It’s something that comes up again and again. Will consumers buy a product or use a service just because it supports a cause?

I don’t buy it, and fizzled experiments from Causeon to Edun to CauseWorld to GoodSearch show that while consumers do indeed want a world with causes, a cause world is a different matter. Brand and margin lead (e. g. Groupon, The Gap, Foursquare, Google) and mission follows.

I believe the best way for a business to help a cause is to first be a great business. It’s like before takeoff when the flight attendant tells you if the oxygen masks drops from the top of the cabin you should put it on yourself first before trying to help anyone else with theirs.

But Project 7 is betting that something as mundane as chewing gum will succeed because it’s all about helping others first. As reported in Good, this gum is ordinary.… Keep reading

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