Comments on: Good is the New Black. Get dressed.

By: Max

Max — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:27:35 +0000

I guess you are a big marketing celebrity to tell people, that they are morons. And you did that in the first paragraph of your post
Cool!

By: Socially Responsible Marketing « 11th Hour Brilliance

Socially Responsible Marketing « 11th Hour Brilliance — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:57:24 +0000

[...] bonafide marketing genius, Marta Kagan, found some really interesting stats about cause marketing. For instance, 87% of Americans are likely to switch brands if another product is associated with a [...]

By: Kris

Kris — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:21:18 +0000

Great post! I am currently working with a client, the Sustainable Living Roadshow (www.sustainablelivingroadshow.org) — while they already have the majority of their 2008 sponsors on board, they will still include other last minute organizations. The tour is making 11 stops this year and will be educating people in an interactive and unique fashion about ways they can can live more sustainably. There is no “cause” like the cause to protect our world and our resources. This is one area of cause marketing that can grow and grow and grow.

By: simon monk

simon monk — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:22:36 +0000

A fascinating confluence here: we created an online CSR program which we called Footprints (http://www.footprintsnetwork.org) and quite apart from raising money, doing good and feeling good about it … sales on the for profit side of the business went up 1.87%.

Which we weren’t actually looking for.

Then we have opened up Footprints as an API and are giving it away to any company that want to get involved … in turn building partnerships with companies that we WANT to work with.

Some people get it. Some don’t. But it’s a hellofalot of fun!

By: Cause Marketing « Jax Rant [ wonderings on the web ]

Cause Marketing « Jax Rant [ wonderings on the web ] — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:44:42 +0000

[...] July 23, 2008 at 10:44 pm · Filed under activism, marketing Just read an excellent post on Cause Marketing by Marta Kagen on her bonafide marketing genius blog called “Good is the new black. Get dressed”. [...]

By: jacqueline

jacqueline — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:05:11 +0000

Great post! I completely agree.

I was just chatting to a digital marketing MD at an interview recently attempting to explain some of the points you have raised and have also backed up with stats…
wish i had them on hand at the time - instead of just my warm and fuzzy sentiments…

when we work on campaigns day in day out….selling people things that they really don’t need, surely there is some room and time and space and budget to do a bit of something good for the world!
The power of the digital channel for activism, for doing good, for promoting awareness is phenomenal…it’s one thing that keeps me happy to work in this industry…

Another thing I also totally agree with is that the cause should match a companies business goals…..seriously, companies really need to do more of this….there is not much differentiation in product these days….marketing needs to talk to peoples self-interest, fill in narratives for people - enable them to support their identities or how they want to be …and be seen…

By: Beyond Niche Marketing

Beyond Niche Marketing — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:45:18 +0000

You’re right… you’re right. I’m sufficiently shamed! I did a lot of this type of work in the early days of building my business but I haven’t done any since moving to Florida.

Thanks for the wake up call!

By: mzkagan

mzkagan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:58:19 +0000

@keif, thanks for sharing your view. I agree that an imbalanced cause marketing program (ie more spent on advertising than on doing good) is sure to draw criticism. Authenticity is indeed the key to getting noticed. That’s not to say, though, that a company that’s genuinely committed to doing good should be hush-hush about it.

Curious to hear from some folks who are active in the space. Your thoughts?

By: keif

keif — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:34:34 +0000

This reminds me of a certain company that spent a few million on “good deeds” and then spent much more than that advertising about how it was doing said “good deeds.”

When big companies do good things, authentically, it’ll get noticed. And people will be more impressed by a word-of-mouth “did they really do that?” than any marketing campaign. (Technically, you could say word-of-mouth is a marketing campaign, but c’mon, I’m just supposed to leave a comment here).