It is not just your
product, good service or compelling advertisements that attract customers
towards your brand. Social responsibility and commitment play a vital role in building
a good image of the brand and thereby attracts business. CSR or corporate
social responsibility is an approach that contributes economic, social and
environmental benefits to the business and all stakeholders by delivering
sustainable development.
In this new era of CSR, what you don’t do can
cost you. “Cause marketing” is now a prominent marketing technique and
customers who follow your brand, visit your website and see your advertising
want to know if you are socially responsible and to know if you share their
desire to make the world a better place by supporting an important cause.
If your business or brand does not stand for
or support a social cause, consumers may turn to your competitors with better
social responsibility. According to a recent survey the number of consumers who
say they would switch from one brand to another if the other brand were
associated with a good cause has climbed to 87 percent.
There is a strong
connection between entrepreneurship and giving. The challenge is to make your
corporate social responsibility efforts equally beneficial and profitable to nonprofit
group you support, the community and your business. You can master this marketing
challenge by following these five important steps:
Give
from the heart.
Cause marketing works
best when you give it from your heart and not out of compulsion. You and your
employees should feel great about the help you are providing to a nonprofit group.
So work with an organization you and your team believes in; the one which you really
feels like helping. What matters most to you, your team and your customers? You
will work hard to make a difference when you give from the heart.
Choose
a related cause.
Always choose a cause
which is related to the nature of your business. A solid cause- marketing
campaign should start with the right affiliation. For example a toothpaste brand,
giving free dental checkups to the unprivileged.
Contribute
more than just money.
Cause marketing
generally involves donating products or services and not simply writing a
check. This can help form even stronger consumer associations between what you
offer and the good work you do.
Formalize
your affiliation.
To make your affiliation
beneficial for everyone involved; the nonprofit you choose to work with should
increase visibility of your business, brand recognition and company awareness.
If the organization has a newsletter or other communications with its constituents,
negotiate for opportunities to do joint promotions. Develop a strategy to get your
organization’s logo and name mentioned in your marketing campaigns wherever possible
increase the reach and impact.
Mount
a marketing campaign.
Like any other
marketing campaign success in cause marketing often means motivating an
audience to take action. Using a well-designed and strategized cause marketing campaign,
you can reach and persuade the target group while also raising awareness for your
business and its commitment to social responsibility.
