Good Works! is a Great Book for Companies & Causes

There's a great new book out for cause and corporate marketers: Good Works! Marketing and Corporate Initiatives that Build a Better World...and the Bottom Line. It's authored by Philip Kotler, David Hessekiel and Nancy Lee. I don't know Philip and Nancy, but I know a lot about David. David has been a friend and mentor of mine for many years. But if you work in the field or follow my blog you know him as the president of Cause Marketing Forum, the #1 destination for business and nonprofit leaders that want to help others and boost the bottom line.

This is an exciting new book for marketers as we finally have a place where David has shared his experiences, insights and advice on cause marketing and corporate partnerships. This book takes you from start to finish on why doing well by doing good is no longer optional, through developing a program and measuring the results.

Some of the chapters I really enjoyed included:

Chapter 4: Cause-Related Marketing: Making Contributions to Causes Based on Product Sales and Consumer Actions

This chapter has a clear explanation of the transactional programs I write about on my blog and nine great examples of model programs. The authors also include a useful section at the end on When Should Cause-Related Marketing be Considered.

Chapters 9 - 14: Offense and Defense

These five chapters take you from choosing a social problem to tackle to developing a program to evaluating your success and dealing with critics and cynics. The latter is particularly helpful as consumers are more closely scrutinizing cause marketing programs. These chapters are a great addition to the conversation around cause as companies are looking for more step by step advice to get started and to stay on course with good works.

Chapter 15: A Marketing Approach to Winning Corporate Funding and Support for Social Initiatives: Ten Recommendations

I love this chapter, which is prefaced with the heading For Nonprofits and Public Sector Agencies Only. It also has a wonderful quote from one of my idols, Share Our Strength's Billy Shore, that every cause marketer should memorize. The authors' ten recommendations are really commandments that nonprofits shouldn't break (I've added the Old Testament language).

Thou shall develop a list of social issues that your organization or agency is currently charged with supporting

Hallelujah! The process starts within, not without!

Thou shall listen to their business needs.

Thank you, Philip, David and Nancy. No, nonprofits, it's not all about you. Zip it.

Thou shall handle as much of the administrative legwork as possible.

Yes! Don't give partners an excuse to say no.

David and his co-authors have written a book that is interesting, comprehensive and most of all, useful. This book is wonderful read on its own. But do yourself a favor and read it with my other favorite cause marketing book, Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding by Jocelyne Daw, Carol Cone, Kristian Darigan Merenda and Ann Erhard.

Together, the two books combine principles with purpose to give companies and causes the tools they need to build a better world.