Corporate Social Responsibility
Cause-Related Marketing was coined as a term in 1983 by American Express. The principle behind it, however, has been around since the dawn of civilisation…

Reciprocity.

The benefit for your business is more sales…

Giving through helping makes the business world turn. For a graphic demonstration of the sheer power of reciprocity, survey the online world. Unless you have been in a cave you cannot but help see keyword phrases such as “Mass Control Marketing”, or “Product Launch Formula”, “Butterfly Marketing”, “Moving The Free Line”.

What do these initiatives have in common? Common to all of them is the core concept of giving to potential customers in the hope these prospects/people become loyal customers. Sounds risky right?

There are plenty of freebie seekers out there after all. I will not disagree, there are more than enough but there is only the smallest of risk involved for these canny marketers.

They know how people in general think, how we all ‘tick’. We all feel indebted to someone who does us a favour or bestows a gift upon us (some moreso than others mind).

It may seem off the wall to suggest giving – particularly in the turbulent times we now live in – will help with your business bottom line. You may think it is in fact a high risk proposition.

American Express did not and do not. Instead, they understood when they started the pledge to give a cent to the restoration of the Statue of Liberty for every transaction made by cardholders, these would money well spent.

Great public exposure cannot be bought, customer happiness cannot be bought, improved employee morale cannot be bought (well, most of the time). Instead they found out this can be “given”.

During the American Express Statue of Liberty initiative, use of Amex cards increased by 28% and new users increased by 17%. In the intervening years, many more companies have had stellar successess with cause-related marketing. Names like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Avon, the list goes on and on… are heavily involved. And it’s not just big companies either who are savvy to the positives cause-related marketing can bring to the company coffers.

More profits by giving money to good causes a great idea? Well…

During an appearance on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” to promote her character of the sex-crazed assassin Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye, Famke Jansen asked him if he would like a demonstration of her characters killer signature move (involving her getting astride Conan on his desk and squeezing him with her thighs). Conan replied with “This is what we in the industry call a ‘no-brainer’.”

Good causes are great business, it is a no brainer.

JointWinWin.com is a free cause-related marketing business directory. As a business you can submit unlimited website listings for no cost giving you extra sales channels for your business. For more info watch this video: http://jointwinwin.com/IntroductoryVideo-BlogPost

Filed under: Marketing Tips

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