Cause marketing: does it make sense for your business?

Cause marketing is simply a business or organization that donates a portion of its proceeds to a specific charity group. These business advertise their product letting consumers know how much of the profits will be donated to charity groups.

Are you asking if cause marketing would make sense for your business, as a lot of businesses have? There does seem to be some negative connotations in applying cause marketing, and that is why business have held back in the past, but most likely it would and there are a few reasons why.

The first reason is that as the younger generations are growing up and becoming the young adult population, fewer and fewer people are giving to charities each year. Charity organization are seeing and increasing drop as each year goes by in donations from individuals, especially around the Holidays. Does this mean that people are becoming more and more selfish? Possibly (or maybe we're becoming more and more poor!). But it could also be only an indication of the now common awareness that some charity organizations have been very misleading and only a few percent of funds donated have gone to support and actual cause. People may be afraid of donating to these organizations simply because they don't know if they can trust them

For this reason, this lack of trust, it is good for your business to use cause marketing and donate a certain percentage of your proceeds to a trusted charity of your choice. If your consumer base can have trust in you they will trust that charity organization. If people truly are donating less because of lack of trust they will be happy to shop with you where they can still receive the fulfillment of donating and do so knowing where their donations are going.

Another reason for cause marketing is because of those people who want to donate, but are not sure who to donate through. If you provide an opportunity for your customer base, and the public in general, to donate to a charity you will most likely have an ever increasing customer base as people can feel better about their purchases with you.

However, if you choose to do cause marketing you must be clear and honest with your customers or you could have a reverse effect. You need to tell your customers how much of their purchase will be going toward which specific charity, and in some case you can even tell those customers when it is going.

If you do not advertise the percentage of the customers purchase going to charity it is likely you will lose customers simply because they don't know whether you are acting trustworthy or not.

Simply put, cause marketing has proven to be a good thing. When it was first introduced to the marketing industry it was an idea shunned by many people because of the selfish appearance it can have. You will be using a charity to bring in more customers, thus more revenue, thus more profit. However marketers found that the consumers were actually pleased by the idea of a trusted company donating to a trusted charity and cause marketing turned out to be a success.

Would cause marketing make sense for your business? If you are looking to do good for other people, increase your customer base, and shed a more positive outlook on your company, then yes, Cause marketing may be right for you. However you must remember to remain honest with your customers, donate the allotted amount, keep customers posted on the good they are doing, or you may do more damage than good.

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