By Rieva Lesonsky
Cause-based or socially responsible marketing has been a hot trend for some time now. The practice of affiliating your business or your products with a “cause,” such as fighting breast cancer or helping hungry children in Africa, can garner attention, customers and sales…or it can backfire.
How? According to the 2011 MSLGROUP Social Purpose Index, a growing “disconnect” between the causes that businesses support and what they sell is leading consumers to become more skeptical about cause marketing in general—and less likely to buy.
Seventy-four percent of respondents in the survey said there is often too much of a disconnect between the causes companies support and the brands and products they sell. And almost as many (67 percent) were skeptical of companies’ motives, saying that companies only support causes to sell products.
Perhaps that’s the reason why, although the majority of Americans (96 percent) say they can identify two to three causes that are important to them personally, the survey found that just 37 percent of Americans have actually purchased a product associated with a cause in the past year.
What can you do to ensure that your cause marketing efforts make sense for your business?
- Consider what causes you and your employees care about. Ask your staff if there are organizations they personally would like to see your business support.
- Find out what causes matter to your customers. You can conduct a survey online or using social media tools like Facebook or Twitter to see if customers respond to issues like hunger, homelessness, health or other areas of concern.
- Decide what ties into your business mission. Your cause should flow naturally from your business’s goals. You might care passionately about raising funds for Alzheimer’s, for instance, but if your company sells gourmet pet treats, focusing your cause efforts on Alzheimer’s research isn’t the best fit. Supporting the ASPCA, spay and neuter efforts, or guide dog training is a better match with your business and lends itself to publicity and marketing efforts.
- Decide if you want to go local, national or global. You could support a local charity, a national organization or even a global group. Again, you’ll want to match this to your business and to where the bulk of your customers come from. A small local sporting goods shop would probably want to support a local charity; a national chain could support a nationwide charity; and for an ecommerce company with substantial overseas customers, it makes more sense to focus on a global organization that all of your customers have an interest in supporting.
- Narrow down your options. Once you’ve selected some top contenders, be sure to investigate each organization. Contact the Better Business Bureau, do an Internet search and visit CharityNavigator to make sure the funds are used for their intended purpose.
Done right, cause marketing can benefit both your cause, and your business. Take the right steps to get your cause marketing effort off on the right foot.
Image by Flickr user GrowWear (Creative Commons)
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