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| Discover marketing and business leadership insights from the following entrepreneurs, who founded or co-founded their companies: |
- Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry’s Homemade)
- Bobbi Brown, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
- David Neeleman, JetBlue
- David Oreck, Oreck Corporation
- Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farm
- Jeff Taylor, Monster.com
- Jerry Baldwin, Starbucks
- Jim Koch, Samuel Adams
- Kate and Andy Spade
- Roxanne Quimby, Burt's Bees
- Wally "Famous" Amos
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In 2007, Rosica also wrote a book about the strategic, dignified and profitable partnership that can be forged between for-profit and nonprofit organizations. In this instructional book, he reveals proven methods for developing and implementing cause-related marketing alliances. This book will be in print by March 1, 2008 but copies may be reserved in advance. |
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THE CASE FOR CAUSE MARKETING
(Excerpted from Chapter One of The Cause Marketing Handbook: How Doing Good Means Doing Well)
Cause marketing takes the “sales” out of the sales pitch; it de-commercializes the commercial message; and it appeals to people at an emotional level. However, to be effective, a cause marketing campaign must be strategic.
Not only can being charitably involved convince your customers to purchase a product or service by leveraging the public's desire for companies to engage in socially responsible behavior, but it can drastically alter corporate culture and bolster employee morale.
Consider, for instance, Microsoft. Beginning in the late ‘90s and continuing through the turn of the millennium, Microsoft faced an onslaught of public relations nightmares brought on by the anti-trust lawsuits that accused the company of unfair competition, predator pricing, and wielding monopoly power. In short, the software giant was attacked for creating a popular product at a lower price than its competition. It was brought before the Justice Department and forced to unbundle its browser (Explorer) from its operating system (Windows). The scandal resulted in millions of dollars in legal fees. Though this caused only a dent in the company’s immediate profit, it had potentially significant long-term consequences. The company's customer base began resenting the corporate giant - charging it with greed.
Microsoft's brand seemed irrevocably tarnished: it was at a tipping off point.
The company fought back by becoming a do-gooder. At the height of the lawsuits in 2000, CEO Bill Gates, along with his wife Melinda, created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (today the largest charitable foundation in the world) “to help reduce inequities in the United States and around the world.” In addition, despite legal fees in the millions of millions, Microsoft more than doubled its charitable giving from $104.7 million in software and cash in the previous fiscal year to nearly $232 million, making it one of the top charitable corporations in the country in 2000.
It was on its way to a rebirth in public perception.
Today Microsoft has accomplished an about-face. Bill Gates is no longer a greedy corporate giant, but rather recognized as one of the nation's top philanthropists. And, it is no coincidence that as this book goes to print, Microsoft's earnings are on the rise and the company recently added an additional 10,081 staff members to its forces, another indicator that doing good deeds has done good things for Microsoft.
For additional excerpts and to learn more about Chris Rosica’s book, The Cause Marketing Handbook: How Doing Good Means Doing Well, please visitwww.CauseMarketingBook.com.
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