How Businesses Can Measure ROI on Cause Marketing

Tag Archive: cause-related marketing

How Businesses Can Measure ROI on Cause Marketing

Written on July 19, 2010 in Cause Practices

Whenever I work with a business on a cause marketing program, especially point-of-sale–my bread-and-butter program–they usually ask that after helping a great cause how do they really measure what was gained from the partnership.

It’s a good question, to which there is generally no clear answer, especially for a smaller businesses that can’t invest in focus groups or customer research to determine if cause marketing did what it’s suppose to do: enhance favorability with consumers and employees and drive sales.

As I work almost solely with small and medium-sized businesses–and not the Walmart’s, Starbucks or Chili’s of the world–this is how we measure the ROI on a cause marketing program.

Did the campaign achieve its goal? Before the start of each point-of-sale program we work with the retailer to set a goal for each store involved in the program. A successful program that meets or exceeds goal and is greeted with enthusiasm–and few complaints from shoppers–deserves to be called a success.

Coupon redemptions. Most of the pinups and point-of-sale programs we create include one or more coupons. They add value for the shopper and give the business a tangible way to track consumer interest in the program. Most of the coupons on our pinups are good for a return visit–those on our Halloween Town pinup, for instance, weren’t good until after Halloween–so they’re traffic drivers.

The cross promotion that multiple coupons from several businesses creates can translate into new customers for some stores. A pinup partner of ours was excited to discover that a large number of coupon redemptions weren’t from their own customers, but from those of another partner in the same program (each partner has a unique code on their pinup so they can track coupons from other partners).

Take it out of the store. Because our programs are so multifaceted, we offer a lot more than pinups. Our latest program with Phantom Gourmet gives partners added exposure on radio and television, which is added ROI. Halloween Town gave pinup partners a two-day brand land experience that drew 15,000 guests. No cause marketing program should be one dimensional. Not only do integrated campaigns make for better cause marketing but they also deliver better returns. Whenever I meet with sponsors for a post-campaign wrap-up I always have lots to share with them on how valuable the program was to them.

Measure employee engagement. Getting hard numbers on customer engagement on cause marketing is difficult and expensive, but finding out the impact of cause marketing on employees is easier because the audience is smaller and you have direct access to them. Talk to your managers and rank and file employees about the program. Customers aren’t the only ones that benefit from cause marketing. It can also boost employee satisfaction and loyalty, which has its own bottom-line benefit.

Did you get your money’s worth? I always throw this question out to a partner because as many of you who follow my blog already know, we don’t charge anything for our cause marketing programs (nor should you). I usually make this my final point to a partner as I’ve already established the many rewards of the program. And then I add, “Oh yeah, and it was free.” Great ROI, eh?

Cause marketing delivers karma points and ROI for businesses. Even without fancy and expensive measurement tools you can gauge employee and customer interest and reach potential customers through cross-promotions and events. And if you’re a retailer you can get this all for free.

Who wouldn’t call cause marketing a good investment?

Tags: cause marketing, cause-related marketing, measuring roi

B-to-B Cause Marketing

Written on July 12, 2010 in Cause Practices

5 Comments

A lot of people come to my blog for cause marketing advice, but Tricia Wilkerson, Senior Marketing Specialists at Conifer Health Solutions, found inspiration. While my posts didn’t uncover exactly what Tricia was looking for, they did get her thinking (she told me afterward) and I’m thankful she took the time to share with me the cause marketing program Conifer created.

As a a company that works with over 100 hospitals nationwide, Conifer was searching for a cause marketing program that would put the power of giving in the hands of their customers.

To achieve this goal, Conifer turned to TisBest to produce a custom charity card.

TisBest works by allowing pre-donated funds to be loaded onto charity gift cards, in the same way that traditional gift cards function, which is then “spent” by the recipient on the charity they select.

Tricia explained how Conifer’s new charity gift card was smartly executed at an industry event.

We targeted our program launch for our industry’s largest healthcare finance conference in late June – Healthcare Financial Management Association annual conference – attended by approximately 2,000 professionals. Originally located in Nashville, the historic Tennessee flooding in early May nearly cancelled the conference before it was hastily relocated to Las Vegas. This conference crisis, in addition to the emerging crisis for the Gulf states and flooding in Arkansas, reinforced our commitment to forgo the traditional conference giveaways (iPads, Wii, etc.) and booth-supported sales efforts.

We pre-donated $10,000 to be distributed in increments of $5 on each charity card. To physically house the charity card for distribution during the conference, we developed a branded “pocket card” brochure that included details about the cause program and brief information about Conifer. The pocket cards were then distributed to conference attendees by Conifer’s conference street team who explained the concept and answered questions. To keep the focus on charity, we did not include sales pitches or direct people to our booth (we chose not to have a traditional conference presence) – to the surprise of many seasoned conference attendees.

Ironically, the program stood in perhaps starker contrast to other marketing efforts at the conference because of the relocation to Las Vegas (not always synonymous with charity efforts) and the intra-community concern for Nashville due to the flooding. We heard numerous comments about the “freshness” of the program and excitement about the opportunity to spread a little good selflessly. And we’re happy to report that we have already seen cards being “redeemed” for charities.

There’s a lot to like about this program, and I have one suggestion that might have made it better.

Cause marketing isn’t just for B-to-C. Although I’m pretty guilty of thinking of cause marketing as only B-to-C, it can work for B-to-B as well. B-to-B cause marketing works more like a percentage-of-sales program in that the donation is “seeded” by the company. But with Conifer’s gift card the cardholder gets to choose which cause gets the money.

Conifer sent the right message at the conference. They wisely let their charity efforts do the talking and didn’t try to push sales. When done well cause marketing distinguishes you from your competitors. While some types of marketing give you visibility that needs to be activated with a sales pitch, cause marketing delivers a favorability that has a built-in persuasiveness that is powerful and independent. You can leave the hard sell back at the office.

Check-in for charity on Foursquare. To gather intelligence on conference attendees active on social media, I would have added a location-marketing promotion for smartphone users to check-in at Conifer’s Cares at HFMA on Foursquare and Gowalla. After showing their check-in to a street team member, they’d receive a second charity card. To involve more attendees you could extend the promotion to anyone at the conferences who used the hashtag #conifercares on Twitter or Facebook.

I’d love to hear about some more examples of B-to-B cause marketing. I got Conifer thinking about cause marketing and now they have me thinking about the possibilities for B-to-B cause marketing! What other programs are out there? And what does this mean for my definition of cause marketing? Do we have to adjust it? If so, how?

Tags: b-to-b cause marketing, cause marketing, cause-related marketing, charity gift cards, conifer health solutions, tisbest

Why Aren’t Cause Marketing Gifts Real Gifts?

Written on June 30, 2010 in Causerants

20 Comments

Brigid at Actually Giving doesn’t think cause marketing gifts are real gifts. ”Despite what consumers (and the product marketers) would like to believe, these transactions are simply Not Gifts.”

I don’t buy that. There are just as many people that give as sincerely and generously at the register as there are people that give in other ways. Does a giving, caring, charitable person become less so when they’re shopping?

Actually Giving has a few other complaints. One has merit.

A donor can’t choose which charity to support. No one is forcing consumers to support cause marketing programs. It’s a simple yes or no. However, I do understand this can be a little more difficult with percentage-of-sales programs. But remember the donation from a percentage-of-sales program generally comes from the company, not from the consumer, and is usually set at a fixed amount before anything is sold. Sure, there’s the promise that increased sales will offset the company’s donation, but that doesn’t always happen. In short, the company is making the donation not the consumer.

Even if a company does see increased sales, it generally won’t support a cause with OPM (Other People’s Money). Companies know that this isn’t the right thing to do. That’s why they give millions of dollars of their own money away to charities.

Donors don’t get the tax deduction. Good point, Brigid. A good business idea would be to create a card that consumers could carry with them when they shop that would record cause marketing donations for tax deductions.

The world’s problems won’t be solved increased consumerism. No kidding. Fortunately, many cause products are everyday items like sneakers, paper towels and underarm deodorant. Not sure I want to live in a world without that kind of basic consumerism. Why not leverage it for good?

Buying fried chicken won’t help women with breast cancer. The Komen/Kentucky Fried Chicken partnership is a bad example of cause marketing. There are many other good promotions that are making a difference.

Ralph Waldo Emerson set a high standard for his gifts. “The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me.”

Brigid has a different standard on what a gift is, and it doesn’t include the gifts people make when they support a charity at the register.

I try not to tell people what qualifies as a gift. That’s up to them and, ultimately, I’m just happy they gave. I simply say thanks.

**Thanks to Heidi Massey for inspiring me to write this post!