Social Cause Marketing - The Regis Group Inc

P E R S P E C T I
V E
The Moral of the Moment…
Social Cause Marketing
Iíve always loved the holiday season;
people are a little happier, the
days are little brighter, and so many
of the advertisers seem to get caught
up in the holiday spirit. As a matter
of fact, certain commercials that have
little to nothing to do with the actual
product are brought out of mothballs
and played every holiday season. Although
I only see these commercials
for a week or so once a year, I know
them well because some of them have
been playing annually for over 30
years. What I donít understand is
why.
Donít get me wrong, I appreciate
having a beer company spend an enormous
amount of money showing me a
beautiful landscape, and spectacular
horses, to make my day a bit brighter.
Iím also a fan of watching a kind gesture
from one human being to another
without a product in sight. It makes
me smile, and it makes me happy. I
even like to be reminded of other civic
duties like voting. It also makes me
wonder why they are being so generous
with their advertising dollars. Are
they really that concerned with my
wellbeing or is there more to it than
meets the eye? The fact is, unbeknownst
to many of us, we are being
exposed to social-cause marketing.
Iím a pretty positive person, but I
learned long ago a simple acronym
that provides a simple, but critical
question that any capitalist has on
their mind when making business decisions
ñ even social-cause marketing
decisions. The acronym is WIFM, and
it stands for, ìWhatís In It For Me?î So
whatís in it for an organization or company
to spend enormous sums of
money to not feature their product in a
marketing campaign? If we can answer
that question, we can get a much
better handle on social-cause marketing.
SEPTEMBER 2009
A simple answer would be that the
organizations sponsoring these acts of
kindness create a well guided trail
back to their organization hoping their
selfless act will pay dividends at a
later date. In a sense, the campaign
would act as a surrogate marketer for
those who are paying the bills. For instance,
a social-cause marketing campaign
to get the vote out on an election
may very well benefit the organization
whose candidate has a higher probability
of winning from a larger turnout.
Itís a win-win situation for those
who are targeted, and those who are
targeting. Itís a socially responsible
message, and it benefits the organization
sponsoring it.
The more difficult scenario is the
good natured corporation just wanting
to spread good cheer for the holiday
season. Of course the cynic in
Rob Jolles is a bestselling author, speaker
and President of Jolles Associates Inc., an
international training corporation,
(www.jolles.com).
51
me would say that a beer company
wishing us good cheer for the holidays
coincidently has its biggest alcohol
consumption during that holiday
season. I suppose we have found our
win-win scenario but once again
there is a coincidental trail back to
the marketer.
So the moral of this moment is to
understand that although socialcause
marketing appears to be a selfless
act of kindness by organizations
that are simply concerned with our
wellbeing the reality is that every
now and then we need to be reminded
that itís very rare in this world
to get something for nothing. In the
end, I think we all benefit from the
concept of social-cause marketing. I
just donít want to lose sight of that fact
that before we spread too much good
will to the organizations that support
such marketing approaches, we
should understand the WIFMís involved
in these decisions.
© 2009 Job Rolles. All Rights Reserved.
Reference # 03M-2009-09-09-01
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