I’ve been talking to a lot of people about the difference between transactional cause marketing and transformative cause marketing. I’ve concluded that I’m not being very clear on the difference and need this post as much as the people who ask me to explain it to them.
I did what I usually do when I don’t understand something: I talked to someone smarter than I am. In this case, someone A LOT smarter: Kristian Darigan Merenda, Senior Vice President of Business + Social Purpose at Edelman. Kristian is also one of the four talented women, including my cause marketing “mom” Carol Cone and Jocelyne Daw, who co-authored my favorite book on cause marketing: Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding.
At an airport restaurant in Cleveland between flights she explained the difference to me on two napkins. Unbeknownst to Kristian, she wiped her mouth on the back of one so so I guess I have her DNA if I ever need to clone her. Added bonus.
Here’s the back of the napkin explanation.
Everything I need to know about cause marketing on two napkins. I may frame them.
What is Transactional Cause Marketing?
Transactional cause marketing is a marketing strategy that’s defined by:
- One-off promotions that are generally reactive to opportunities in the marketplace.
- First generation partnerships that have a short promotional cycle.
- Single platform programs.
- Dominance of transactions over relationships to maximize immediate giving.
- Promotions that aren’t central to or defined by the brands of either partner.
- Primary goal is to raise money and build awareness for the nonprofit partner.
Nevertheless, my experience is that few organizations start a cause marketing program with the sole aim of raising a few bucks and building some general awareness.
There are exceptions.
In 2009, I blogged about the Charles River Conservancy (CRC) and how they stumbled on a pot of cause marketing gold thanks to Absolut Vodka. Absolut has produced several “city” vodkas and in 2009 it chose the CRC to receive a portion of the proceeds from sales of Absolut Boston Vodka (as they had in other cities, most notably New Orleans which received $2 million after Hurricane Katrina).
- The program was a one-off as Absolut had no plans of continuing its support for CRC. Indeed, their selection of CNC in the first place seemed pretty random.
- This program was active for just a few months.
- The major platform was the purchase-triggered donation from vodka sales. Absolut did set up a Wall of Pride of famous Boston sports moments outside the Prudential Center. But beyond CRC reaping the proceeds from this program, the wall had no connection with the nonprofit or water conservation.
- Absolut led the promotion with the “city” vodka theme, not water conservation.
- There wasn’t much rhyme or reason to Absolut supporting CRC or the Conservancy working with Absolut. This was about a brand giving a cause some money and generating some general awareness for them. Simple.
- The partnership ended and the promotion didn’t spur the CRC to do more cause marketing. However, Absolut has since then done other city vodkas, including Brooklyn. Once again, New York is second to Boston.
This promotion is the very definition of transactional cause marketing.
Most nonprofits have bigger aspirations. Transactional cause marketing is kind of like a career in sales. No one stares up at their parents as a kid and says “I want to sell!” No one goes to college to prepare for the rigors of cold calling and pitching prospects. But a lot of people end up doing just that.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being in sales – I proudly call my myself a nonprofit salesman – or just doing transactional cause marketing. Being happy and fulfilled with what you’re currently doing and making money from it is a good thing. The challenge arises when you decide that your position is holding you back and you really want something more.
In the case of cause marketing, most organizations want to succeed at transformative cause marketing, but are unsure of what that is, how it differs significantly from what they’re currently doing or how to achieve it.
What is Transformative Cause Marketing?
Before I tackle transformative cause marketing I want to clarify that I’m still talking about cause marketing, not cause branding or corporate social responsibility. Cause marketing is a tactical activity between a nonprofit and a for-profit and that doesn’t change. What does change is the focus, role and purpose of cause marketing.
- One-off promotions are replaced with strategic signature programs that are proactive, brand-centric and long-term.
- Multi-platform programs reflect the shift from a transactional to relationship mindset between partners.
- Raising money and building awareness becomes secondary to an overarching priority: accomplishing the nonprofit’s mission.
I’ve spent most my career doing transactional cause marketing. It seems more common at the local level where I’ve worked. But that doesn’t mean local nonprofits can’t do transformative cause marketing. They do all the time. It just doesn’t get the press the big national programs get.
One moment of transformative glory for me occurred with Halloween Town, a signature cause marketing program I ran for five years.
- Kristian explained to me that “signature” means you own it. It’s the flag a nonprofit waves, regardless of promotion or partner. We certainly owned Halloween Town. We created it with iParty Stores to help accomplish our mission, attract consumer-facing companies and throw one hell of a Halloween party for the kids of Boston.
- Halloween Town had more than one platform. It involved in-store cause marketing but also a two-day Halloween event that attracted 15,000 people.
- Unfortunately, we lagged on mission. Halloween Town was ultimately about fall fun and the powerful demographic it spoke to: moms with kids. Perhaps that’s why it only lasted five years before we decided it had done it’s primary job of attracting just as many cause marketing partners as possible.
These transformative players don’t raise another’s flag or change their colors on demand. They have a higher calling. Conversely, transactional cause marketers are hired guns that follow the money and wave flags red from tragedy and soaked in tears. I know this firsthand. I used to be one of those gunslingers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” Transformative cause marketing is the product of leaders who empower us to make this leap.
So, did I explain the difference well? What did I miss? What would you add, change, delete? Here’s your chance to think transformationally and plant your own flag.
Wow, Joe, I guess I really have to differ with you on this definition. In the above, you describe "transactional" cause marketing as the strategic level of involvement, sincerity and depth of a campaign. I've personally always seen "transactional" cause marketing described from a tactical level: a campaign that involves consumer action to trigger a donation.
At the Cause Marketing Forum, we have a category for "Transactional" campaigns for the Halo Award winners. If you go to http://www.causemarketingforum.com/searchhalo and enter in "transactional", you'll find all previous year winners in this category. I don't think the campaigns you'll find here fit this definition by a long shot. In fact, most of them would fit your "transformative" definition above.
I get the distinction between one-off and transformative, but I think there needs to be a better word to describe the one-off campaigns (elemental? basic?).
Megan Strand
Cause Marketing Forum
@meganstrand
@TweetCMF
That's a good point, Megan. I have to look at your category at CMF, but I think transactional cause marketing (i.e. one-offs, single platform) works as a tactical part of transformative cause marketing. I think the challenge is that we see even a lot of signature cause marketing campaigns in the marketplace but they're still not transformative. Mainly because these programs are still focused on the marketing instead of he mission.
Take a company like ToysRus that does lots of transactional cause marketing but has a transformative mindset when it comes to supporting causes. Whereas I see the cause marketing Target does as transactional through and through.
Hmm….
Thanks for the interesting post about the difference in cause marketing. I would argue that for transactional the primary goal is not as altruistic as •Primary goal is to raise money and build awareness for the nonprofit partner, rather it is often to use the Cause to enhance the company's brand.
Also, I'm interested in understanding whether there are any examples of Corporates who have transformational campaigns as AHA's Go Red and St. Jude's Thanks and Giving are two breakthrough transformative examples when these are campaigns branded by the nonprofit.
Hi Amanda, I agree with you on transactional cause marketing being less philanthropic. The emphasis is on, well, the transaction.
Excellent question on a companies that are embarking on transformational campaigns. Check out this one from DC Comics/Entertainment (better known as Warner Brothers). http://goo.gl/xtbE6
Thanks Joe,
That was a great example of a company embracing a cause (Famine in Africa) and supporting 3 great organizations. I wonder if you have yet to see a note-worthy campaign from a company supporting one non-profit and their cause as opposed to supporting an issue (such as famine) and donating to a few organizations.
Time with you is *always* spent! I should have known you had big plans for those napkins and better not see them on EBay! I agree with your synopsis. In BNB, we call transactional partnerships a "base” , add transitional partnerships as a "build" and arrive at transformational as the "breakthrough" level. I think that bridge might be helpful for folks who feel there is too large a chasm between one and the other. Michael Porter often talks about strategy being fundamentally about making tradeoffs and to focus on core business drivers. Cause marketing is a beautiful thing and can certainly be strategic, depending on what the objectives are and how the effort delivers against them. It becomes transformational when it has a significant, measurable and positive influence on the master brand — and it often only does this when it is tied to the mission. At Edelman, we've seen an uptick in demand for transformational effortsand we'll likley see a similar increase in the number of new campaigns launched from all fronts in the year ahead. This is a timely topic – thanks Joe!
I was a little confused at first, but what you've said above in addition to what Joe is saying makes a little more sense to me. Basically there are 3 levels…the "base", the "build" and the "breakthrough". There may be many partnerships that make up the base, a little less that make up the build, and very few that make up the breakthrough level. It seems as a partnership advances through the levels there is a deeper and long-term bond that helps to achieve a "breakthrough", almost like a human relationship…your circles get smaller and smaller all the way to your inner circle. The breakthrough relationships are like the inner circle. The inner circle people are just that because they have gone through many transactions, many successes and failures, and have built a trusting relationship to the point of breakthrough. These partners know you almost as well as you know yourself, and care for yourself just like they care for their own.
Well said! Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you for commenting and all your lessons at regional airports, Kristian! I think the deeper dive on this subject is really had in your book, Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding. I told Jocelyne Daw yesterday that I had more/should have said more in this post but it was already over 1000 words, which is not ideal for a blog book.
It's good to hear that more people are requesting transformative programs. I get it now.
Joe
Sorry, I'm coming into this discussion a bit late. The advantage is that I have read and learned a lot from this flow of messages. I sincerely hope that we are moving towards more transformational approaches, with deeper relationships, and more commitment to the success of the nonprofit’s overall mission. And to be fully successful , these campaigns should provide long-term, strategic benefit to the for-profit partner. As evidenced by far too many cause marketing campaigns of late, many transactional cause marketing campaigns are short, sometimes shallow, overtly commercial efforts. And as we're all seeing, the public is beginning to tire of campaigns which seem only to sell the t-shirt cause of the day, where there is no real connection, and thus no relationship, between the consumer and the cause. Transformational clearly implies a change in the nature of the relationship. That takes time and commitment to stay the course as you build the brand of the cause marketing campaign and benefit to all stakeholders.
Bruce, thanks for stopping by and commenting. I respect your opinion on this subject and I think you are spot on. Joe
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