Brands that get it right by ‘doing it for charity’

If ever there was a win-win situation surely it is the advent of cause-related marketing; buying a product or service while making a donation to a charity at the same time. It has not only become a staple of the set-piece charity events of the year – Sport Relief, Comic Relief and Children In Need – but is increasingly finding its way into the mainstream marketing activity of many brands.

And it should come as no surprise why. The Pink Ribbon Foundation quotes a study of 2,000 people revealing that 81% would be more likely to buy a product that was linked to a cause while 85% said that they would have a more positive view of the company that made the product. Two-thirds said they thought more companies should be linked with a cause, while 80% said that if price and quality were equal, supporting a cause would make a difference to their purchase decision. 

The upshot is that consumers seem to be looking for more from the brands they buy. The latest to do this isFairshare Musicwhich allows you to download the music of your choice with half of the profits from the download going to a choice one of 18 charity partners. DKNY, which gets the vanilla for its fragrances from Uganda, supports the work of CARE with vanilla bean farmers in the country, while running equipment retailer Sweatshop is throwing its weight behind the Microloan Foundation, to provide training and loans to women in Africa to help lift them out of poverty.

In an article in the Financial Times some time ago Tim Harford explained that there were broadly two types of giver: those who donate out of pure altruism and those who give to get the “warm glow” from having donated to charity. Harford explained that these weren’t necessarily two sides of the same coin. Warm-glow givers, he wrote, don’t think too much about whether the money they give is going to be effective whereas the altruist needs to know their donation is going to be effective. “While the altruist would want the evidence, the warm-glow giver just wants to feel the connection”, he said. The third motivation, Harford identified, was social pressure: the act of giving because we think that’s what others expect of us.

This distinction can be critical in terms of the way brands and consumers act from a cause-related marketing standpoint in an economic downturn. There is an increase in people donating their time rather than their money as a way of making a contribution, though altruists and warm-glow givers alike may be more tempted by the brand charity link. Altruists might give more in a recession because they can see the poor getting poorer and will see that more could be achieved with their donation. Those who seek the rosy glow, however – but are themselves under pressure – may well metaphorically hide behind the sofa rather than donate beyond their means. And that’s why the link between brands and causes can be so effective, because the choice is entirely in the hands of the consumer without pressure from external sources

In balancing the need to create value for consumers while at the same time offering an outlet for our ethical and charitable needs at a time when money is tight, some brands may just have created a win-win giving model for the recession.