6-Figure Cause Marketing Grad Uses Pinups, QR Codes to Help Homeless

Tag Archive: qr code

6-Figure Cause Marketing Grad Uses Pinups, QR Codes to Help Homeless

Written on November 29, 2011 in Capplause, Cause Marketing 101

I love when students put their education to good use.

Maggie Keenan, a branding and cause marketing consultant in Savannah, Georgia, is a graduate of my Six Figure Cause Marketing course, which shows nonprofits and businesses how to develop and execute an effective and lucrative cause marketing program.

Maggie gets an A+ for her latest effort: a regional cause marketing program to support the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless, Inc. Hodges Management Company, which owns the local KFCs, KFC/TacoBells and DQ Grill & Chills, approached the Housing Authority about doing something to help the homeless this holiday season.

Thanks to Maggie, they came up with a great campaign: Dishing Out Meals: Fighting to End Hunger & Homelessness in Our Community.

You can read all about Maggie’s outstanding cause marketing program on her blog. But let me take a moment to mention some of the things I really love about it.

It embraces the easiest and most lucrative type of cause marketing: point of sale. The pin-up below sold for a buck. While there are other types of cause marketing Maggie could have recommended to the partners, point of the sale is truly the best, especially for local programs like this one. I’ve raised as much as $300,000 in just a few weeks with pinups.

It taps every asset the business had for giving. Realizing that the pinup wasn’t the best option for drive thru customers, Maggie created a value card with a QR code that takes customers directly to the Homeless Authority website for more information or to make a donation. Great thinking, Maggie! [One suggestion: The mobile donation page isn't optimized for smartphones. Check out what my friend Bob Jones at Give.mobi can do to make this a better experience and raise you more money!]

It battled indifference and apathy from the outset. Have you ever been asked to buy a pinup but the total lack of interest from the cashier convinced you that he or she didn’t really care if you did? Hodges Management Company did their best to ensure that apathy and indifference wouldn’t be part of this program. All general managers spent a Saturday learning and volunteering for the cause, an experience they’ll share with their employees.

I’m proud of everyone involved in this program, and I’m eager to see the results when it’s done. Most of all, I’m really proud of Maggie Keenan. She’s a great student, asked lots of good questions and kept in touch with me to make sure she didn’t make any of the many, many mistakes I made in my first programs.

Congratulations, Maggie! I’m sure this won’t be that last post I’ll write on one of your successful cause marketing campaigns!

Maggie learned about creating and executing point of sale cause marketing programs in my Six Figure Cause Marketing program. You can too! Buy the recorded version of 6FCM for just $99!

Tags: cause marketing, kentucky fried chicken, kfc, maggie keenan, pinups, qr code

Whole Foods Adopts QR Codes for Cause Marketing

Written on August 31, 2011 in Cause Marketing In Action

3 Comments

I came across this appeal at my local Whole Foods Market. These types of cause marketing promotions are common at Whole Foods. I call them passive cause marketing because they don’t involve an ask from the cashier, unlike active cause marketing.

The signage is strategically placed right where you swipe your credit card.

This is the first time I’ve seen a QR code at the register at Whole Foods. As I’ve explained before, QR codes are a good idea. They allow consumers to better connect with the causes they support at the register.

Unfortunately, this QR code is not in a great spot. You see it but you don’t have time to act on it! I didn’t have time to get my smartphone out and scan the QR code. A better idea would be to include it on the shopper’s receipt as well.

Nevertheless, it’s good see QR codes expanding their reach. Do you have other examples to share with me?

More Information: Page: 11 – 12, 120 -122, 287 – 288, Cause Marketing for Dummies

FYI: My wife got the grandinroad/Frontgate catalog and they had a QR code on the back that linked readers to something different, relevant and interesting. Scan it and see for yourself!

Tags: cause marketing, frontgate, passive cause marketing, qr code, whole foods

Nonprofit Uses QR Code, Quora to Make Cause Marketing More Transparent

Written on May 5, 2011 in Cause Marketing & Social Media

6 Comments

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!