Category — product endorsements

My daughter is almost ten years old. Recently she had been ruthlessly pursuing the question of Santa Claus. “Mom, admit it! You’re Santa,” she said over and over again. So, I admitted it. She was shocked and dismayed despite the fact that she already knew the answer.

She came back to me a few days later and wanted to know if it was okay with me if she pretended that she didn’t know. She wants to still have a Santa in her Christmas.

I think that many of us feel the same way. We want Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. We want the mythology that makes our lives rich and magical. We especially want the bigger-than-life characters and the textures of our youth. Companies that perpetuate these myths can be among the most powerful icons in society.

Think about the myths in your corporate culture, whether nonprofit or for profit. The Salvation Army kettle, the Red Cross, the conductor of your orchestra… these are powerful symbols that have great value. If weilded with integrity and purpose, they can rally even the most reluctant partners to BELIEVE.

Imagine you are suddenly a celebrity – well known and influential. To what end would you use your new-found notoriety?

Many use celebrity to line their own pockets through celebrity product endorsements. Sometimes, these are very successful but there is always the risk of overexposure (like Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods) and a perceived lack of sincerely. The right check can certainly give one an affection for just that shade of lip color or than medical miracle.

There are some celebrities who take a different route. They use their power and influence in the marketplace to support a cause. For some, this may be a fleeting gesture devised by a savvy public relations firm. These are rarely impactful and may actually detract from long term goals.

However, there are those few who offer us a great model to follow when we become rich and famous. Take Michael J. Fox as an example: he has an intensely person relationship with Parkinson’s Disease and has used his celebrity to raise awareness and funds for a cure. He has a foundation, a facebook cause, billboards and much more. Another of my favorites is Dolly Parton, a cultural icon and brilliant business woman. She created Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library which now partners with 47 states plus Canada and the UK to provide books to children from birth to age 5. Her passion is genuine and her impact is enduring.

Obviously, there are opportunities and pitfalls to working with celebrities but it is a great way to boost your cause and its place in the increasing clutter of the nonprofit world. Just pick your partners wisely. Meanwhile, I’ll check my mailbox for that instant millionaire check I’ve been expecting…

I was talking with a group at a conference recently about the value of a strong visual impression, a good brand. I have often talked in this blog about the value of branding and co-branding with strong partners. This is a tremendous asset for nonprofits and corporations alike. Many nonprofits undervalue their brand when negotiating partnerships – this is seldom a lack of confidence found among for profit companies.

To my amazement, the group at this NPO conference had not considered their brand or their partners’ brands as an issue of consideration. They rarely use the logos and images available to them. Sometimes, using odd and disconnected images in place of the logo… which seems to be a lot of work to take the long way around one’s backside to get to your own elbow.

When asked about the right time and place for using the brand, I told them “everywhere, every time.” There was a bit of laughter and a few nods of agreement so I said again: “really, you need to you it everywhere, every time.” Without consistency, a brand has little value.

So, the next time someone asks you about repeating and reinforcing your company or NPO message, just remember: EVERYWHERE, EVERY TIME.” Easy to remember and worth its weight in gold.

Well, I suppose I should not be surprised that the topic to get me back on the blogging bandwagon would be the upcoming Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Already the newspaper, television and store shelves look like a baby shower gone haywire. Pink is everywhere!

On one hand, I’m thrilled to see that the cornerstone of cause marketing is still going strong despite the economic downturn. On the other hand, the dilution of the message and the saturation of the marketplace make me worry.

If it seems that every product (from boxing gloves to vacuum cleaners) has a pink tie-in, how do you know what really matters? One thing you can do is to read the fine print. For example, many products claim that a “portion of the proceeds” benefit cancer research. What is a portion? It can be as little as a few pennies per product or all of the profit from that product. Is there a preset gift relationship in place? Look to see if a specific organization is mentioned to the promotion. If not, who knows where the money goes?

It has, in many ways, become too easy for businesses to add their float to this particular parade. The point of marketing partnerships is to enhance both brands and to build distinction in the marketplace and in the minds of consumers. Perhaps a few more unique partnerships with realistic product ties would benefit these businesses more? The pie should be big enough for lots of causes to have a piece. In the meantime, on with the parade!

I attended a conference this past week and was surprised by the experience in one of the sessions. Although the topic was a good one, the speaker seemed knowledgeable and the audience was enthusiastic, the outcome was basically a train wreck.

I have given a lot of thought as to what happened and tried to analyze where things went wrong – after all, I spend most of my time working with groups of people and my goal is to build business and nonrpofit partnerships. How could a seemingly positive setting with positive participants have a negative outcome?

Here’s what I think: the speaker couldn’t find middle ground with his audience because he didn’t give enough thought to WHERE we all started. Let’s take my train wreck analogy a bit further. Assume that you are driving a train on the tracks and you want to have a successful trip. Maybe you even want to add more passengers to your train along the way. Well, both goals require that you know the LOCATION of other trains and potential passengers – right?

In this session, the leader had a very clear perspective on his topic and, as it turned out, it was not the same perspective as most of the people in the room. He started right in with his material and laid out his “tracks” to success. The problem is that the other people were coming from other directions and his “tracks” didn’t reach them from the start. We couldn’t catch up becuase he didn’t give us the resources or guidance to make the trip.

Lesson learned? Any partnership, whether a learning environment or a business partnership, begins with a roadmap (or train map) and maps only help you to find the place where you can meet others and find agreement if you know from where each participant starts the journey. Ask questions, do your research and know your environment – then we can find common ground.

I have a great friend who owns a Smoothie King  franchise and is always thinking about business.  As a native of Nashville, he has connections that go all the way back to elementary school – and smartly keeps everyone aware of his stores and products.

He never pushes too hard – no one runs when they see him coming as far as I know – but when you think of Tom, you think of Smoothie King. He knows his goal and lives it. If you ask any successful business person or nonprofit leader, they will tell you the same. You must be your own best advocate and your best advertising.

This is one of the reasons that consumer based marketing and cause marketing are so effective. Better than advertising on television or expensive four color print, your friends (old and new) tell your story with enthusiasm and truth.

So, in the best or worst economy, the same practices hold true… love what you do, build relationships with vision and passion, and create your own personal army who will do the same.

I’ve been reading a lot the past two weeks about concerns for the future of eco-chic or, as some are calling it, eco-nomics. For the past few years, the IN thing has been environmentally conscious consumption. This has appeared in every consumer segment from fashion design and housewares to hybrid cars and organic produce.

So… the question is now being raised whether our commitment to such things is only skin deep – or should I say pocket deep? When there is less money to spend, will we revert to our cheapo, pre-packaged, junk up the landfill former selves? My thoughts? Probably.

I do think that we have made some lasting change in consumer trends. In fact, this belief is at the very core of cause related marketing and cause branding. We hope that affiliations between good couses and good brands makes a difference. These differences, according to research, will have the greatest lasting impact with younger consumers who are still developing consumer behavior and brand preferences.

Still, these choices are self-conscious and deliberate. Consumers describe themselves as making an effort to choose brands with CRM ties and to give themselves a check in the “I did good” box each time. The concern is which box will carry the most weight when debt is high and credit is low.  Personally, I’d love to buy organic all of the time but I sometimes end up buying the frozen veggies on sale that week.  I also want to buy the cosmetics that support a breast cancer awareness cause but I’m still sorely tempted by the brand with the two-for-one sale.

Maybe we need to develop something like a green piggy bank… where we can serve two masters at once. I haven’t figured that out yet but I’m working on it.

In this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, there was a marketing piece about “The Brand-ness of Strangers.” It focused on the examples of Ralph Lauren’s Polo Brand and Dasani brand bottled water.

Among other things, this article summarized the results of a research study that answers the question” Does seeing a brand in regular use (as opposed to the media) impact our likelihood of selecting the brand? The answer seems to be YES.

I cannot say that I am surprised by this news but it does reinforce the high value of product based sponsorships. If, as the research in the article contends, people perceive a brand more favorably that they see often, then this adds weight to corporate – NPO partnerships that add visibility to a brand.

Nonprofits have loyal and consistent communities. Generally these communities of donors, participants and volunteers trust the NPO and its information. For the company that promotes their brand to this audience in this way, they receive the transferred benefit of these beliefs. Not only does the potential consumer see the logo, it sees it in connection with something they already like, already support.

Add the compact nature of NPO target audiences and the ability to micromarket, and you have solid gold.

Breast Cancer Awareness (October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month) is the motherlode of cause related marketing. Perhaps second only to “green marketing,” it is the most recognizable branding opportunity with a cause in the United States.

Some of its tools are simple: the pink ribbon and, for that matter, pink ANYTHING. In many ways, Breast Cancer causes now OWN pink. Can you think of any other business or NPO that can claim ownership of a color!? I would be curious to know how much value the cause receives overall from this juggernaut.

This type of market saturation has its ups and downs.  Avon, for example, was one of the first CRM leaders in this field. It has done outstanding good work and has also built brand strength through the relationship. Yoplait ’s ”save lids to save lives“ is another outstanding success story and multiple award winning campaign.

On the flipside, there is a preponderance of pink out there, especially during October.  For a list of some of the best and worst, visit Think Before Your Pink.  This site and its creators in Breast Cancer Action raise concerns about the true financial benefits to the cause of some campaigns and the general issue of whether we can “shop away” breast cancer.

In my Sunday local paper this week, I found pink campaigns for batteries, yogurt, breakfast cereal, soup, link rollers, credit cards, and laundry detergent. Which ones are worthy of our attention and support?

I guess the bottomline is, as always, buyer beware.  There are some wonderful CRM projects out there doing great work for all of the partners involved. However, it takes a savvy consumer to do the greatest good and to vote with our purchases on the best of the best.

Reading a magazine this afternoon, I started to notice a trend in both the editorial content and the advertising.  Something that I guess I have known for a while, but have never given voice to before…. our lives are becoming more seamless.

By this, I mean that the distinct pieces of our lives, our decisions and our daily routines are overlapping more than ever before.  Perhaps it is a simplified view of the past but I imagine, for example, a parent in the 70s shopping in a grocery store for dinner. Find the ingredients on your list, pick the best prices, drive home and make dinner.  Or this scenario from the 80s:  go to work in the morning, get your work done for the day (or stay longer if you were a yuppy), go home and watch TV.

Fast forward to today: in the grocery, you are barraged with a myriad of decisions to make that have nothing to do with your shopping list. Is it organic? How is it packaged? Does any cause benefit from my purchase? Can I clip that Boxtop for my child’s school? Did I remember my shopping tote? If not, paper or plastic? 

Now to the worker… Will I carpool to save gas and get a chance at the HOV lane this morning? How many times have I checked email today? Don’t forget to log on to Amazon and buy that birthday present. Then the return home but still the Blackberry and iphone ring, IM and email all evening. Then TiVo that show you never watched.

It seems that every move we make today says something about us and our choices in life. I don’t just shop, I make a statement about organics, local farming, sweat shop labor and cause marketing.  I don’t just go to work, work follows me everywhere that my digital universe allows.  Perhaps we should not be surprised. It is, afterall, what many of us thought we wanted. 

I wonder what it would say about me right now if I turned off the computer, the phone and the lights and took a nice long nap. Sounds good.