided to the National Guard Family Program which provided phone cards and gift cards to soldiers. Eurich reports that a downturn in attitude about the war keep the program from being a huge success. He suggests that associations considering a cause marketing program to make sure the cause has support of the public and “is not a political lightning rod.”
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Motivated to help rural areas hammered by Hurricane Katrina, Drake & Company’s Brian Reuwee quickly organized a work trip for members of Alpha Zeta, an honorary agriculture fraternity. Within a few months, nearly 20 student volunteers would clear brush and rebuild fences on farms in rural Louisiana. Ten months later, nearly twice as many students volunteered for a second work trip. And, the Louisiana Farm Bureau pitched in to cover all costs.
For several years, leaders of the National Christmas Tree Association – professionally managed by Drake & Company – dreamed of establishing a charitable foundation but struggled with a mission that would qualify it for 501(c)(3) status. Finally, we conceived of a concept for a foundation that advances the spirit of Christmas for children, families and the environment. The board approved the concept. We used Harris Interactive to poll consumers to determine the appropriate name. And, using the research, created the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation. Within eight weeks, the Foundation was incorporated and recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity.
Shortly after receiving the IRS determination letter, the agency of the FedEx Corporation approached NCTA staff about a joint effort that quickly came to be know as the Trees for Troops campaign. Within five weeks, 300 Real Christmas Trees were in a FedEx plane headed for Iraq and Afghanistan. By December 13, we had collected and delivered another 4,000 trees that were delivered to military families at five bases in the U.S.
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Using the lessons learned in the rush to deliver trees in 2005, FedEx and the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation built an even bigger program for 2006 ... ultimately delivering nearly 12,000 Real Christmas Trees to military and military families at 25 bases in 17 countries.
And, we’re planning an even bigger program for 2007.
In addition to building name recognition for the new Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, the Trees for Troops campaign energized those in the Real Tree industry and created lasting memories for both tree growers and military families. This letter is typical of the response from families:
Dear "Troops for Trees":
I am writing from Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California. I just wanted to write and say a very heartfelt "thank you" for the donated Christmas trees. Although my family did not personally receive a tree this year, we attended our unit Christmas party, and they were offered to families. It was very touching to see that they were donated. I visited your website to find out about the program. I feel so grateful and glad that there are people who care about military families, especially those stationed overseas as we were from 2002-2005 in Okinawa, and would go to any kind of trouble to see that we would have access to Christmas trees!
I don't know how many thanks you will receive this holiday season. I hope you will know nonetheless that anything done for us is definitely appreciated. In my community there are families who have a spouse and a child in the military. I have one friend who is blessed enough to have her husband home from Iraq, but their son, barely out of high school is deployed to Iraq. They may not take the time to send a "thanks", but we want you to know that it means so much to us, and we always try to pass the giving along and do for each other.
Please share this with as many people involved in the "Trees for Troops" program as you can. We would especially like to thank the growers who donated them. I have lived overseas, and the thing I saw that stuck with my the most that makes Americans stand out is that we are a very giving, charitable country. A country where the people spend so much time to ensure that others will have a special holiday, to see others blessed is truly a great country!
Merry Christmas! Thank you!
Christina Roloson & Family
Will a cause marketing campaign help your trade association or individual membership society? If so, how do you develop the cause? And, how do you locate a corporate partner?
We’ve discovered that, even with lots of publicity, it takes long hours and many contacts to develop relationships that lead to additional corporate partnerships. One key is finding the cause that meets not only your mission but also the vision of corporate partners.
Here are 7.5 Key Learnings
1. Make it personal to your members and others within the industry or profession.
2. Make it relevant to your association’s mission, vision and values.
3. Make it transparent by disclosing any “special arrangements” with the association and corporation.
4. If you are the charity, own “the brand” ... this includes carefully evaluating corporate requests for exclusivity.
5. Create partnerships with companies and other not-for-profits.
6. Seek other non-competing partners so you can grow the cause campaign.
7. Continuously refresh and update the program as you would with any other marketing campaign.
7.5 Share in the passion as the non-monetary rewards are great.
As the association community engages in corporate social responsibility, cause-related marketing represents a huge potential to energize members; raise the awareness of your profession or industry and benefit the greater good.
Steve Drake, president of Drake & Company, currently serves as vice president of the AMC Institute. Drake consults with not-for-profits and AMCs interested in implementing cause marketing campaigns. For a copy of his complete Cause Marketing Power Point presentation, email him at drake@drakeco.com.
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Contact:
Steve Drake
Drake & Company
(636) 449-5050
drake@drakeco.com