A lot of people come to my blog for cause marketing advice, but Tricia Wilkerson, Senior Marketing Specialists at Conifer Health Solutions, found inspiration. While my posts didn’t uncover exactly what Tricia was looking for, they did get her thinking (she told me afterward) and I’m thankful she took the time to share with me the cause marketing program Conifer created.
As a a company that works with over 100 hospitals nationwide, Conifer was searching for a cause marketing program that would put the power of giving in the hands of their customers.
To achieve this goal, Conifer turned to TisBest to produce a custom charity card.
TisBest works by allowing pre-donated funds to be loaded onto charity gift cards, in the same way that traditional gift cards function, which is then “spent” by the recipient on the charity they select.
Tricia explained how Conifer’s new charity gift card was smartly executed at an industry event.
We targeted our program launch for our industry’s largest healthcare finance conference in late June – Healthcare Financial Management Association annual conference – attended by approximately 2,000 professionals. Originally located in Nashville, the historic Tennessee flooding in early May nearly cancelled the conference before it was hastily relocated to Las Vegas. This conference crisis, in addition to the emerging crisis for the Gulf states and flooding in Arkansas, reinforced our commitment to forgo the traditional conference giveaways (iPads, Wii, etc.) and booth-supported sales efforts.
We pre-donated $10,000 to be distributed in increments of $5 on each charity card. To physically house the charity card for distribution during the conference, we developed a branded “pocket card” brochure that included details about the cause program and brief information about Conifer. The pocket cards were then distributed to conference attendees by Conifer’s conference street team who explained the concept and answered questions. To keep the focus on charity, we did not include sales pitches or direct people to our booth (we chose not to have a traditional conference presence) – to the surprise of many seasoned conference attendees.
Ironically, the program stood in perhaps starker contrast to other marketing efforts at the conference because of the relocation to Las Vegas (not always synonymous with charity efforts) and the intra-community concern for Nashville due to the flooding. We heard numerous comments about the “freshness” of the program and excitement about the opportunity to spread a little good selflessly. And we’re happy to report that we have already seen cards being “redeemed” for charities.
There’s a lot to like about this program, and I have one suggestion that might have made it better.
Cause marketing isn’t just for B-to-C. Although I’m pretty guilty of thinking of cause marketing as only B-to-C, it can work for B-to-B as well. B-to-B cause marketing works more like a percentage-of-sales program in that the donation is “seeded” by the company. But with Conifer’s gift card the cardholder gets to choose which cause gets the money.
Conifer sent the right message at the conference. They wisely let their charity efforts do the talking and didn’t try to push sales. When done well cause marketing distinguishes you from your competitors. While some types of marketing give you visibility that needs to be activated with a sales pitch, cause marketing delivers a favorability that has a built-in persuasiveness that is powerful and independent. You can leave the hard sell back at the office.
Check-in for charity on Foursquare. To gather intelligence on conference attendees active on social media, I would have added a location-marketing promotion for smartphone users to check-in at Conifer’s Cares at HFMA on Foursquare and Gowalla. After showing their check-in to a street team member, they’d receive a second charity card. To involve more attendees you could extend the promotion to anyone at the conferences who used the hashtag #conifercares on Twitter or Facebook.
I’d love to hear about some more examples of B-to-B cause marketing. I got Conifer thinking about cause marketing and now they have me thinking about the possibilities for B-to-B cause marketing! What other programs are out there? And what does this mean for my definition of cause marketing? Do we have to adjust it? If so, how?
I love this post for several reasons, Joe. First, TisBest is a fabulous organization, I did a post on them around the holiday season – they're ranked the best charity gift card out there and really keep their standards high so kudos to Conifer for choosing the best.
Second, I love how you address Cause Marketing use in a B-2-B setting. I really appreciate examples of B-2-B application because a cause-related initiative can be an extremely powerful way to communication your mission to your employees, your customers and your partners. I think when we discuss B-2-B, we're probably in "Cause Branding" territory. But, at the end of the day, a company is made up of people and people make the decisions about which companies to work for, which vendors to choose, which strategic partners to align with, etc. By using a cause branding strategy, you're better able to communicate the mission of your organization in an understated way.
I agree with Megan about B2B being "Cause Branding" territory. Granted, we are just starting out on our path, but as we choose which vendors to work with for both short term and on going relationships, we are naturally drawn to those with a strong social commitment, even if it's just us learning that they contribute money back into their own communities. We feel it only supports our brand to be aligned with other socially conscious companies.
What a terrific post, Joe! This is just one of many terrific ways to use the TisBest Charity Gift Card to engage with customers and execute a truly meaningful cause marketing strategy. Lots more ideas at http://www.TisBest.org.
I love TisBest Charity Gift Cards. We give those gift cards out to your friends and families during the holidays and special occasions. Aside from the B2B cause marketing reasons already pointed out by Joe Waters, Megan Strand, and Ian aka "CompanyStarter" TisBest Charity Gift Cards helps educate and teach people the practice of giving.
1. TisBest Gift Cards helps people become aware that there are charities out there for every cause under the sun. We all need to help each other to make this a better world.
2. It forces the recipient to research and learn about the different charities before donating to the cause.
3. TisBest Gift Cards empowers the individual by giving them a choice to chose the charity that speaks to their heart.
4. You can pick out a custom design
5. It's a simple and easy gift that gives back
I especially like giving TisBest Charity Gift Cards to people who have never made a donation to a cause in their lives. Once they go through the process of learning about the cause, picking a charity, donating and becoming instant philanthropists they begin to understand the importance of sharing and giving. They feel good about themselves — which is priceless and cannot be bought in stores.
Thanks Joe for highlighting TisBest Charity Gift Card. You Da Man!
Gang, thanks for all your comments! I have to admit: prior to this post I had never heard of TisBest! But I know who they are now, and I'm glad so many of you think so well of them. It's a great testimony to their business model.
I learned about two great companies from this post: Conifer and TisBest!