CAUSE MARKETING
CAUSE RELATED
MARKETING: Does It
Pay To “Do Good”?
By Spencer Okach
A
few months ago, YouTube
was awash with leading
personalities across the globe
performing the Ice Bucket Challenge
in support of the ALS Foundation.
Thousands of programs designed
to do well by doing good have
been launched by both commercial
businesses and not for profit
organizations over the years. Many
have been short-term and pedestrian,
while others have been inspiring and
impactful.
Some notable ones are: Equity
Bank’s “Wings to Fly” program,
Safaricom did “Bring Zack Home”,
Kenya Reinsurance had “Niko Fiti”
campaign, Nation Media Group did
the “KiliClimb”, Standard Group
championed “Transform Kenya
Awards”.
So much is Cause Marketing a buzz
that we have seen corporates forget
their differences (as competitors)
and rally together with assets like
“Kenyans-For-Kenya”, “Save-A-Life”
and many more initiatives having been
jointly rolled out.
Does it really matter? Does it affect
the bottom-line? Or is it a route to
escape the theory of “the business of
business is business”?
As years pass on, it is clear that
the integration of social issues and
business practices is not a passing fad
of the yester centuries, but rather the
beginning of a fundamental shift in
how the world’s leading companies
will use cause associations to position
their organizations and brands for the
future.
‘‘As years pass on, it is clear that the
integration of social issues and business
practices is not a passing fad of the yester
centuries, but rather the beginning of a
fundamental shift in how the world’s
leading companies.’’
20 MAL 11/16 ISSUE
Just as companies are finding it harder
to “out innovate” or “out advertise”
their competitors in a marketplace
increasingly saturated with new
brands, non-profit organizations too
are competing with rival organizations
for corporate support and public
awareness.
Strategic cause programs provide
companies and nonprofits with
valuable leadership and differentiation
strategies as well as enhanced
brand equity and credibility, greater
reach and significant resources and
relationships.
Now, more than ever, corporations and
nonprofits are realizing the power of
aligning companies and causes.
What is Cause Related Marketing
(CRM)?
In summary, CRM is a marketing
activity, a way for a company to do
well by doing good, distinct from sales
promotion, corporate philanthropy,
corporate sponsorship, corporate good
samaritan acts, and public relations,
though it is often an amalgam of such
activities.
In the absence of a formal definition