If your company consistently runs social responsibility programs, but doesn’t take the time or have the confidence in its programs to make sure I know about them, it’s doing me and itself a disservice. Like Walgreens or Rite Aid, CVS is a national pharmacy chain. There’s no visible differentiation between it and its competitors. Maybe […]
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This Is What Customers Want to Know About Your Cause Marketing Partnership
It turns out customers are paying a lot of attention to the tizzy of cause marketing campaigns surrounding them. In fact, they are underwhelmed with information. Cone’s 2010 Nonprofit Marketing Trend Tracker shows yet another reason to report on your campaign or program results–because customers care. Astoundingly, not even half of consumers think companies and nonprofits […]
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7 Steps to Building Partnerships From the People Who Are Ending Hunger
If you truly want your company to have a great impact, you can’t go it alone. You need to have partners. But what type and how? Scott Henderson and his colleagues Anne Bertelsen and Brian Reich seem to be wizards at creating partnerships and drawing out the best from each party. Together, they launched WeCanEndThis.com, a year-long campaign […]
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Foursquare and CauseWorld Lead to Better Cause Marketing–with Joe Waters
It’s a no-brainer to decide to run a cause marketing program. There’s ample evidence that (1) consumers choose products aligned with a cause, (2) employees and brand benefit from socially driven programs and (3) causes can use the help. But there are important considerations when deciding what type of program best suites your business, how […]
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The Empty Suit: 5 Cause Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
My usual sentiment is that an imperfect effort is better than none (as applies to cause marketing and CSR), but a recent press release about Joseph Abboud’s campaign to benefit victims of the Haiti quake was too much for even my accepting-self to bear. Joseph Abboud, maker of formal menswear, is partnering with Nordstrom (and […]
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What is Cause Marketing and Is It Right for You?–With Joe Waters Part I
Before you can come up with ways to implement cause marketing (or even decide whether it’s right for your business) you need to get a basic understanding of what cause marketing is and what it isn’t. That’s why I invited cause marketing expert Joe Waters to Cause Capitalism and asked him to explain what cause […]
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From Fast-food to Finance, Cause Marketing is a Still Growing Trend
Get the Google Audio Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info) Does it seem counter-intuitive that cause marketing programs are continuing to prosper in a pinched economy? I talked with David Hessekiel, president and founder of Cause Marketing Forum, about why cause-related marketing campaigns have a […]