All About Cause Marketing

While scrolling through your social media accounts you might have seen Nike’s spine-chilling ‘Nothing Can Stop Sports Us’ ad. If not, head to You Can’t Stop Us | Nike to watch the spirit of an organization that has contributed to the world, both on and off the fields.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an ancient concept and has been practiced by companies since the 1800s. The notion of CSR was initially established in the mid-1960s in the United States of America, with the framework that companies have a sense of duty towards the society that serves beyond their economic and legal liabilities.

The most recurrent factor for companies to pursue Corporate Social Responsibility is to build and escalate the reputation and popularity aspect of their brand. It allows the companies to charge higher prices for their product from the customer, increase their access to capital markets, and also attract favorable investors.

However, Corporate Social Responsibility is not a facile concept for the general public to comprehend. Hence, a brand must devise a strategy that solely focuses on a particular social dilemma, which strikes a chord with the brand’s audience. This strategy that communicates what the company stands for, and how they benefit society through their CSR ventures is Cause-related marketing. Corporate Social Responsibility, thus acts as an umbrella, below which comes a number of business-related activities that promote social upliftment and elevation.

Cause marketing is the course of formulating and implementing various marketing activities that are designated by an offer made by a company to donate a specified amount of money to a selected objective when customers of the company engage in revenue-providing activities that satisfy organizational objectives.

As defined, cause marketing forms a part of promotional activity practiced by any organization in which one or more social causes are endorsed, usually with its products and services as a bundle. It is basically a vehicle of communication of CSR which exhibits to a large number of people how the social responsibility of an organization translates into specific benefits for society.

Cause marketing is usually regulated as a part of a promotional campaign in collaboration with a nonprofit organization that is engaged in a specific social cause. It is pursued as a triple win situation whereby it provides a win for the social cause, a win for the customer of the brand, and also a win for the business.

The term ’Cause Marketing’ originated in 1983 and was coined by the marketing team of the USA-based brand American Express. The campaign aimed to donate funds to various charitable organizations and social causes, including the renovation of the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Since its inception in 1983, various researches and studies have been carried out in this domain. Researches determine that Cause marketing campaigns vary in their scope, scale, design, and more.

Various types of cause marketing include:

• Donating a part of each purchase: It is one of the widely used methods by brands. Under this, the brand or a company pledges to donate a specified portion of each successful purchase made by the customers during a specific period of time. As advertised by P&G, for their Project Shiksha initiative, with every P&G’s product purchase, some portion goes to poor child education fund. Following the same pattern, a portion of revenue from the sales of Nihar Shanti Amla Hair Oil is used to promote child education in India.
• Engage in Educational or awareness-building Activities: Some brands engage in educational and social awareness building schemes that enlighten society about certain social issues. Tata Tea’s “Jaago Re” campaign often addresses various social causes ranging from encouraging citizens to cast their vote in elections to urging the youth to help the senior citizens during the pandemic. Ariel’s ‘Share the Load’ campaign is another successful campaign that sparks social discussions and conversations around the unequal division of household work within families.
• License Given to a Company by a Non- Profit Organization: Under this, a charitable organization allows a company to produce and supply a mission-related product that is promoted either with the organization’s name or co-branded by both the companies. For example, WWF logos on stationery.

Cause marketing is a versatile method employed by brands all over the world to realize their corporate objectives. Although giving the impression to the audience that the brand deeply cares about the cause they support, it also achieves a broad spectrum of targets. These targets include

• Gaining national popularity
• Boosting their sales of products
• Promoting multiple unit purchases
• Enhancing the corporate image of the brand
• Preventing negative publicity
• Customer pacification
• Facilitating market
• Broadening customer base

Cause marketing is commonly believed to be exceptionally effective in a mass market. Social media further drives awareness and strikes up discussions and conversations around the cause. Researches also show a strong graph of popularity and acceptance of the same among millennials and Gen-Z’s.

According to a survey by Edelman’s Earned Brand Study in 2018, 64.4% of the people avoid shopping from brands that do not engage with social issues. (Engageforgood, 2020)

In another research by Omnisend 2020, 69% of Gen Z’s prefer to shop from brands that contribute to a social cause. (Omnisend, 2020)

Forbes states that 66% of consumers feel that brands should exercise their stand on political and social issues of the word. (Forbes, 2020)

Today’s conscious and digital customers expect brands to go beyond their regular call of duty and work in a direction that stimulates and accelerates positive impact and change. Cause marketing is no longer a temporary buzz but has evolved into a sustainable model that bridges the gap between social issues and big brands.

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Author: Utsav Kothari
Editorial and Digital Marketing Team, NjM
Class of 2022, NMIMS Mumbai