Cause Marketing: Build Your Image and Bottom Line through Socially Responsible Partnerships, Programs, and Events

Citation

Polegato, R. (2005), "Cause Marketing: Build Your Image and Bottom Line through Socially Responsible Partnerships, Programs, and Events", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 236-237. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760510605371

If your company is committed to “doing well by doing good”, this is the action‐oriented book you need to turn the mantra into successful cause marketing! If you are a sceptic or a cynic or just do not know how to get started, you will find solid evidence in this book that “there are enough challenges and people needing help that any entity with even a modicum of social consciousness can find a place to focus its efforts” (p. 204). Essentially, the book is a comprehensive, but short, how‐to book directed at managers who are interested in a true partnership approach to cause marketing, rather than a piecemeal approach. It was written by an experienced marketing communications professional and author with a preface (do not skip this one!) by the CEO of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). (BSR is a global nonprofit organization that helps member companies achieve commercial success in ways that respect ethical values, people, communities, and the environment.)

“Cause marketing is the action through which a company, a nonprofit organization, or a similar entity markets an image, a product, a service, or a message for mutual benefit” (p. 3). This book takes a concrete look at the scope of cause marketing (Chapters 1), how to pick the right cause (Chapter 2), how to go about putting a cause marketing program in place, including how to assess the role of the Internet (Chapter 3), how to deal with crises related to your cause (Chapter 4), lessons to be learned from how organizations responded to 9‐11 (Chapter 5), and case studies of cause marketing partnerships (Chapter 6). The closing chapter (Chapter 7) summarizes the main considerations of the book as a kind of crash course in cause marketing. The presentation of ideas is clear, and there are interesting and well‐placed examples and visuals throughout the book. However, one must be forewarned that even though the book is easy to read and the ideas are accessible, it is not as quick a read as one might expect. The text is dense with ideas and one needs to take breaks to digest each chapter. Lists, summaries at the end of each chapter, the bibliography and the index are excellent and very helpful to those who want to use the book as a reference.

The reader is immediately impressed by the discussion in Chapter 1 on how cause marketing is related to ten main topics important to business (corporate social responsibility through to governance and accountability to mission, vision, and values). The section on the use of the internet in Chapter 3 is a succinct evaluation of this medium in any marketing program. However, some aspects of the discussion of crisis marketing are overdone in Chapter 4. Chapter 6 is in many ways the most interesting and useful chapter to practitioners because it provides 70 pages of documentation of real life cause marketing partnerships. The examples cover a wide variety of circumstances: large and small organizations; global and local causes; long‐term and limited‐term partnerships; and partnerships that worked and did not work. What is particularly helpful, aside from the astute analysis of the author, is the attention paid to the goals of the respective partners, as well as to their shared goals. The reader gets a true flavor for how these goals can be articulated and put into action. Further, the reader also comes to understand that there is no typical cause marketing program. There are many routes to creating a positive impact on reputation, brand image, market share and profitability through cause marketing.

An explicit theme that runs through the book is that organizations can “do well by doing good”; in fact, this reminder appears in some way in every chapter. But there are also various implicit themes including the following: Successful cause marketing programs do not just happen; they need to be planned. Cause partnerships need to be chosen carefully because stakeholders will not be duped into thinking an organization is something that it is not. Partners need to identify their separate and shared goals for the partnership to be successful. It is important to believe in your cause. Cause marketing requires the same attention to planning, execution, and evaluation as any other marketing plan.

This book will be helpful to marketers in a wide range of for‐profit and nonprofit organizations which seek to form or improve existing partnerships in cause marketing. It would also be very useful to those teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on cause marketing that are case‐ or project‐based. In the final analysis, this book provides a comprehensive framework for best practices. However, rather than being overly prescriptive, it provides ample room for organizations to design and implement their own creative and successful cause marketing partnerships. So, before you go to the next meeting about your organization's “run for the cure”, let this book help you think before you leap into cause marketing!