Side by side is the front and back of the Bruins' pinup. The QR code is on the back.

Back in January I talked about Quora and how it could be a resource to consumers who had questions about a cause marketing promotions, and an asset to causes that wanted to be more transparent about their programs.

This month my fellow Dummies writer Joanna MacDonald and I are putting Quora to the test with a QR code on our latest pinup that will be sold at iParty and Fuddruckers locations throughout New England.

Trying scanning this QR code with the QR reader on your smartphone.

When consumers scan the code with their smartphones (try it yourself!) it takes them to this Quora page where they can comment or ask a question about the campaign.

We plan to monitor the page regularly so we can answer questions quickly and accurately.

The QR code links to this Quora page where consumers can get timely answers to their questions about the program.

To answer common questions about the program we also included a link to a  frequently asked questions page on Quora.

We used the FAQ page on Quora to answer common questions about the program.

How many people will scan the QR code? I’m not sure. A small percentage of shoppers most likely. But they may represent regular givers that want more information about the programs they’re supporting at the register.

Will Quora be confusing to shoppers that don’t know what the heck it is? That’s a good question. Probably like 99% of the people out there have no clue what Quora is. But if they view Quora as it tool that gets them the answers they want it might not matter what the name is.

What else can we do to make our Quora page more effective? I think we could include a link to a video on the SPARK Center, the program at my hospital that will benefit from the program.

To make our program easier to find, I also added some tags to the top of the entry, although I really don’t expect people to find our page by searching Quora. Most will go to the page directly from the QR code.

Or they may find the page via search engines.

A Google search on “spark center bmc” lists our Quora page as sixth on search results. Queries on other words and terms associated with the promotion also showed up in the top results.  If consumers are searching online for information on this cause marketing program, they’ll most likely find it via their favorite search engine thanks to Quora.

That’s another good reason to give Quora a try.

I’m interested to hear what you think about this experiment!

One of the greatest feelings in the world is when someone comes up to you out of the blue and says they’ve been reading your blog for some time and learned something they’ve been able to put into practice.

That happen to me yesterday when I spoke to the Women in Philanthropy in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

After Joanna and I spoke, Gwen Majercak from Cooley Dickinson Hospital in nearby Northhampton, MA shared the above pinup with me that sold in local stores for $1 and raised $10,000 last year.

Right on the pinup it says the funds raised from the program supported medical care to 9,000 newborns born to teens at the hospital.

Gwen’s success is impressive as Cooley Dickinson is far from the big city and the big chain retailers. Nevertheless, Gwen put together a great program and she’s busy planning this year’s drive.

One thing I really liked about this pinup is the perforated round icon at the top that pops out and is displayed in the store with the person’s name. The rest of the pinup, along with some important facts Gwen put on the back, goes home with the consumer.

I’m really looking forward to hearing the results from this year’s program! Congrats to Gwen and Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Interested in learn more about point-of-sale programs and other cause marketing fundraisers? Sign up for one of my cause marketing bootcamps at  CharityHowTo or join me for my three-part training program Six Figure Cause Marketing.

Want to learn more about cause marketing? Do these things right now:

1. Sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter (top right of this page).
2. Buy my book, Cause Marketing for Dummies, and get some great free stuff.
3. Invite me to speak at your next event!
4. Learn more by reading my latest post: The Difference Between Transactional, Transformative Cause Marketing.

Last January I wrote a post on What is Cause Marketing? that got a lot of great feedback. Over the past year I’ve gone back to that post many time and reread the comments again and thought about how I was defining cause marketing.

I felt I had the first part right.

Cause marketing is a partnership between a nonprofit and a for-profit for mutual profit

What I thought needed redefining was just what it encompassed. In last year’s post I wrote that cause marketing involved three types of programs: point-of-sale, percentage-of-sale and licensing.

This year, I’m much more open to including most activities between a company and a cause. They include:

Point-of-sale. When a cashier either solicits a shopper for a donation (active cause marketing) or signage is prominently displayed at the register to encourage the shopper to make a gift (passive cause marketing) that’s point-of-sale. Unless you’re completely new to my blog, you know that POS, in the form of pinups, is my bread-and-butter program. But if you are new here’s a primer.

Purchase or action triggered donation. When a consumer buys a product or service (like a latte at Starbucks on World Aids Day) a donation (5 cents) is made to a cause (Product Red) that’s a purchase-triggered donation (I think this is a better describer of what happens when a shopper buys a cause product than the “percentage-of-sale” tag I used last year). Sometimes instead of a purchase, a donation is made when the consumer performs some type of action. For example, Macy’s donated a dollar the Make-a-Wish Foundation for every letter to Santa dropped into their special letter boxes at Macy’s stores.

Licensing. This is when a company pays a fee to use a nonprofit’s brand on its product. Licensing may include a certification process by the nonprofit before the company is allowed to use the logo. A longstanding licensing pact is Arthritis Foundation’s Ease of Use Commendation for the Advil Caplets Easy Open Arthritis Cap. Cause marketing licensing is practiced by the only the biggest causes (e. g. Komen for the Cure, American Heart Association) and is not a tactic for your average or local cause.

Message Promotion. This is when a business puts its resources to work to promote a cause-focused message. David Hessekiel at Cause Marketing Forum has a lot of great examples in his Halo Award Archive.

Employee Engagement. This is when a company leverages its workforce for social good. I think of Home Depot’s Partnership with KaBOOM! to build 1000 Playgrounds in 1000 Days, which involved nearly 100,000 Home Depot volunteers.

Digital Programs. The web, social media and especially location-based services will dramatically impact cause marketing and change the way we execute the above tactics. To leave this out is to leave out the future of cause marketing and how cause and companies will partner in the years to come.

I still don’t think the “marketing of causes” or sponsorship are cause marketing. (Jocelyn Daw told me recently that while sponsorship is when the cause puts its resources to work for the company, cause marketing is when the company goes to work for the cause. I like that!) But there are some interesting and creative ways to integrate cause marketing with sponsorship.

Nor is cause marketing cause branding or corporate social responsibility, although it is a subset of the two.

Finally, cause marketing is not philanthropy. While it has philanthropic aspirations and goals, it’s better described as marketing, and, in some ways, a business.

Those are my thoughts on cause marketing for January 2011. What are yours?

[Update 1/21/11: In the comments be sure to check out Jocelyn Daw's comments on how to distinguish traditional marketing from cause marketing. She makes it quite clear. Also, she outlines the 4 P's of cause marketing: Partner, Purpose, Passion & Profits.]

I’m glad John Haydon introduced me to Danny Brown, because he’s given me a great idea on how to extend my retail point-of-sale programs to Facebook where I can get “likes” for my nonprofit and my retail partners.

Danny’s starting point is getting offline retail coupons online to Facebook.

Grab the artwork from your existing flyer (or make one unique to Facebook) and then transfer that to a tab on your page’s navigation menu. Currently this is created using the FBML application (and some HTML coding), though soon you’ll have to change to iFrame.

Call your tab something simple like Coupons or Discounts to grab attention. Then, to encourage folks to Like your page, only make the coupon or discount available to people after they like you. If you’re unsure how to do this, my friend John Haydon has a great guide on using Facebook HTML as well as hiding offers until people click your Like button.

This got me thinking on the coupons we use in most of our pinup programs and how they may have value beyond a simple redemption. For example:

• Instead of a coupon like the ones you see here, partners could encourage consumers to visit their Facebook page for the coupon in exchange for a “like.” Unlike an offline coupon or a web page, the retailer gains a new subscriber to their page. Yes, they have to work to keep that new fan, but the connection is a valuable one.
• If a retailer was feeling generous they could encourage shoppers to visit the cause’s page to get the discount and the nonprofit would get the like. The cause could have a coupon tab with all the discounts from their partners–deals you could only get after you like the page!
• Getting people from an offline coupon to a Facebook page needn’t be difficult. A QR code takes them there instantly and delivers the coupon! The QR code in my next pinup program would do the trick.

John Haydon told me that he plans to post on Danny’s post as well. I’ll be sure to update this page with a link if he does. John will certainly have some great info on how nonprofits can create and leverage a Facebook discount tab.

I really like the point-of-sale cause marketing program A. C. Moore and Easter Seals recently completed. Even though it was a national program, it has some good lessons for local cause marketers like me (and probably you).

The breakdown of the program was simple. At A. C. Moore’s 136 stores cashiers asked customers to donate a dollar to Easter Seal’s Act for Autism campaign and together they raised over $141,000.

Great results, but here’s what makes this cause marketing effort noteworthy.

A special in-store event. During the point-of-sale campaign, A. C. Moore invited customers to a Make & Take crafting event in stores that involved a jigsaw puzzle (for autism awareness). What a great combination of crafting and cause! I was thinking how great it would be if we did an in-store pumpkin decorating event at iParty stores during their October point-of-sale program for us.

How could you enhance your next point-of-sale cause marketing program with an in-store event like A. C. Moore did?

Low traffic stores can produce. Have you ever been into an A. C. Moore craft store? My kids love them. They’re busy, but not like a supermarket is or a Walmart or Target. In short, if you plan to raise a lot of money at the register you better be working with motivated employees who can convince nearly every shopper to give. And motivated employees is just A. C. Moore had, especially in their mid-Atlantic states.

Stores averaged over $1,000, but A.C. Moore stores in the Philadelphia and Wilmington, DE region collected more than half of the total funds, with the Wilmingtonstore earning the top fundraising spot.

A key thing I push in Six Figure Cause Marketing is finding chains with lots of foot traffic and lots of locations. However, A. C. Moore proves that how deeply employees connect with a cause may be the most important factor of all.

When you’re identifying retailers for cause marketing programs sales skills matter too. Check out this post I wrote a while back on working with quick-lube chains. Despite low foot traffic compared to other type of retailers, quick-lubes raise good money at the register because their employees care (of course!) and are well trained.

In short, although they have fewer customers to ask–some quick-lubes only average 50 to 60 customers a day–they get more yes’s than the untrained cashiers who sees more customers.

In A. C. Moore’s case, motivation helped craft a big success for Easter Seals.

Thanks to my fellow cause marketer Steve Drake for bringing this great program to my attention!

Did you get that? It’s all about the ask at the register. The more people your cashiers ask, the more pinups you’ll sell, the more money you’ll raise. It seems simple, but motivating cashiers to ask everyone they meet can be challenging. We cover it at length in the Six Figure Cause Marketing program.

A great team and asking every customer to support the cause is how this iParty store in Quincy, Massachusetts raised more money than any other ($2,800 to be exact). This year’s campaign, which also included restaurants from Fuddruckers New England, raised $42,500, almost 20 percent more than last year!

Thanks to our roving reporter on our team, Joanna MacDonald, for swinging by iParty on her way home from work. It wasn’t a wasted trip, as she needed to replenish the the office’s supply of whoopie cushions and wax mustaches!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the AMA Boston event on Cause Marketing During Challenging Economic Times. It was a great event.

As promised, below are links to some of the topics I discussed.

What is cause marketing. One thing that was clear from everyone on the panel is that Bonnie, Erica Vogelei from Cone and I all had a different understanding of what cause marketing is. Here’s my perspective. If you’re a cause marketing skeptic you may want to check out my post on Defending Cause Marketing. Be sure to read the comments under both posts as they are very helpful.

The Power of Pinups. My cause marketing efforts revolve around two key areas, point-of-sale and percentage-of-sale, especially the former. For a primer on point-of-sale, or pinups as I like to call them, check out this post, which has lots of links. My last pinup program was with Ocean State Job Lots. But I’ve also posted on other programs by Hannaford Supermarkets and New Balance.

If you’re interested in learning more about percentage-of-sale programs, read this post about Starbucks & Product (RED).

Cause marketing and social media. One of my favorite topics. Be sure to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc. on the right sidebar! Here’s a good sampling of my posts on the subject. Also, check out my post on Foursquare and Harvard and how the latter can school cause marketers on how to raise money with location-based social media.

This presentation didn’t have any slides, but if you’re a PowerPoint-aholic check out these slides from an event I spoke at just a couple weeks ago.

Three final things.

First, if you have a question, leave a comment and I’ll reply to you. I might even write a post on your question! And you can make sure you never miss a post by subscribing to my email newsletter, which goes out twice a month.

Second, I’ve posted a whole series on Selling Local Sponsorships for Nonprofits that explores the selling process and how to prospect, pitch and close. It’s helpful if you work in nonprofit sales.

Finally, speaking of pitching, let me leave you with one. The team at BMC is available for hire.

Thanks again for listening. I hope my accent wasn’t too thick (a problem sometimes even for a Boston crowd!).

This pinup is our fifth and has been a close companion of the Halloween Town event since it began in 2005. Single handedly the pinup has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for my nonprofit!

I’ve written before on the merits of pinup programs in general and Halloween Town’s in particular.  Before I give you some additional reading, I want to admit that I’m guilty of one heinous crime: not using one consistent name for pinup programs. I’ve called them point-of-sale, paper icons, mobiles, paper plaques and probably several other names. I’m trying to stick to “pinups” from now on, but you’ll see these other names in the titles and posts I’ll suggest to you. Forgive me.

For a primer on pinup programs read:

Never Heard of Paper Icons? Listen Up (Also includes a link to an excellent post on “paper icons” by Paul Jones over at the Cause-Related Marketing)

To read about the development of our Halloween Town pinup program the past few years, check out:

Countdown to Halloween Town: The Power of Pinups (2008 Program)

Countdown to Halloween Town: Mobile Madness (2007 Program)

Secrets of a Mobile Master (2006 Program)

We just don’t do pinup programs in October. We do them throughout the year. Read about our most recent program here:

Phantom Gourmet Cooks-Up Cause Marketing Success

From reading these posts I think you’ll agree that our Halloween Town pinup program has a lot of great advantages.

It’s lucrative. This year we should top $800,000 raised since the program began in 2005 (at an expense of about 12 cents on the dollar).

Prospects can’t say no to it. Because unlike other kinds of marketing they pay for, this one is free. They only need to give us access to their stores and to motivate their register clerks to ask the all-important question: “Would you like to donate a dollar to help a sick child?”

Partners love the added benefits. Our pinup programs aren’t just glorified customer loyalty programs. We build them around multiple retailers–that offer valuable cross-promotion–and events, like Halloween Town that in 2008 had 15,000 guests. Retailers that sell pinups in their stores get a free sponsorship spot at Halloween Town that markets their product or service outside the “choir” to new converts.

It’s powerful advertising. We’ve never spent much money advertising Halloween Town. We don’t have to because the pinup does most of the promoting for us. Surveys collected at the event show that in some years as many as 1 in 5 attendees said they heard about Halloween Town from the pinup.

This doesn’t mean that pinup programs are easy to sell and are always home runs. They’re not. But over the past five years, my team and I have learned from trial and error what works and what doesn’t. We’ve boiled down all of our experiences, expertise and insights into a program that we hope to share with you just as soon as Halloween Town is over.

We’ve been successful AND lucky: six figure cause marketing has been a reality for us every year since 2005. And we’re convinced it’s not something unique to our nonprofit. Any nonprofit can do it if they are motivated, educated and in tune to the assets around them.

You can learn more about Six Figure Cause Marketing here.

I’m not much of a foodie, but I love to listen to the three Andelman brothers of Phantom Gourmet banter on their weekly radio show here in Boston. My friend and colleague Joanna MacDonald is an even bigger fan and shares my wife’s love for their weekly food and dining show on TV38. The show is really a riot and, of course, they review some great places to eat in Greater Boston.

Another pot simmering on the Phantom Gourmet stove of success is their annual BBQ Beach Party. While we have our hands full with our own events during the year, we’re always looking for other venues we can tap to sell through to cause marketing partners and Phantom’s BBQ Beach Party is a great opportunity. 

• The Andelmans run a well established, successful event with a huge crowd.
• The BBQ Beach Party is large enough to sustain a month-long cause marketing campaign.
• Phantom Gourmet had several great promotional vehicles, including popular TV and radio shows and web site.

Dave Andelman, Founder of Phantom Gourmet, was very receptive when we met with him, and even accepted an invite from Sal Perisano, the President of iParty, to join him for a tour of the hospital. Dave liked the idea of helping a great cause–in this case the food pantry at BMC–while retail partners help him promote his BBQ event at the register with pinups that offer 50% off one ticket to the BBQ.

On our end, we took the exposure Phantom could offer partners on their radio and TV shows and web site and recruited these partners for the program, which will run May 23rd to June 27th.

iParty. iParty already does a late spring pinup program for us so we rolled their annual effort into the Phantom campaign so the party retailer would benefit from the extra promotion from the event and cross-promotion from other retailers.

Total stores involved: 50. Foot traffic: Good. Here’s an interesting factoid: after Halloween, graduation season is their second busiest time of year.

Ocean State Job Lots. Up to this year, Ocean State always did one pinup program for us in December, but being fans of both the hospital and Phantom Gourmet they agreed to a second pinup program!

Total stores involved: 89. Foot traffic: Good. Not as busy as December when they do their main pinup program for us, but with consumers looking for savings, a discount retailer like OSJL right now is a very popular destination.

The Upper Crust. A longtime partner of Phantom Gourmet, the Andelmans recruited them to sell the pinup.

Total locations involved: 15. Foot traffic: Fair. They do a lot of takeout and it’s unclear if takeout patrons will be asked to buy a mobile.

Tedeschi Food Shops. There’s a great story behind Tedeschi coming aboard as a sponsor! We’ve been working on them as a prospect for five years, and finally, thanks to the help of a board member, and a great offering from Phantom Gourmet, we’ll do our first cause marketing program with them this month.

Total stores involved: 188. Foot traffic: Good. Convenience stores are busy places so the quick turnaround at the register doesn’t give the register clerk a lot time to interact with customers. In short, pinups can be a harder sell. But all those locations!

That brings the total number of retail locations participating in our latest cause marketing program to 342!  If the key to cause marketing point-of-sale success really is lots of locations and foot traffic, this program should be a winner!