Giving and Getting

There is a lot of compassion boiling under the surface of our own fears about the future.  Staggering rates of unemployment, foreclosures and job insecurity have reduced direct charitable giving over the past six months.  But increasingly polls report we feel guilty about not doing more to help both our neighbors and strangers with their suffering.

That social compassion is upping the payoff of cause marketing, when retailers give a specific percentage of their revenue to charities consumers approve of.  In a recent test using average consumers by Cone Marketing, people exposed to cause related retail ads bought more of the brands engaged in a cause than products that only touted themselves.  One shampoo jacked up sales 74% by linking with a cause.  It works if done right.

But most businesses are too indirect or too quiet about their cause supporting contributions to be noticed.  Few Target shoppers are aware that Target has been donating a whopping 5 percent of its net income since 1942 mostly to local schools.  They are considered the gold standard of retail giving, but who knows it?  Target’s in good company with others like Macy’s, Kroger and Wal-Mart that do a lot but engage us little.  It’s a shame.  In tough times when our wallets are flat it would be great to know that at least part of what we do spend goes to the United Way, Make-A-Wish or a local school.  It would make us all feel a little better.