How Cause Related Marketing can help your business

Cause related marketing is about linking your company to a relevant charity or cause for mutual benefit. It can enhance corporate reputation, raise brand awareness, increase customer loyalty, build sales, create press coverage and more.

But cause-related marketing is not simply about making a donation to a charity, it means actually getting involved with a charity or cause where there is common ground, and creating a strategic alliance with that organization. An example of a bad campaign would be a cigarette company promoting its commitment to wellness programs. When the goals of the two organizations are not aligned, and in this case completely opposite, it can create a negative effect rather than a positive effect.

Conversely, a good example of cause related marketing would be Optus' sponsorship of the Kids Help Line, a free, professional counselling service for young Australians provided via phone and internet. There is a synergistic relationship where Optus supply not only financial, management and marketing support, but the very infrastructure of the charity requiring heavily on telecommunications makes use of Optus products and services which are also donated.

The benefits to your business

You don't have to be as big as Optus to undertake a cause-related marketing campaign however, even a small business can benefit from this type of initiative. Cause related marketing works at any level because customers want to buy from people they like and trust. If your business is supporting a cause that resonates with your customers, it helps them like you and trust you. Customers feel good buying from a company when they know that company is supporting a cause they believe in. You create a bond with the customer through shared values, and that customer is more likely to continue buying your products, using your services and referring their friends.

In addition to influencing customers, cause related marketing also has a positive effect on employees, and in fact works best with participation and support from all staff, rather than it simply being an initiative of the marketing department. Psychologists tell us that helping other people makes us feel good about ourselves. By shifting the focus of employee thinking from themselves to others, from how much profit the company is making, to what the company is doing to help others, employee's feel good about themselves and the company. It increases productivity and loyalty to the company, and employee's trust in the organization.

And what newspaper or media outlet doesn't love a "feel good" story about how a small business is helping others? Cause related marketing creates newsworthy stories, giving you the opportunity to have your business covered by the media in a positive light, and even though the coverage is not directly related to your product or services, it increases the credibility of your company and keeps your name in front of customers.