Are all Causes equal? Could supporting a Cause that fits a company's products or services generate more goodwill than supporting one that is done just 'beCause' it is easier to operationalize and requires no new creative thinking? Lastly, can a Cancer Cause program generate more Word of Mouth for their Brands AND stand out among the 'sea of pink'?
Today MarketingDaily ran an article about the multitude of companies that are creating pink themed merchandise and Cause programs that result in donations. The main focus of the articles was to introduce a San Francisco based group - the Breast Cancer Action (BCA) and their critical look at companies and the relationship between what they spend on advertising and promotion for their Cause programs versus the dollar amount they donate. Additionally, BCA is posing and important question...is the company doing the donating also working to assure that their products do not contribute to breast cancer? These issues are best addressed in another post, but suffice it to say that if a company is not honest in its commitment to the Cause it purports to care about, negative WOM will surely result - it is just a matter of time before the company experiences the angry voices of women who placed trust in them and were betrayed.
But back to my questions at the beginning of this post. One of the goals of Cause marketing is to support a Brand and tie the Brand to doing good. With so many 'pink projects' focused on Breast Cancer differentiation for a company's particular 'pink program' is becoming harder and harder to accomplish. Don't get me wrong, I know Breast Cancer is an awful disease and one that affects many women. It needs support for research and education, but there are many creative Cancer Cause programs that could be developed that would result in a tighter fit for a company's Brand AND generate WOM on an ongoing basis. Lets look at several possibilities. According to the article, Estee Lauder has a Pink Ribbon Collection of products. What if, instead of pushing products and giving a % of sales donation, they created a fund that gave women going through chemo therapy a one-on-one, private make-up lesson with an Estee Lauder cancer make-up specialist. A woman could learn how to deal with things such as losing eyebrows and eyelashes as a result of her treatment? And what if these same make-up specialists created and educational Cancer Make-Up video which could be 'rented for free' through their local hospital or cancer treatment center? This type of program represents a Cause Fit. Estee Lauder is all about make-up, and the result of cancer treatment demands special make-up expertise than a woman desperately needs. Would a program like this generate WOM? Absolutely, Cancer patients meet in groups, talk in forums and reach out for help -if a patient, or her mother, sister or daughter benefits from this type of program, you better believe that she would spread the word both on and offline. Lets look at another program that could provide a much needed service to cancer patients. According to the article, American Airlines is a member of the $1 Million dollar Komen donation 'club'. A good fit for an airline would obviously be transportation services. When a women goes through Cancer treatment she often must reach out to family for help. Many times, family members are far away from where a patient lives. What if American Airlines had a special fund to offset airline ticket costs for family caregivers? Taking $1M and dividing it by $350 (an average price for a ticket in the US) results in 2857 donated tickets. The WOM that a program like this could generate through the Cancer patient, her caregiver, the hospital's staff where treatment is being given could be invaluable. Are these types of programs more difficult to orchestrate - of course. Would they stand out among the sea of pink programs - absolutely! One last idea, MGM Home Entertainment has pledged to donate a minimum of $250,000 from the sale of specially packaged 'chick flicks' - what if they donated movies and DVD players to outpatient chemo therapy clinics so women could watch them as they received these long treatments? For hours on end, the women faced with this problem would be reminded of the company that cared enough to help her through this difficult, long ordeal!
I was reviewing a few viral marketing service and came accross something pretty intresting called WideCircles. They seem to work by sending viral messages to various websites like forums, blogs, wiki's and so on. My friend signed up for the account the other day after running a small but successful campaign ( targeting very specific niche ) and told me about it. It seems like a nice idea to gather highly relevant traffic and help with the SEO process at the same time while paying very small amount of money compared to pay per click. In any case, I am going to give them a try today. In case you are intrested here is the site. http://widecircles.com?imt=3
Posted by: shanthi | March 16, 2008 at 09:15 PM