Brands that get it right by “doing it for charity”

If ever there was such a thing as a win-win situation surely it is the advent of cause-related marketing; the notion of buying a product or service whilst making a donation to a charity at the same time. It is something that 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, which revealed that 81% would be more likely to buy a product that was linked with a cause and 85% said that they would also have a more positive image of a company that was linked with a cause. Two thirds said they thought more companies should be linked with a cause, whilst eight out of ten consumers said that if price and quality were equal, supporting a cause made a difference to them.
The upshot of this is that consumers seem to be looking for more from the brands with which they engage. The latest to do this is Fairshare Music (www.fairsharemusic.com) which enables you to download the music of your choice and half of the profits from the download will be given to your choice of one of 18 charity partners, which stretch broadly across a wide range of organizations and causes. They are not alone. DKNY, which gets the vanilla for its fragrances from Uganda, supports the work of CARE with vanilla bean farmers in the country (www.dknyfragrances.co.uk/pure/charity.php) whilst 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 FT 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.
In terms of the way brands and consumers act from a cause-related marketing standpoint in an economic downturn, this distinction can be critical. 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 rather hide behind the sofa than be pressured into donating 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 whilst 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.

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