The Cherry Creek Neiman Marcus in Denver was the sponsor of Fit for the Cure on Friday. September 12.  A little blurb in the paper announced that customers could receive a complimentary fitting in a Wacoal or DKNY bra and Wacoal would donate $2.00 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

I had no luck finding more information on the Wacoal or the Neiman Marcus site.  Neiman’s site under the Company Overview only stated, “Community and Philanthropic Information – Please call us at 214-741-6911 for community and philanthropic queries.”

In my opinion, the involved companies are missing an opportuntiy by not being more transparent and letting people know they are doing this program.

I got an “personalized” email today with the Starbucks Gold News.  At the bottom, they provided me a visual of the amount of money my dividend amounted to – which will be donated to the nonprofit I selected when I signed up.  So the dollar amount ($3.07) for last month is not large based on how much I spent at Starbucks.  However, that they track it… AND let me know…is a great way to keep me hooked in and feeling good about my cappuccino addiction!

What I would now like to see from Starbucks (and hopefully they will do this in the future – the program is only a month old) is how much has been raised TOTAL for the two nonprofits customers can choose to support by donating our dividends.

So, if you are doing a cause marketing promotion with your customers…what are you doing to update your customers periodically – both about the piece they have contributed to the cause you are supporting as well as how much you have raised overall… of which their piece is only a small part?  If you are not sharing that information, you could end up losing business down the road.

I was in Nordstrom in Circle Centre Mall in Indianapolis last week and noticed a flyer at the cash register for a promotion I want to share with you.  It’s the first time I have seen this approach to cause marketing.  In cause marketing, a company usually commits some percentage or dollar value to a cause when you purchase a specific item. 

So in this case, Not Your Daughter’s Jeans and Nordstrom have added a twist to cause marketing! The Nordstrom flyer states, “NYDJ will donate $1 to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for every customer who tries on a pair of Not Your daughter’s Jeans.  No purchase necessary!”

No purchase necessary??  All you have to do is try on the jeans for NYDJ to donate!  That’s a new one to me!  The promotion is running until Dec 31 so go try on some jeans!

The website gives additional information including the fact that NYDJ has committed to donating at least $500,000 to the Komen Foundation. 

I am in Indianapolis for the weekend between rounds of AmeriCorps interviews for the statewide evaluation I am conducting.  I was wandering through Circle Center, the downtown shopping mall, and happened into Finish Line to look at athletic shoes.  Right inside the door was a big open box that said Sole Destination.  Reading the fine print I learned that customers bringing in an old pair of athletic shoes to donate when they buy a new pair, get $5 off their purchase. The old shoes go to Soles4Souls, a nonprofit whose mission is: To impact as many lives as possible with the gift of shoes.

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My computer is not behaving well again today.  It hasn’t been the same since Best Buy replaced the motherboard.  I decided to do what I can do to see what is going on and went to Trend Micro to run their HouseCall program to detect virus and malware etc that might be on my computer.  “HouseCall™ is a FREE Web-based tool designed to scan your PC for a wide range of Internet security threats including viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware.” 

On the page for HouseCall, I noticed the following statement:”After scanning for viruses and spyware, why not spend an extra two minutes to express your appreciation for HouseCall by a charitable donation to Schools Online! ”
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On May 30th, 2008, Champion, a windows, siding, and patio room factory direct company had a full page color advertisement in the Denver Post announcing their special two day “Military Appreciation Sale.”  There were great photos of their products in the ad, a thanks to the troops statement and the yellow ribbon logo, as well as three additional things that caught my eye.  First was a big yellow multi-point star with the words “We’re Doubling Our Donation!”  all in caps using a bold font.  Beneath it read in blue ” Champion will donate $100 to the Colorado National Guard Foundation for every purchase made.” (Saturday and Sunday only.)  Doing a little online research, I learned that the Foundation “assists soldiers and airmen who are experiencing financial hardship and need assistance to pay their rent or utilities.”

Below the star was a large photo of two Guards in uniform – one male and the other female with the caption, “Come in this weekend & meet your local military personnel & say Thank You in person.”  Last was a photo of company executives making their 2007 presentation of a large check for $19,300 to the Colorado National Guard Foundation.  More than one-third of the full page ad was dedicated to highlighting the philanthropic focus assicated with this weekend sale.  Nicely done, Champion.  I hope you got a good draw from this ad! 

When I went to their website, however, I was disappointed because Champion has missed a few great opportunities to feature their philanthropic efforts and stand out from other window and siding companies, enhancing their credibility and reputation.  They do not have a page highlighting their community involvement on the website that I could find.  When I went to their press release page, there were no releases posted for 2008 at all.  There was a release for the 2007 Colorado National Guard promotion. 

I STRONGLY encourage you to consider adding a page to your company’s website to highlight what you do in the community- customers care!  It can be the factor that tips someone into making their purchase from your company so don;t make the same mistake as Champion.  Also, have a system in place and someone assigned to write and release press releases.  If you are not comfortable releasing it yourself, have your nonprofit partner do that to benefit both you and them.  You may need to provide assistance in developing a quality release depending on the nonprofit you are partnering with but it can have more weight in the eyes of the community coming from them, not you. 

Last week I noticed a chalkboard sign in the Starbucks at REI in Denver announcing that on Earth Day April 22nd, Starbucks was going to donate five cents for each gift card sold that day to Conservation International to support its environmental programming.  I made sure to buy my next card that day.

The Conservation International home page lists their partnership with Starbucks to plant trees in the coffee growing region of Chiapas, Mexico.  After clicking on “Learn More”, I found out the following.  “To ensure that the principles of Earth Day last all year long – Starbucks and CI  are joining together with your help to plant trees in the coffee-growing communities of Chiapas, Mexico. This effort will contribute to the protection and restoration of forests, preserve rich biodiversity, and address the critical issue of climate change.”

The website also allowed visitors to: “DONATE NOW: You can support this program with a donation right now. $10 means 10 trees for the Chiapas community.”

The webpage also provided educational information, “Did you know that more than 20% of all carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning and clearing of forests? That’s more than from all of the world’s cars, trucks, SUVs, and trains combined. Starbucks investment in and support for local coffee growers and the communities that help keep forests intact will help ensure that every cup of coffee they brew produces tangible benefits for both local and global communities.”

Joe Water provided a link on his blog, Selfish Giving, to a Jeff Trexler post on www.uncivilsociety.org, titled, “Charitable causes trivialized” at the Super Bowl”.  In Trexler’s post, he talks about Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield’s video critiquing the Super Bowl ads and “cause marketing gone wrong”.  Trexler says, “Garfield’s take on the Dell Red ad is well worth noting: it turns AIDS into a “chick magnet.” And be sure to watch long enough (around 4:30) for an essential critique of McDonald’s senseless conflation of its “I’m Lovin’ It” slogan with cancer. Garfield’s core point: our “ROI culture” seems to have erased an earlier generation’s understanding of the rhetoric of corporate charity and branding.”

I downloaded the podcast and watched the video myself.  Take a look, if you have not already seen it.  The text below the video states, “”Is it right to turn cause marketing for AIDS or cancer cures into such a hard sell for the Dell or McDonald’s products?”  Good food for thought.  

I believe businesses need to let consumers know how they are supporting important causes.  According to a 2006 poll on Millenials by Cone Inc., a marketing agency in Boston, 89 percent of Americans between 13 and 25 would switch from one brand to another associated with a “good cause,” if products and prices were comparable. Their 2006 Holiday Shopping Survey found “More than six-out-of-ten shoppers said that they are likely to consider a company’s reputation for supporting causes when purchasing gifts this holiday season.”

One way to harness the power of business to support causes is through cause marketing (though there are also many other options for support of nonprofits for companies to choose from.) Cause marketing is defined as “a commercial activity resulting from a partnership between a company and a nonprofit organization to market an image, product or service for mutual benefit”, according to Business for Social Responsibility’s publication from the late 1990s on Cause Related Marketing.  In a typical cause marketing relationship, a company donates “a portion of each purchase made by customers during a specific period of time to an organization representing a cause or issue.”  Some cause marketing campaigns do not “channel money to nonprofits; some engage principally in educational or awareness-building activities.”

So you can choose not to like cause marketing as an approach but you need to realize that such efforts usually have been found to be very mutually beneficial for the business and the nonprofit.  When a nonprofit signs on with a business for a cause marketing campaign, they know full well their name and reputation will be used to increase sales for the business as a way also to generate dollars for themselves.  It’s win/win.

I don’t think either the Dell or McDonalds commercials trivialize the causes these campaigns were designed to support.  And remember these were ads during super prime time not public service announcements run at 2:00 am.  Dell does not try to directly tug at your heart strings to make a donation to AIDS, they are selling computers, raising awareness of (RED) and in the end people in Africa do benefit.  McDonalds is going directly for the heart strings connection through its ad.  Fine way to go and…why shouldn’t viewers know what the company is doing to support cancer victims, such as the one featured in the ad?  Most folks think they only support sick kids.

Seems like lot of hullabaloo going on to me…maybe some tweaks to the “earlier generation’s understanding of the rhetoric of corporate charity and branding” would make it more effective in 2008 as a way to generate resources to take on the world’s problems.

In the Colorado Business section of the Denver Post just before Christmas, there was a little paragraph announcing Chugwater Chili of Chugwater, WY had established a partnership with Urban Peak, an organization that provides ongoing services to homeless and runaway youth in Denver and Colorado Springs.  Chugwater Chili has committed to contribute 40 percent of the purchase of price of all product sales made through the Urban Peak website.

First I went to the Chugwater Chili website to find out more.  I did not see anything on their standard pages about the Urban Peak partnership or their community involvement in general.  I was disappointed.  Refusing to give up, I next typed “Urban Peak” into their search box and THEN up came a behind the scenes webpage with both organizations’ logos.  On this page, the promotion was prominently displayed – not once but THREE times and with red and blue colored key words- “Remember: 40% of your retail purchase (not including tax and shipping) from this website will go to the Urban Peak center you designate. For accurate credit, please check which center you wish to support; Colorado Springs or Denver.”  All good but I do still think it is a missed opportunity to not have a section on Chugwater’s regular web pages detailing how they support community organizations.

When I went to the Urban Peak site, the Chugwater logo and a link to the site was prominently posted on their home page which is GREAT.  Lets anyone going to the nonprofit’s site know how they can support the organization through this cause marketing promotion with Chugwater and is great exposure for the company.  It has been so cold here in Denver this winter, I am thinking chili sounds like a great meal.  I now know where to get some and do good!

I have been having trouble with my computer since I loaded Microsoft Office 2007.  Instead of doing the smart thing and taking my computer to some tech guy to run a diagnostic, I have been trying to figure it out myself.  Never a good move…  Anyway, I have spent a bunch of time on the Microsoft website lately.  While clicking around in the site, I found a link to Microsoft’s ”i’m Initiative” from Windows Live Messenger. (http://im.live.com/messenger/IM/Home/?source=banner_WLM_MSCOM_typing_DL)  There I learned more and liked what I saw. 

Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of their advertising revenue with the social cause organization you preselect from their list of ten when you sign up to use their free service.  So how does it work?  “It’s simple.  It’s free.  You IM, we give.”  Microsoft provides instructions for how to get started.  First you download the Windows Live Messenger (8.1 or higher) instant messenger service at no charge.  If you already have it, there is a link that gives you information about how to proceed.  Then you place a text code corresponding to the cause of your choice into your Display Name.  They make it easy by providing the list of the ten organizations and the codes you need to use as well as graphics that make it very clear how to do it.  (http://www.im.live.com/Messenger.IM/runonce/default2.aspx?source=homepage) As per their example, if you wanted your Display Name to be “Tude Palma” and the contribution every time you IM to be made to UNICEF, you would set up your Display Name as “Tude Palmer *unicef.  Pretty easy, eh?

The ten nonprofits Microsoft supports through this initiative are:

·         American Red Cross

·         Boys & Girls Clubs of America

·         Humane Society of the United States

·         National AIDS Fund

·         National MS Society

·         ninemillion.org

·         Sierra Club

·         StopGlobalWarming.org

·         Susan G. Komen for the Cure

·         U.S. Fund for UNICEF

I think this is a creative example of cause marketing (for a free service) to build reputation and customer loyalty through Microsoft’s partnering with its customer base to give back.  They encourage you to use their service and then use some of their advertising budget (NOT their charitable donations line item!) to give back.  An interesting spin on advertising, eh?   If you are going to IM anyway either for personal or business reasons, using Microsoft’s free Windows Live Messenger, why wouldn’t you also set up your account to do good at the same time?  I have not done much instant messaging yet but I am definitely going to sign myself up with UNICEF as the beneficiary and have my network of consultants do the same.

My only suggestion for an upgrade here would be to make sure this is more widely known.  And somewhere on the pages about the Initiative to not only list the codes with the names of the 10 nonprofits selected by Microsoft, but also to give a one sentence description of what each organization does.  I personally am familiar with all of them except ninemillion.org but is everyone that might want to IM for free and give back?  Probably not.  At least the names of the nonprofits could be links to take you easily to their websites.