It’s been over a year of immense uncertainty due to the pandemic, leading to political unrest, social discord and severe climate events. These uncertain times and the pandemic have made brands think beyond their selling proposition, adding cause to their campaigns. Supporting a cause has not only become a strategy to optimise brand image, but also a revenue generation and brand value decision. But to what end? Like most things in marketing, everything begins with the core objective – why?
The most obvious reason is that cause marketing benefits the brand. The objectives of cause marketing strategies are to build brand, increase sales, build public relations, and promote employee team building through cause related volunteerism. It helps increase customer loyalty by aligning the cause with the company’s social responsibility statement or entering into a non-profit partnership that is effectively managed. However, a long-term partnership shows more commitment to a cause and can help attract customers as well as build loyalty.
Courtesy: Deloitte Global 2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey
Before the COVID-19 crisis, we were already seeing consumers gravitating towards purpose-driven brands (especially among millennial and Gen Z consumers). Following the pandemic, we see more and more consumers determined to hold themselves and others accountable on society’s most pressing issues. As per the Deloitte Global 2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey, Millennials and Gen Zs believe in their individual power to drive change and also expect institutions like businesses and governments to do more to help bring about their vision of a better future.
During the COVID-19 crisis, revenues were down and many brands began to look for ways to engage in social causes and through that create connections with consumers. Brands began to distribute PPE kits and masks early. However, given how severe the situation was, brands that really stood out were ones that sprang into action. We saw brands create 100 bed Covid hospitals in office spaces, arrange oxygen cylinders and concentrators, partner with NGOs to support the vulnerable such as elderly, give back with free rides to vaccination centres or free food for the quarantined, encourage vaccination with rewards and celebrate everyday heroes by felicitating those that did selfless deeds. Now, as we slowly return to a new “normal” and life resumes a familiar pace, the hope is that consumers will remember which companies took action.
Create Shared Value
But if we look beyond the pandemic, the biggest question for marketers is whether cause-driven marketing gets a Yay or a Nay. As marketers, I feel we should not burden ourselves with too much responsibility just for the sake of doing cause marketing. Cause marketing is done with an objective normally to humanise the brand but not every brand is in the social domain. Brands do contribute but cause related marketing is just one part of the marketing mix and a lot can go wrong if cause driven campaign is not properly thought through.
A weak cause marketing campaign can have adverse effects such as misalignment between the cause/charity and the brand/sponsor, wastage of resources and customer cynicism. However, even a well thought of cause marketing campaign has its drawbacks as it takes place as an individual market transaction, digressing from collective solutions to collective problems.
It is important to reiterate that a marketer has a budget and ROI to consider. How a marketer uses the budget depends on the concept of ‘creating a shared value’ as stated by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer’s article in the Harvard Business Review in 2011. The piece sparked a global movement to redefine the role of business in society where a brand’s success and social progress are interdependent.
So, it all boils down to economic viability and the value that you create for the brand. There are hundreds of causes which may not lead to an economic value for a brand.
Marketer’s Dilemma
When trying to decide whether cause marketing will create real social impact for your brand, think whether it is important to have cause driven campaign or is it about humanising the brand? Are you doing it for the hype or to create brand affinity? I would simply follow HIT framework to make a decision:
H: Is it all for Hype? For instance, felicitating an Olympian AFTER the deed is done or worse still, using his/her name without explanation does more harm than good. Recently badminton star PV Sindhu took 20 brands to court for using her name and image without permission to market their brands after she won her second Olympic medal. Remember customers can see through lack of sincerity faster than you can imagine. Instead, putting your might behind finding the next Olympian from the most vulnerable sections of the society can help. Take the example of the Odisha government. It has been the official sponsor of the Indian women and men hockey teams since 2018. Now that both teams did well at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the Odisha government is gathering praise and accolades for supporting hockey.
I: How Invested are you? Once you show you care, you cannot back out tomorrow. You need to make sure your cause marketing campaign has well-defined goals and clarity about the consumers’ role in helping achieve these goals. By choosing and establishing longstanding relationships with the right non-profit partners, cause marketing programs have the potential to have a dramatic cumulative effect. For example, Mastercard’s relationship with the World Food Programme School Meals Program drives a longer-term effect. The impact of the program is beyond the mission to help end hunger to helping to create a sustainable environment for the community to thrive.
T: Is it Tangible? In an ever increasingly digital world, quirky and different is a way to stand out. So if you are adding to a child’s education fund for every product you sell, having the children thank their sponsors will have more impact and create a human connect. Bland awareness campaigns that aren’t backed by action often ring hollow for today’s media-savvy consumers.
While the approach to cause marketing may be very different for different industries and brands, there are some common points to consider. You must understand what the brand believes in, find a related cause, think beyond just donating or contributing money, work with non-profits and make effective use of digital and earned media.
Successful Campaigns
Today, there are countless cause-related marketing programmes around the world by all types of brands. Here are a few that stand out:
Starbucks used the traditional media platform and advertising for their What’s Your Name campaign to support the LGBTQ community. The campaign received heart-warming responses. The campaign encouraged the transgender community to find their voice via a simple but effective method: daring to speak their name. The campaign was relatable and fit well with Starbucks’ practice of taking the name of the customer and calling it out when the order is ready.
Unilever revealed that its most sustainable brands grew 46% faster than the rest of the business and delivered 70% of revenues from 2017 to 2018. One of the reasons was its Sustainable Living Plan that people could relate with. Lifebuoy soap alone reached over 426 million people with its hand-washing programme that helped reduce infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia that take millions of lives each year.
Puma teamed up with First Mile, a waste management and recycling company, to launch new active wear line made from made from recycled plastic. The pieces are made using recycled yarn from plastic bottles collected via First Mile’s people-focused network in Taiwan, Honduras, and Haiti. In an age where customers are conscious of perils of fast fashion and are looking for sustainable options, the line made Puma stand out.
Mahindra & Mahindra commenced a huge digitally driven crowd-funding campaign in India named Seed the Rise to support Indian farmers in different ways like providing alternative forms of livelihood, educating farmer’s daughters and assisting them with agricultural advancements. Given that the brand manufactures tractors and farm implements it not only aligned with the brand’s values but also created goodwill with customers.
Lakme Salon’s Happy New You campaign empowers customers to achieve wellness and, in the process, give back to society and environment. Over the years they have been supportive of social causes like girl child education and have attempted to make salon operations eco-friendly.
Dettol this year rolled out a large-scale campaign where it replaced the iconic Dettol logo with stories and images of “Covid Protectors” who stepped up during the pandemic. Dettol curated 100 such stories, including of those who helped meet demand for medical oxygen, provide ration kits and medicines to those in need, among others and sold 40 lakh such packs of handwash. The campaign elevated the image of the brand and gave a push to sales.
Given the backdrop of the pandemic, social impact marketing will become more crucial in years to come. Now more than ever consumers are personally concerned with the beliefs and ethics that the brands they associate must follow. It is important to humanise businesses and when done right, you can build brand loyalty, push sales and engage employees. However, cause marketing shouldn’t be taken lightly. A marketer must make sure that the cause is a worthy one and is properly aligned with the business. To be successful, there is a need to create a shared value and synergise economic agenda with positive social outcome.