CitizenPolity had a great post this week that got me thinking (again) about how cause marketing relates to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Most agree that cause marketing can be part of a CSR program, but that they’re not one in the same.
Cause Marketing is a Stepping Stone
You won’t all agree with me on this, but my personal theory is that cause marketing has the potential to and should be a stepping stone into long-term sustainable business practices that change capitalism as we know it (think: how do we benefit ALL of our stakeholders, not just our shareholders?). In theory, CSR should be an individual company’s embodiment of these sustainable business practices. Looking forward 20 years, there won’t be CSR “programs” or “initiatives” because these practices will be fully integrated into every level of an organization.
The Importance of Experimentation
So what does cause marketing have to do with all of this? Back to the stepping stone. So often we hear about the importance of experimentation. Chris Brogan tells us that his company is called New Marketing Labs, for a reason. Experimentation is important to test suppositions on a small scale, gain feedback and then revamp and revise or go back to the drawing board entirely.
Here’s my theory: cause marketing can serve as a great laboratory for a company’s CSR efforts because they tend to be short-term, measurable and engage the right stakeholders. Let’s look at each of these more closely.
Short Term
Most cause marketing campaigns are short-term, running for a finite period of time. Because they’re short-term efforts, the risks are lower for experimenting with new concepts, new causes and new ways to engage employees, consumers and other stakeholders. Want to test consumer response to a cause you think would be a good fit for your brand? Create a cause marketing campaign. Want to know how important “green” issues are to your stakeholders? Develop a cause marketing campaign to test levels of engagement.
Measurable
Because cause marketing campaigns do tend to be short-term, you can typically count on response data within a relatively short period of time, especially in the age of social media. And because cause marketing campaigns are typically based on consumer and/or employee engagement, they provide solid data. If you’re testing the importance of a “green” issue to your stakeholders with a cause marketing campaign and the hits on your campaign site exceed those on your normal website by tenfold, you may be on to something.
The Right Audience
Gaining a foothold in CSR means getting feedback and meeting the needs of stakeholders like community members, employees and customers. Done well, a cause marketing campaign will engage all or most of these same stakeholders. HALO-award-winning Macy’s does this in spades throughout their various cause marketing campaigns.
The Bummer
Here’s the bummer, though. All too often cause marketing is kept separate from CSR efforts, each remaining in its own silo. An exception to this unfortunate rule is American Express, who has combined their American Express Foundation with their CSR office. All cause marketing programs now run through this consolidated unit. Brilliant.
What’s your take on using cause marketing as a laboratory for lasting and sustainable business practices? What other examples have you seen of cause marketing acting as a springboard for innovation or improvement?
Image credit to kharied.
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Hi Megan,
Great post, first of all. I’m inclined to agree with you – for companies that have not been involved in cause / CSR / sustainability, cause-marketing is a good first start. Some companies view their responsibilities to society & the environment as being limited to charitable donations. Cause marketing is a good first step out of this barn door as cause is a much easier method of linking social impact with business development.
However, if a skeptical company implements a good cause program, it’s still going to be a giant step forward to develop a long-term, CSR/sustainability approach to business. From my experience, sustainability is only successful when the executives and board agree that CSR is an integral part of the company’s values and business strategy. In this respect, a cause program does not a CSR program make.
Great discussion! (and thanks for linking to Henry’s article!)
I agree – cause marketing does not a CSR program make.
Thanks so much for the clarification – I wasn’t actually thinking about companies that have no CSR program in place at all, but that’s an interesting concept to ponder.
So what about a company that already has a CSR program in place? Do you see the utility in using cause marketing to refine and improve existing programs?
Thanks for the comment!
Hmmmm… interesting thought…
Possibly, I guess. Cause programs aren’t something that should be done on the spur of the moment (not saying you’re suggesting that), they take careful planning, require effective stakeholder management processes, and in some/most cases have significant legal implications.
Respectfully, I disagree with the idea that cause initiatives can be used as stakeholder feedback tools themselves. Cause programs are not an effective method to gain feedback on a direction of the company. A more effective way to gauge the interest of your customers in green issues is simply to ask them.
Rather, cause programs should be the outgrowth (a supporting role) of the new CSR direction a company is taking, not necessarily the leading initiative. A company should have received feedback on its CSR direction prior implementing any major initiative, including a new cause program.
Also, I see the idea of enveloping a cause department into a CSR department as unnecessary. Although it’s related, cause belongs in marketing because it is a marketing program at its core, not a CSR tool. A corporate foundation, however, can be in a CSR department because that is more of a philanthropic effort than a cause effort.
As a final note, Henry is going to post on CitizenPolity over the next several days our take on the definitions of CSR & sustainability. Would love to hear your thoughts!
So appreciate the discussion, James.
So here’s my perspective. In an ideal world, we’d have companies like Levi’s doing exactly what you outline…where cause programs are the outgrowth of the new CSR direction a company is taking. However, not all companies do such a great job integrating CSR into their entire organization and cause marketing (done well) can be a place for great information gathering and trust-building, baby steps, if you will.
I wish we could get away from all the organizational silos and have more thorough communication between departments like marketing and CSR. *Sigh*… all in an ideal world, I guess.
So appreciate your perspectives!
What a great POV. It didn’t really occur to me the difference in lifespans between CSR and Cause Marketing. I agree it’s a good opportunity to take a little more risk, although, Cause Marketing has Marketing objectives while CSR has Public Relations objectives. You would need to tweak accordingly.
Thanks, Gabe. I think I’d probably disagree that the CSR is PR, per se. Thoughts?
Megan,
Good discussion. I would agree with you that cause marketing (or other outwardly facing cause-related programs) are a good testing ground for a company. The one caveat I’d mention is that if a company is too frequent and disparate with the ideas they put forward, they will be seen as just marketing, rather than an issue the company truly cares about.
I think your points about finding the audience, having a finite time period and measuring results as a way to test, practice and improve–are spot on.
Look forward to other’s thoughts as well.
Great point, Olivia, thanks! And to the point James makes, I’m definitely not suggesting companies just throw together cause marketing programs or that it’s easy to do so. It’s not.
I guess I see cause marketing as more of a testing grounds for refinement, rather than throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks – thanks for pointing that out!
At the risk of making my own work sound a little trivial, cause marketing is a paper plane compared to the rocket ship that is CSR. That doesn’t mean CM can’t or doesn’t have a role, it does (after all, most good ideas start on paper), but CSR represents a serious business strategy with lots of moving parts and lots of ambitions.
While cause marketing won’t take you to the moon, it will encourage you to dream what’s possible. And that perhaps is its greatest benefit.
And that’s one thing I love about Joe Waters – his ability to sum up a profound point in a few poignant words. You certainly are an expert at dreaming up creative new ways to engage companies around a cause and continually push the envelope of what cause marketing can achieve. Appreciate your insight, Joe!
Great post Megan! It’s my belief the companies that will be most successful going forward are the ones that will “Be The Cause”. No longer is it good enough to simply contribute to a cause. I think of companies like TOMS Shoes or Zappos. Cause marketing is a solid stepping stone, but soon won’t be enough. Conscious Capitalism will require integration. Excited to learn of your blog today!
Thanks for dropping by, Greg, and for your comment! I tend to agree with your “Be the Cause” philosophy and have dubbed them “Cause Crusaders” – (see previous post). However, while I agree that this is the ideal, I also know that it will take time to move most companies in this direction and I think cause marketing is the way to make that happen, one successful partnership at a time.
And, amen to your “integration” perspective. Down with silos!