Corporate Altruism: The Blurring of the Lines Between CSR and Cause Marketing

 

The Research

 

As a part of our fellowship with the Society for New Communications Research, co-Author of the Networked Nonprofit and nonprofit and social media blogger Beth Kanter, who is also my partner at Zoetica, and I are looking at cause marketing and corporate social responsibility, and how companies can better work with nonprofits in these arenas.

 

Our focus is on campaigns that had a significant social media component, because we believe that this communication medium is and accelerator for this issue since the failures are often much more spectacular and widely reported. We have conducted a number of interviews with top brands engaged in social media for social good. We will publish a number of these "Conversational" case studies over the next few weeks on both Beth’s blog and here at Communication Overtones. 

 

Corporate Altruism: The Blurring of the Lines Between CSR and Cause Marketing

by Kami Watson Huyse and Beth Kanter

Aligning with a cause is a great way for a for-profit company to both raise its profile while doing something good for society at large. For nonprofits and causes, having the right corporate partner can leverage the impact of the social change work.

 

Associating a product with a social or environmental cause that people care about is a popular marketing tactic among consumers.  More than two in five consumers bought such a product in the past year, according to the “2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study.” And 75 percent donate to a company identified nonprofit, illustrating that corporate altruism is not only good for the bottom line, but also good for society.

 

CSR vs. Cause Marketing

 

In companies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) departments and corporate foundations have risen up as a substantial field of practice – the good ones come complete with a theory of change or goals to make social change the priority. Many CSR programs subscribe to the ideas of the triple bottom-line: people, planet and profit. Meaning that all three must figure in to what the company does in its corporate philanthropy.

On the other side, cause marketing has risen up as a way to sell more products, widgets or even ideas, with a non-profit or altruistic element to drive the program. The bottom line here usually rules the day; however there has been a move toward what we see as more CSR-like elements popping up in cause marketing programs.

 

The grand debate over CSR vs. cause marketing seems to be getting more blurry. So much so that the two are often confused and interchanged by those not deeply in the community, and most certainly by public relations departments and marketing. Could it be that it is not a question of either-or, but rather a question of a continuum?  And if so, what are the different points on this continuum and what are the best practices for each?

These are real-world questions that go well beyond philosophy. The genie is out of the bottle, companies and nonprofit causes will continue to co-exist.

 

Cause Marketing Gone Bad?

 

However, the ways that companies and causes have aligned in the marketplace have ranged from the sublime to plain old slimy. Charities and causes are left to wonder, should we partner with companies? If so, how?  And those that choose poorly are subject to being the conduits to greenwashing, pinkwashing, and any other kind of washing you can imagine. When the accusations start flying, it can get ugly fast.

 

 

Poll Source: Fit Sugar 

 

Take for example, “Buckets for the Cure” fund-raising campaign where Susan G. Komen for the Cure teamed up with KFC (formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken). For each $5 bucket (pink!) of fried chicken bought between April 5 – May 9, 2010, KFC donated 50 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The goal was to raise $8.5 million — what the KFC-Komen alliance is calling “the largest single donation to end breast cancer forever.” In the end, Komen received $4.2 million from KFC, which is a lot of money to use toward the cause. However, at what cost to credibility? Others wondered whether Komen had read their own educational literature about the connection between high fat diets and breast cancer? A simple shift to only crediting buckets of grilled chicken might have brought in less money, but at a higher credibility. It is these subtle shifts, and learnings, that we hope to uncover in our research.

 

 

 

 

Best Practices for Cause Marketing and CSR

 

So, can we put down the weapons and look at how to do it better?

 

Beth and I are taking a close look at the continuum from cause marketing to CSR. We are publishing our research in the early stages to help identify other case studies we should profile and get feedback on our working hypothesis.  We recognize that are many diverse opinions on best practices for incorporating social media into cause marketing and CSR, and that is okay.  Dissent on our research model and our findings are okay. We would only ask that everyone refrain from name calling and other attacks around the companies involved. 

 

Instead, we hope we can co-create this model with all of you and come out the other side of this research much smarter as a community, and much richer as a society.

 

As part of our research, we will present at the 5th Annual SNCR Research Symposium in Stanford, Calif. on November 5, 2010. We hope some of you will choose to register and join us there.

 

What do you think are some of the best examples of CSR and cause-marketing programs that incorporate social media? What are some of the worst?

 

Photo Credit: Flickr Photo by Kevin Dooley

Commonsense Social Media Measurement: Setting SMART Objectives

 

When designing a social media measurement program, one needs to start with a basic understanding of measurement as a discipline. The first step of measurement is always setting objectives. Having served on countless committees and read hundreds of award entries for campaigns, this is the step where a lion’s share of communication programs (social media or not) fail to perform. It is also where the award-winning campaigns shine over their would-be challengers. They always have well defined objectives, and as a result, well-defined results.

 

Setting objectives is easier if you know what they need to contain. A good place to start is to look at it through the management lens, since that approach will be the most likely help you get the support you need from the bean counters. The SMART method of setting objectives, which was published in “Management Review” as early as 1981 by George Doran calls for specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time bound objectives. In other words you need to specify in your objective “how many, by when.”

SMART Objectives

S	Specific
M	Measurable
A	Attainable
R	Relevant
T	Time Bound

Source: Wikipedia

 

For example, if you were running a social media campaign to support an event, you might write this objective:

“By three months before the event, we will confirm at least 20 online influencers to attend the event, with half of those blogging or otherwise creating content about the event.”

 

The “how many” being “20 online influencers” and the “by when” being three months before the event. The objective is specific in its scope, will allow us to see if we are meeting the expected result, is attainable given the time and scope, and is relevant to what we are trying to do, which is to get online buzz started about the event since our objective is to get at least half of them to create content about the event. This is a relational objective versus one that will measure sales or a Return on Investment (ROI).

 

I could also look to measure ROI. Perhaps there are a number of participants that you need to attend your conference to make it profitable. Let’s say in this case, that number would be 400 paying participants at the early bird rate. Let’s say that historically, at three months before the conference, you usually have 200 people registered, 300 at two months out and 400 in the month leading up to the conference. Perhaps you give a special discount code to the online influencers you have invited to your conference that they can give to their followers.

“By two months prior to the event, over 100 people will have registered using the ‘friends of online influencer code and we will be 15 percent ahead of usual registration numbers.”

 

Let’s say that tickets for the conference through the online influencer code is $150, if you multiply by 100 tickets, this is $15,000. To truly calculate ROI, you need to then subtract the cost for getting those ticket sales. So let’s say you spent $1,000 in staff time and outreach to get those influencers involved, so you net $14,000.

 

Moreover, there is a halo effect from the participation of the influencers. While they may not bring in sales directly, their name recognition might inspire some of your other participants to register. Other measures you might consider would be the overall registration pace with online influencers in the mix, versus a previous year when you didn’t use this tactic. You might also use a special hashtag (a hashtag looks like this: #event) that online influencers could use in their 140-character Twitter messages and measure the spread of the hashtag about the conference as driven by influencers and compare them to the pace of registrations in that period.

 

There are many ways we could design the interaction, but knowing what we need to accomplish would go a long way toward giving us a roadmap. Objectives help us start from the end and work our way back. In many ways, knowing where you want to end up can help to set the overall strategy and tactics to get there. In other words, objectives help you to define and articulate what you need to succeed and help you to know if you got there.

 

Do you set measureable objectives for your social media interaction? If so, what do you measure. Would love more case studies, and if you have a good one it might be used in the book.

 

Commonsense Social Media Measurement Series

• Part I: A Commonsense Approach to Social Media Measurement
• Part 2: Setting SMART Objectives

The above is draft material for a chapter on measurement that Geoff Livingston kindly asked me to write in his new book, Welcome to the Fifth Estate (the follow up to Now Is Gone, which is almost out of print). Comments may be used in the final edition. You can download the first drafted chapter of his new edition — Welcome to the Fifth Estate — for free.

Cause Marketing Strategy: How to Design Successful Campaigns (eGuide)

 

My company Zoetica teamed with Network for Good to co-author Cause Marketing through Social Media, a free eGuide. Geoff Livingston was the primary author from our team and Kate Olsen led the effort on the Network for Good side.

 

 

If you are company looking to adding a cause into your social media outreach, this guide really delivers substance, including what pitfalls to avoid. Filled with case studies, it should inspire you to consider adding a cause strategy to your social media outreach.

 

It also reinforces something that Zoetica CEO Beth Kanter and I are also discovering in our research as fellows for the Society for New Communications Research, which is that successful cause campaigns are most often aligned with corporate personality and brand, are authentic to the core identity of the company, are transparent in how money or service is delivered to the cause, and add significant value to the cause and community. Great campaigns also find a way to inspire its customers and fans to join in the fun!

 

If you are interested in this kind of campaign, you can download Cause Marketing Through Social Media for free.

 

Let me know what you think. What makes a great cause campaign in your book?