Direct marketers will be buying sheep, goats, donkeys and maybe a few llamas this holiday season. That is, they will if they respond to a Heifer International direct mail piece promoting the nonprofit's new corporate gift-giving program.
The charity provides 28 different kinds of animals to impoverished families in developing countries and the United States. The mission is to train needy people to raise the animals so they can create income for themselves in the future. The business-to-business effort is geared toward getting companies to make a contribution on behalf of their clients.
Until now, Heifer has only targeted consumer contributors, but it is certainly not the first time companies have made donations on behalf of themselves or their clients.
“What we found in years past is companies set themselves apart from their competitors by not giving the standard tin of popcorn,” said Mike Matchett, director of marketing at Little Rock, AR-based Heifer. “A gift from Heifer shows they are socially responsible and they can feel really good that the gifts are changing lives.”
Business customers gave such positive feedback that Heifer decided to test that sector this season, he said.
Heifer dropped 50,000 specially crafted catalogs in mid-September to a range of industries. Matchett is testing medium-sized to large businesses to see which industry sectors perform best. “We're trying to cast a wide net this year and see what works, and we'll home in on certain industries next year,” Matchett said.
He is also testing what level of employee at the companies respond. Pieces are addressed to CEOs, operations managers, and administrative assistants to the chief, among others.
The marketing budget for the campaign is between $30,000 and $40,000, according to Matchett.
Results weren't in at press time, but Matchett is hoping for a 2% to 3% response rate and an average order of $200. The average individual consumer donor amount is about $50.
Matchett said $200 is high, but Heifer is hoping companies give multiple gifts.
The 20-page catalog includes all the pictures of animals and indigenous people — mostly children — caring for them that the consumer book does. The new book also contains stories of the families who have been helped. Walter Cronkite poses with a sheep on the cover. But the copy is specifically geared toward the business reader: “What would be the best gift for someone who's gone the extra mile to help make your company more successful — another award that gathers dust on the shelf?”
Testimonials of past satisfied business customers dot the book, among them Donn Rappaport, CEO of American List Counsel Inc., and Charles Morgan, company leader of Acxiom Corp.
The back cover features a testimonial by Bob Stiller, CEO of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. The coffee direct marketer has been partnering with Heifer for the past year to aid small-scale coffee growers who produce for Green Mountain. Coffee prices have been so low that small farmers are in danger of losing their farms. Heifer helps by supplying alternate sources of income.
Recipients can order by phone, mail, fax or at the Web site www.heifer.org/business. Gifts range from around $20 for a flock of chicks to $10,000 for the Women in Livestock Development project, which centers on providing animals and training to poor women, who then pass on the animals' offspring to a neighbor woman.
Companies that get a donation in their honor receive a holiday card and, for $4.95 extra, a book, “One World, One Family,” which highlights in high-quality photographs the people Heifer helps.
