Retail Brands Take Up Causes
RETAIL BRANDS
TAKE UP CAUSES
Given the choice between purchasing a box of Honey Nut Cheerios to help benefit a local school or buying a similar brand offering no such promotion, many people will choose the charitable offer.
Staging such promotions at retail can reward marketers with significant sales gains, but, as can be the case, the devil is in the details.
Marc Berliner, a director at strategy and communications company Cone, shares best practices for activating cause promotions at retail.
START WITH THE ISSUE
Choose a cause that makes sense for your brand; otherwise, it’s not going to resonate.
In September, Safeway tapped into parents’ concerns by donating 10% of the sale price of more than 2,000 food products, including Honey Nut Cheerios, to local schools. Over the four years Safeway has run the program, $11.3 million has been raised.
WHAT’S THE GOAL?
To drive traffic? Increase sales? Help the needy? Define the goal before you go too far.
A Web promotion by candy maker Cadbury North America conducted a product-based “Bicycle Factory” campaign to build and send bicycles to needy recipients in Ghana, Africa. Shoppers entered UPC codes from Cadbury brand purchases, and for every 100 codes submitted, the company bought and shipped a bike, up to a cap of 5,000. Launched in April 2009, the campaign hit its max by late July.
FIND THE RIGHT PARTNER
If you are a brand that has 3,000 stores around the country, find a partner that also has a national footprint and regional chapters that can help you activate the campaign locally.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Show the impact a customer’s purchase will have on the cause. People want to know where their donations are going and what they will achieve.
Tropicana partnered with Cool Earth, an international trust dedicated to protecting the rainforest. Through 2009, packages of Tropicana Pure Premium and Trop50 products will carry a code that consumers enter online. For each code entered, 100 square feet of rainforest will be saved. Donors can go to Google Maps, register and watch the area of rainforest being saved by Cool Earth grow.
SUPPORT THE PROMOTION
Invest in the promotion through a number of channels, not just TV spots or a Web site. A good marketing mix is needed to reach the right people so they will participate.
ACTIVATE
Even if you’re running a national campaign, bring it to life in local communities by hosting events with area chapters and stores. Issue joint press releases, be available for interviews, exchange databases or sponsor a local luncheon.
COMMUNICATE/MOTIVATE
Make sure employees understand the campaign and can explain it to customers.
Jiffy Lube held a kick-off event for its “Maintenance Partners for Life” donation program benefiting the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women. Every technician at a local service center in Des Moines, IA, wore a red dress. The kicker? All the technicians were men.
MEASURE THE IMPACT
Gauge campaign success in sales or traffic increases, but you can also conduct surveys before and after the campaign to see how attitudes about your brand may have shifted.
THE CLOCK IS TICKING
Timing is everything. If a charitable campaign is too short, you won’t have time to get the word out. Too long, and people will start to lose interest — and that includes your employees. Somewhere between four and six weeks may be the ideal.
— PATRICIA ODELL
DID YOU KNOW
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Spending on cause-related marketing is down significantly, but still shows an increase over last year.
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North American companies will spend a total of $1.55 billion on cause partnerships this year, a 2.2% increase from the $1.52 billion in 2008, according to sponsorship marketing company IEG, LLC.
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The increase indicates that marketers understand that cause campaigns have a positive impact on shoppers. Some nonprofits that deal with poverty, hunger and other issues directly impacted by the economy have found increased corporate interest, IEG said.
Got a retail marketing tip to share? Contact Patricia Odell at [email protected]
