The Case for Cause Marketing
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Public expectations of corporations have grown and will continue to grow, especially in the wake of a global financial crisis that has bred wide mistrust of both business and government. One way for companies to burnish their reputation is to tie themselves to a worthy cause, connecting what they do with a public good.
Cause marketing isn't new. Perhaps the first cause marketer was Wally Amos of Famous Amos cookies who became the national spokesman for the Literacy Volunteers of America in 1979.
American Express is usually given credit for lifting the idea to more prominence with its cause marketing campaign in 1983 to restore the Statue of Liberty and, more recently, its campaign to reopen the popular tourist attraction after the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York.
Today, cause marketing has emerged as a reliable press relations technique to build awareness of a corporation and its products, earn positive news media and add a little luster to the corporate reputation.
Mercy Corps, which is based in Portland and the 2008 winner of the social capitalist award, has found a lot of corporations knocking on its door, including Wal-Mart that partnered with Mercy Corps to nurture small produce farmers in Guatemala by guaranteeing to buy their crops.
Tazo Tea teamed up with Mercy Corps to build infrastructure, including clean water systems, in Darjeeling, India.
Nike forged a partnership with Mercy Corps for a Let Me Play project in which Mercy Corps distributes 300,000 Nike products per year in communities around the world to promote sports. The program is also tied to USAID's Sports for Peace and Life Program.
An excellent recent example of an effective cause marketing campaign involves JELD-WEN, which has tied itself to restoration of coastal lighthouses as a way of demonstrating the reliability of its doors and windows. Launched in 2005, the campaign seeks to maintain or enhance the beauty and architectural integrity of lighthouses by incorporating the latest window and door technology to give greater protection to the structures, which get battered in coastal climates.
So far, the Klamath Falls-based door and window manufacturer has restored three lighthouses – the Umpqua River Lighthouse, which is Oregon's oldest; Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, situated in the middle of Chesapeake Bay; and Wind Point Lighthouse on Lake Michigan.
"JELD-WEN initiated this effort as a way for us to walk the talk," says Lynne Butterworth, the company's lighthouse project manager. "It has been good for these treasured buildings and it's also been good for the company."
"After all, if our products are in some of the most reliable buildings in the world that also face some of the harshest conditions, that says a lot," Butterworth adds. "It's become a point of pride for everyone involved, especially because we're doing our part to help such an important aspect of America's heritage."
JELD-WEN's efforts haven't gone unrecognized. The Oregon Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America recently awarded the company its Spotlight Award for the campaign called "Lighthouses Become Shining Beacon." The campaign has sparked word-of-mouth buzz that has brought attention – and added sales – to JELD-WEN.
"Consumers like to buy products from companies with a conscience," explains CFM Principal Allison McCormick, APR. "In the JELD-WEN lighthouse restoration campaign, the company chose a cause that underscores its products' reliability. And the cause has a strong tie to the company's mission."
JELD-WEN has conducted a contest, with nearly 500,000 participants, to identify a new round of lighthouses to restore. The most popular choices are the Bodie Island Light Station in Cape Hatteras, Grand Traverse Lighthouse in Leelanau State Park in Michigan and New Canal Lighthouse in New Orleans, which is considered the most endangered lighthouse in America. The New Canal Lighthouse was dismantled board by board after Hurricane Katrina and is being reconstructed to its original 1890s specifications to resume being a working facility, as well as a museum and a "symbol of hope to the Gulf Coast."
"Just the awareness this contest has caused is tremendous," says Anne Rheams, deputy director of the foundation seeking to restore the New Canal Lighthouse. "You couldn't buy this kind of advertising for your lighthouse."
The effort reached a newspaper audience of almost 30 million, with premier coverage in USA Today, Washington Post, AP (local and national wires), Architectural Record, Metropolitan Home and local broadcast stations across the country. “In total, the campaign has attracted more than 750,000 unique visitors to www.JELD-WEN.com — and is now the most popular page on the site,” says Darcie Miehoff of Portland-based CMD, the creative agency that spearheaded the cause marketing program on behalf of JELD-WEN.
"The success of JELD-WEN's ideas," says Oregonian reporter Ben Santaris, "shows how a marketing device, carefully matched with a passionate community interest and the Internet's viral powers, can pay off with a life of its own."
Links
Wally Amos - Wikipedia biography
Mercy Corps
Nike's Let Me Play Campaign
JELD-WEN's Lighthouse Project
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