Having escaped the bonds of traditional philanthropy, cause marketers set forth for the land of milk and honey. During their journey, a tribe among the cause marketers, called Komen, made a great golden [deep-fried] chicken and they worshiped it.
Everyone got really pissed. And they complained of the golden chicken.
To avoid ever having another stupid golden chicken, the cause marketers agreed to these 10 commandments of cause marketing.
#1 You shall know what cause marketing is. You can use my definition of cause marketing, but I point you to others. Be sure to read the comments to my post as well.
#2 You shall not confuse cause marketing with philanthropy, sponsorship or corporate social responsibility. While cause marketing certainly involves giving, philanthropy is not the primary goal. Marketing is. Sponsorship is very similar to cause marketing, but what distinguishes the two are the tactics they employ. I’m not totally sure what CSR is, but it’s not cause marketing. What I do know is the former is a strategy that can employ cause marketing as a tactic. Calling cause marketing CSR is like calling a savings account an investment strategy.
#3 You shall choose your cause marketing partners carefully. As we learned from Komen and KFC, not all cause marketing partners are a good fit. Consider carefully with whom you partner or you just might do more harm than good. Take a cause marketer’s Hippocratic Oath: “Do no harm.” Don’t harm your organization, the constituents you serve or your trusted partner.
#4 You shall create cause marketing programs that are win-win. The essence of cause marketing is mutual benefit. Just as nonprofits hope to increase visibility and raise money, for-profits aspire to enhance favorability with consumers and, ultimately, drive sales. If it’s not win-win, it doesn’t work. And it’s not cause marketing.
#5 You shall act like a business person, with a conscience. Cause marketing exists at the intersection of philanthropy, business and marketing. You have to be innovative, results driven and customer-focused like a business person, but giving, human and humane like a philanthropist. A cause marketer must balance herself between value and values.
#6 You shall not limit the benefits of cause marketing to money. Cause marketing is a great way to build your brand, increase your visibility, promote your events, recruit participants for your cause walk, run or ride and identify prospects for major gifts. The list goes on and on.
#7 You shall make your cause marketing program transparent for all to see. Consumers aren’t fools. When they support a cause marketing promotion, identify the cause that’s getting the money, how much they will receive and a quick blurb on how they will use it. “For every (RED) beverage purchased at Starbucks, five cents will be donated to buy lifesaving medicines for those living with HIV in Africa.” Don’t hide your giving behind “A portion of the proceeds will be donated to organizations that fight breast cancer.”
#8 You shall not expect results overnight. It takes time to build a successful cause marketing program. Most begin with an existing company or corporate leader that you’ve already worked with. Once you have the credibility of a couple successful programs behind you, it will be easier to create partnerships with new businesses. Training helps.
#9 You shall use social media strategically with cause marketing. Businesses are using social media more than ever. It’s important you keep pace with new trends and new technologies to solidify cause marketings place in the corporate marketing mix. Of course, I’ve written that geo-location services like Foursquare will be huge for cause marketers so it’s good place to start!
#10 You shall not over complicate cause marketing. The tactics behind cause marketing aren’t brain surgery. KFC’s ambitions to make the single largest donation to a breast cancer organization hinges on a simple percentage of sale program (i.e. 50 cents from every bucket).
As cause marketing guru Kurt Aschermann wrote on his own commandments a while back:
Cause-related marketing really isn’t that difficult. Just handle the relationship, deliver what you promise, and provide value to your partner. Best of all, cause-related marketing is fun and exciting. The sooner you master it, the sooner everyone will benefit from its incredible potential.
Unlike Moses’, my 10 ten commandments aren’t written in stone. Moses didn’t have an iPhone so his weren’t super easy to change. I’d love to hear what you would edit, add or delete.
I need your help before I formally present my 10 Commandments of Cause Marketing at full-day seminar I’m helping to teach at the annual Cause Marketing Forum Conference in June.
Last week showed that cause marketers need some commandments by which they should conduct themselves and execute cause marketing promotions. No one wants to get burned by another golden chicken.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by NolandHoshino: 10 Commandments of Cause Marketing http://dlvr.it/dFcF @JoeWaters Pls RT!…
I have to give it to you. Their are many cause marketing blogs and articles circulating the web-isphere but you have by far some of the most entertaining. Great read.
Thanks, Damon. Appreciate you visiting!
Where does "Thou shall not use Cause Marketing simply as a Marketing Scheme/Tool/Gimmick" fit in?
Nice list.
I particularly think that "#2 You shall not confuse cause marketing with philanthropy, sponsorship or corporate social responsibility" is very important. From the many discussion I've had with people about the Komen/Kentucky partnership (many inspired my your post and others'), people were particularly bothered by the Cause Marketing aspect of "Buckets for the Cure" and would have been much less bothered (even comfortable) with an outright donation from KFC to Komen.
Shuey
@nonprofitbanker
You know, I might add your "You shall not use cause marketing as a marketing scheme, tool, gimmick." I guess I was trying to get at that with number five, but I think yours is more direct. Let's run by the folks on Twitter….be back soon.
I'm glad that my commandment was helpful. And thanks for the shout out on Twitter.
To give credit where credit is due, my commandment was inspired by a post entitled, "When Charity is Just a Marketing Stunt" that was posted to Twitter by @koodooz.
Best,
Shuey
@nonprofitbanker
OK, I've got another one but it's a bit of an undercurrent of several of the ones you already listed.
#11 – Thou shalt know and be true to thine core purpose. Doing some work to uncover your core purpose, whether you're a business or a non-profit organization, is an essential precursor to any partnership or cause marketing effort. It serves as your "corporate litmus test" and helps you decide which partnerships and ventures are right for your particular organization and avoids association with the "golden chickens" of the world.
I also have a teeny edit to suggest to #9 – I would add the word "strategically" so it reads, "…use social media strategically with cause marketing". Yes, use social media in your cause campaigns – it's a no-brainer complement to your efforts but know what you're trying to accomplish and how social media fits those goals.
This is an awesome and hilarious list – great tool to be shared with everyone considering a cause marketing campaign – you've done it again, Joe!
Thanks, Megan! Good point on adding the word “strategically,” which I’ve done. I like your commandment! I’m going to tweet it today and see what others have to say about the two I’ve gotten so far. Thanks for visiting!
@maggiekeenan sent me this comment, which she was having trouble posting to my site.
You Rock! So does this list and might I add as a good Catholic (sort-of) that I will skeem a mode of Penance for those cause marketers who chose not to abide by thy commandments. With a name of Maryagnes Frances Keenan there is an entitlement. I promise to make it a good one (thanks to the inspiration of Sr. Teresea #whatever in 3rd grade). All kidding aside, this is a great list. But Moses did have 15 then dropped 5 commandments coming down the Mount. (wink)
This is a fantastic post. Sometimes the challenge is getting corporate partners to see the value in what you have said here, so often cause marketing isn’t seen by them as a marketing opportunity. I think these are “print off and put on the office wall” rules. Well done
Thanks, Conor. I run into what you say every day. A lot of companies are getting there, but the benefits of cause marketing are just starting to trickle down to small and medium sized companies. It will take time but I'm optimistic! Thanks for visiting.
10 Commandments of Cause Marketing!!!! http://tinyurl.com/24ortvb
[...] Waters came up with the 10 Commandments of Cause Marketing. In the wake of the Komen for the Cure partnership with Kentucky Fried Chicken, some of us have [...]
[...] But even Joe thinks that every organization needs to carefully screen its partners, and has crafted the 10 commandments of cause partnering. The two commandments that leap out at me are [...]
Wow…you're either the only expert on this subject, or you've crushed the competition in Google SEO…well done sir!
I just posted this question to Facebook…but more elaborately…I'm looking for some rule/ethics guidelines (similar to : http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendors… governing less commercial, and more social media-based cases. I'm wondering if you would pontificate…or point in a helpful direction…
Say you're Zipcar (that's not the client, so we'll use them). You are going to give non-profit groups free car usage and gas to help them conduct their work. You'll document the stories of their causes and promote them on your website, FB page, Twitter feed, etc. Your corporate PR department will push their stories in the press. You might even use them in paid advertising.
In exchange, you'd like these groups to be socially connected. Each group you enroll in your program has a FB page with 1000 fans, and 500 Twitter followers. You want the story-telling to extend to their networks, letting everyone know about the relationship and showing how Zipcars can help organizations work better.
THE QUESTION: How does the company manage transparency? Can general program promotion make the relationship conspicuous? Or, every time someone posts to Facebook something like, "Grabbing the @Zipcar to run the food pantry donation down to the Mission District" do they have to always annotate it with "Zipcar is an official sponsor of the City Food Bank."
This slightly falls under your #7 above. Though here the transparency issue isn't one of the finances/machinations of the partnership. Here our issue is of Influencer and affinity marketing, and the transparency of the endorser/opinion leader's relationship with the product.
So with that…any thoughts?
Haha! Wish it was true, Ryan. Couple of other good CM sites and blogs out there. Paul Jones’ Causerelatedmarketing.biz and, of course, Causemarketingforum.com.
Okay, so I get the idea. You give npo’s access to products and services and they promote you on their sophisticated social networks. No nonprofits with just a print newsletter allowed
.
You want to let people know about your relationship with the nonprofit and vice versa. Frankly, and legally, you may have to. As I learned at Cause Marketing Forum this year, there may be complications with nonprofits promoting a for-profit client. The news came from a cause marketing attorney Ed Chansky. Look him up in Google and check your state laws.
From my perspective, while I may not make it clear in EVERY tweet or every wall notice in FB that we’re partners, I would let people know a partnership exists. And, by the way, I don’t think that hurts anyone. I think it’s a great thing!
I hope this helps.
Thank you sir…good feedback…
It really is the "every" post/tweet issue we aim to avoid. You can see how that would get burdensome, and prevent people from participating. We do aim to be abundantly transparent in the program, promoting it even, we just didn't want to damage the signal-to-noise ratio.
Here's a development along those lines: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Article…
The hash tag disclosure sure beats fitting a full disclaimer in 140 characters, but is still a bit unnatural.
Thanks again for being a great source for a newbie…
No problem, Ryan! Stay in touch. Joe