Today everyone is trying to stand out. But just spending money on being famous is foolish. Marketing guru, Seth Godin in his TED speech, Seth Godin on standing out discusses how marketing must be remarkable.
He states, “The thing that’s going to decide what gets talked about, what gets done, what gets changed, what gets purchased, what gets built, is – is it remarkable?” He goes on to say that remarkable does not just mean neat, but it also means worth making a remark about. Increasingly what people notice is how much good a business does.
I think some cause marketing campaigns are indeed that, remarkable. If done properly, they benefit everyone involved. The for-profit creates a buzz about their product and recruits new customers who are aligned with the cause, and the non-profit gets wider attention and needed funding to support their efforts. For cause marketing to be truly remarkable, it has to be authentic. It has to represent the soul of the company that supports the cause.
A perfect example is Nike’s and Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong campaign that has generated $63 million for cancer research and programs and has since expanded to include an entire line of products in which 100 percent of the profits go directly to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I was recently at Nike doing a workshop for their executives and I was impressed at how broadly and deeply Livestrong had impacted their brand, their culture and the visibility of the need to beat cancer.
Other great examples of cause marketing include Product Red in which over $130 million has been raised for the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa, and Pampers and UNICEF who donate one tetanus vaccine per pack of Pampers sold and have already given 50 million vaccines and hope to reach their goal of 200 million over the next three years. Now that’s something worth talking about. Pretty remarkable.
In my professional work I often speak about the power of authentic cause marketing when the cause perfectly aligns with the brand and taps the six sources of brand energy: physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and emotional. These six sources of energy separate brands we care about versus brands that are just famous. Consider your own energy when comparing Nike with Reebok. This doesn’t mean that Nike is good and Reebok is bad. But Nike’s mojo has been transformed since the mid-nineties sweatshop scandals to a company that is trying to help the world get fit, healthy and excellent and has scores of engineers trying to figure out how to have greener, leaner products, and much of that vibe has been accelerated by programs like Livestrong.
(For more on the subject read Author Will Marré Says Nike’s Livestrong Campaign is Compelling Case of Why Businesses Worldwide Should Adopt Cause Marketing Today).
Of course there is a lot of fake cause marketing going on, companies that pretend to be green when they are brazenly toxic or businesses who spend huge sums promoting their connection to a cause and little on the cause itself. Of course I have found myself rolling my eyes more than once at yet another cause marketing campaign such as Exxon Mobile’s mosquito net commercials during the Olympics. I have also come across a website, Think Before You Pink, that calls out “pinkwashing,” or companies that are attached to breast cancer cause marketing and actually contribute to the disease they’re supposed to be fighting against.
But when I get close to many of my clients’ motives, what I am finding is a genuine movement toward social good. What may have started as sponsorship or don’t-want-to-get-my-hands-dirty philanthropy is rapidly transforming to well-funded business innovation. For instance, Apples’ decision to market their products greenness has motivated their designers and engineers to go for more radical and responsible solutions to e-waste. Wal-mart’s efforts at recycling and waste reduction have helped save them gobs of money and spread best practice compliance with their suppliers. And just last week Exxon-Mobile announced their serious investment in bio-fuel development. 300 million smackers in promoting algae-based fuel. I know, we’ll see. But anything is possible.
Undoubtedly some cause marketing is dumb and counterproductive, but what I see happening is that marketing message is getting through to many of the sponsoring companies’ own employees and leaders. And they become a new generation of internal innovators creating new business solutions that turn cause marketing into a cause business strategy. Making sustainable profit by creating a sustainable world.
What’s the best thing we can do? Support the causes and companies that do the most good for the issues you feel strongly about. Contact the cause sponsor companies. Ask tough questions. Ask them to do more. The business revolution we need to create a sustainable future is being driven by consumers and employees. Cause marketing is a Trojan horse to get inside the strategic walls and retake the intellectual power of business leadership.
So what do you think? Is cause marketing a hoax or a needed step in the evolution of business to benefit humanity?
Comments (5)
I have no doubt that Livestrong and Nike desire to make a difference in the war on cancer. However, before any real change is made or any battle can be won, we must fight the FDA and big pharma who really don’t want a cure for cancer. There is way too much money in being sick.
Plus, people need to start educating themselves on things that they can do to eliminate toxins in their everyday life. We eat, breath, and create more toxins than our bodies can handle. We can no longer fight off the cancer or other diseases on our own.
Until we are willing to make major changes, we’re just throwing money out the window.
Cause marketing would be great if it had true beneficial purpose, integrity and accountability behind it. But as Dianne points out, major marketers and lobbyists like Big Pharma who really only seem to care about their profits and not the benefit to humanity and who should be doing cause marketing, aren’t. And more than likely will not in the future. These are not cause people, except for their own cause, making money!
I frankly don’t like the term “cause marketing” because to me it just doesn’t sound authentic and like its purpose is to truly benefit needy others instead of the company doing the marketing.
Especially in these bad economic times it seems to me that most companies are just cranking out plain old hyped up marketing like they always do in hopes of drumming up sales, and if you haven’t noticed, especially on TV, it seems like there is more marketing and promotion than actual programming and they keep repeating and repeating and repeating it ad nauseum. Read a good book lately? I would highly suggest it versus watching the appropriately named “boob tube”.
Cause marketing is a great idea and there have been a few big success stories, the biggest problem is getting more big corporations to buy in to the idea of doing something to benefit others and not just themselves and their top (overpaid) management. Hell, most companies these days don’t even care that much about their own employees, let alone those less fortunate in the world, especially if they are not in a position to buy.
As was stated, “Remarkable” is the key word that makes any product or idea desirable to the public. It’s an excellent reminder that to be “safe” is to be boring. People want to see, hear and feel something different! Word of mouth is the best advertising. Thanks, Will – you’ve given me something to think about with my marketing campaign!
Will,
Good article and I appreciate your suggestions on how consumers can ask companies to do more. Engagement over criticism or cynicism is always the more productive answer. Great analogy to the Trojan Horse–Cause Marketing is not the final destination, but it’s a powerful tool to erect the house that we want to build.
I appreciate this “Cause Marketing” article being brought to my attention by a genuinely green-minded government leader for the City of Salinas. (Salinas is one of our Monterey County cities whose mayor has signed the US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and the City Council will consider on 8-18-09 how to take their next green steps.)
I find Will Marre’s article of particular interest on the heels of the Sustainable Brands Conference hosted in Monterey last month, which required much discernment. Monterey County Weekly journalist Kera Abraham compelled Weekly readers to consider whether the SBC conference was mostly fancy packaging for the same old goods, or instead, new and genuinely committed efforts toward meaningful eco changes, often by those who hadn’t been so conscious in the past. SBC conference participants ranged from Seventh Generation to Clorox.
As Marre reminds here, “Ask tough questions!”