Tag Archives: branding

Mobile Giving Meets Mobile Marketing, But Are Americans Ready?

Sure, Americans love their mobile phones and use them handily, but there’s still stunted confidence for mobile financial transactions, whether it’s a payment or a donation. Part of the reticence comes from the clumsiness of many mobile commerce and mobile giving sites and part of it’s a lack of incentives. Benevity Social Ventures and Obopay […]

Retail Philanthropy Is In High Demand: 4 Steps To Doing It Right

Neither nationwide purse-tightening nor cries of Slactivism! Greenwashing! and Fad! have shaken cause marketing. Eighty-three percent of consumers “want more of the products, services and retailers they use to benefit causes,” according to Cone Inc.’s 2010 Cause Evaluation Study. But how do you do cause-related marketing (or cause branding) right? Pick a cause you care about. […]

Has KaBOOM! Drunk The Kool-Aid?

When I first heard about KaBOOM!’s partnership with Kool-Aid, I thought unequivocally that the nonprofit had swallowed the sugary, Red No. 40-punch.  Kool-Aid’s pledged to help KaBOOM! build 24 playgrounds and provide funding for 20 more. In a campaign aimed at promoting “healthy, active lifestyles for kids,” why is KaBOOM! partnering with an historic obesity […]

Will B Corp’s New Campaign Be The Death Knell For Cause-Washing?

Rather than doing the industry in, cause-washing might just save corporate sustainability. Although consumer trust is worse than we thought, the anecdote has the potential to alter the way companies do business and consumers shop. Less than one percent of people (surveyed recently by BBMG in partnership with B Lab) trust company advertisements or statements […]

Trouble Brewing For Green Mountain Coffee: Do 3 Billion Plastic Cups Negate 30 Years of Sustainability?

Does a history of progressive social and environmental responsibility compensate for recent environmental abuse? Green Mountain Coffee is staring into the face of this question now with criticism of its environmentally noxious single-use coffee pods that work with its Keurig brewing system.  Last year, more than 80% of Green Mountain’s $803 million in sales came […]

Is This A Viable Alternative To Crowdsourced Social Good Campaigns?

I’m not the first to make the case that crowdsourced social good contests should retreat quickly into the night. They’re inefficient at creating change; Their current popularity has diminished the value they bring to companies and brands; Consumers are fed up with them (how many vote-for-me solicitations do you get a week that make you feel […]

How I Would Fix Neenah Paper’s Eco-Publicity Ploy

The offer: As part of a publicity push for its carbon-neutral ENVIRONMENT Papers line, Neenah Paper launched a sweepstakes to win an eco-trip for two to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica and a chance to “go hard core and experience conservation in the heart of some of nature’s most fragile environments.”  The lucky winner is […]

Choose Your Own Cause-Marketing Ending

To build brand awareness and identity, the Close But No Cigar company is interested in creating several cause-based community events. Close But No Cigar (CBNC) brings in an expert to ask what cause it should support.  Based on the company’s response to several questions, the idea man returns with several areas that the company might […]

Coke’s Sticky Situation Is a Warning Not To Market Sustainability You Don’t Have

On a wall in Honest Tea’s office is a Chinese proverb that cautions Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the people doing it. It’s a prescient warning given the story I’m about to tell, but the lesson I want to highlight is that when you invest in sustainability as an image […]

Why Mission Should Be Your Primary Product

How to let your mission guide you: Your mission should guide your decisions, but sometimes you’ll have to prioritize long-term mission over short-term consequences as Organic Valley did when it shipped milk from Ohio to North Carolina to help farmers there start a local business. The short-term compromise was the environmental impact of shipping milk so […]