The following originally appeared in Cone’s inConetext quarterly newsletter. To read current or past issues, visit our Web site.

Holiday-themed cause marketing programs have long been a staple for retailers to drive differentiation, loyalty and sales during a cluttered shopping season. This year, major retailers are raising the stakes by creating programs bigger and glitzier than years past. We’ve already begun to see full-scale efforts launched by Macy’s, JCPenny and Walmart that push the needle on innovation and integration.

Recently, providing consumers with ‘value’ has been the buzz among marketers of all disciplines. Cause marketers are no exception. Without a lot of money to donate, consumers are seeking ways to ‘do good’ through their shopping. In response, smart retailers are integrating charitable giving into their product offerings and brand experiences to deliver value to consumers on several levels.

First, they are triggering donations through consumer purchases or participation. This enables consumers to feel good about their purchase, feel good about helping and offers a critical point of differentiation and reason to buy. Second, they are offering value in terms of specialized offers, such as discounts and coupons, to consumers who participate in cause programs. These incentives provide a pocketbook benefit to consumers, but also give retailers a measureable tool to gauge effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Finally, retailers are demonstrating social impact. Consumers are seeing the real, immediate value of their participation in a cause marketing effort through donation calculators and online tracking.

Remember, for this holiday season, when it comes to cause marketing programs, glitz may sparkle, but a value-centric approach will shine brighter.

- Rich Maiore, Vice President

Comments

Leigh	November 19, 2009 6:43 AM Though I really agree with the value of charitable sales promotions, both for the charities and the corporates, I think that charities really need to start standing by their brand strength more. A lot of the time, the amount of money going to charities is nominal and barely cuts into the corporate's profit margins. The charities generally are giving a lot of clout to the corporate and need to charge for that accordingly. In general, the corporate's aren't participating in these promotions because they are charitable by nature, it's because of the bottom line - their brand is haloed by the charity brand. So charities, start getting in there are charging the big bucks. If corporates really understand how brand value works, they should dish it out, and not just because they're 'nice'.
Sylvia	November 20, 2009 6:46 PM In my recent blog post http://bit.ly/65W8xi I also talked about the value-centric approach of corporate philanthropy. Cause marketing through consumer participation and special offers delivers both monetary and psychological values - that consumers are getting discounts while feeling like heroes. This approach is working wonders in this economy because consumers'good intentions of doing good is strained by tighter budgets. I am also glad to see a lot of companies are more dedicated to adopting new media to craft highly effective messages. Micro-sites like Macy's 2009 Believe and Big Warm Up are replete with information and are successful at tapping into visitors' emotions. The marriage between social media and cause marketing is bringing vigor and innovation to corporate social responsibility. I'm looking forward to seeing more cases in the future where corporations would put themselves into consumers' shoes and deliver truly win-win marketing practices.
Sofia Teixeira - IM Magazine	November 25, 2009 12:08 PM Hello, I found your blog and I think it’s a “blog for a better world” and that it can have a highlight in IM Magazine, in a special section for blogs. http://immagazine.sapo.pt/eng/blog2009.html IM Magazine is an international online magazine with readers in over 120 countries that has a unique concept: to cover the best things in the world... for a better world. The subscription is free and it’s easy: http://immagazine.sapo.pt/eng/blogs.html All the best, Sofia Teixeira
Brindey Weber	November 27, 2009 11:40 AM I think Leigh has a great point. I hate seeing charitable projects with code words "a portion of the proceeds goes to help fight XYZ," which really means, "we are paying a charity just enough that they let us put their symbol on our products to increase our sales." I think a better way to go about it is to specify exactly how much money goes to a charity for each purchase-as well as a note about how much the for-profit company has donated so far. Charities may have more power than they know.

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