Best Practices for Taking up the Cause

Given the choice between purchasing a box of Honey Nut Cheerios to help benefit a local school or buying a similar brand offering no such promotion sitting on shelf next door, many people will choose the charitable offer.

Consumers are more likely than not to support corporations pitching offers that benefit a worthy cause, particularly in this economic climate. Staging such promotions at retail can reward marketers with significant sales gains, but, as can be the case, the devil is in the details.

Marc Berliner, a director at strategy and communications company Cone, shares best practices for activating cause promotions at retail.

Start with the issue Choose a cause that makes sense for your brand, something your customers relate to otherwise it’s not going to resonate.

In September, Safeway tapped into a hot issue for parents by donating 10% of the sale price of more than 2,000 products from 100 food manufacturers to local schools. Honey Nut Cheerios was one of them. Customers who used their Safeway Club Cards to buy the products were sent a receipt showing their total donation. Those shoppers could take the receipt to the school of their choice, which then redeemed it online. Over the four years Safeway has run the program, $11.3 million has been raised.

What’s the goal? To drive traffic? Build goodwill with the community? Increase sales? Donate bicycles to the needy? Define the goal before you go to far.

A Web promotion by candy maker Cadbury North America conducted a product-based “Bicycle Factory” campaign to build and send 5,000 bicycles to needy recipients in the African country of Ghana. Shoppers were encouraged to enter UPC codes from Cadbury brand purchases with the promise that for every 100 codes submitted, the company would buy and send a bike to Ghana, a former British colony, up to a cap of 5,000. Launched in April 2009, the campaign hit its 5,000-bike target by late July.
Find the right partner For example, if you are a brand that has 3,000 stores around the country it’s good to have a partner that also has a national footprint with local chapters that can help you activate the campaign locally.

The offer A very simple, compelling offer makes it easy for people to participate.

Make a difference Show the impact a customer’s purchase will have on the cause. People want to know where their donation is going and what it will achieve.

Tropicana lays it all out on its packaging. The juice maker partnered with Cool Earth, an international trust dedicated to protecting the rainforest. Through 2009, packages of Tropicana Pure Premium and Trop50 products carry a code that consumers enter online. For each code entered, 100 square feet of rainforest will be saved. Once registered, consumers can enter additional codes with each purchase and increase the area of rainforest they have rescued. Donors can go to Google Maps, register and watch the area of rainforest being saved by Cool Earth grow.

Support the promotion. Invest in the promotion through a number of channels, not just TV spots or a Web site. A good marketing mix is needed to reach the right people so they will participate.

Activate Even if you’re running a national campaign, bring it to life in local communities by hosting events with local chapters and stores, issue joint press releases, be available for interviews, exchange databases, sponsor a local luncheon.

Communicate/Motivate Make sure employees know what the campaign is, why it’s being conducted and how to relay that information to customers.

Jiffy Lube held a kick off event for its “Maintenance Partners for Life,” program benefiting the American Heart Associations Go Red for Women. Every technician at a local service center in Des Moines, IA, wore a red dress. The kicker? All the technicians were men. The offer? For every $3 donated, the person received a Jiffy Lube saving book with $100 worth of discounts on various services. The local media helped out by filming and running clips from the event.

Measure the impact The success of a campaign can be measured in a number of ways, including sales or increases in store traffic. Another way is to conduct a survey before and after the campaign to see how attitudes about your brand may have shifted or not shifted.

The clock is ticking If the campaign is too short you won’t have time to get the word out. If it’s too long, people will start to lose interest and that includes your employees. Somewhere between four-to-six weeks can be most effective. One exception is on-pack promotions.