Branding for a cause

Cause marketing is all the rage these days as consumers become sensitive to issues around them. The strategy, which marketers say will continue to earn favour, is not easy to implement especially because it can send out the wrong signals if implemented in haste. Our panel of experts discusses how a brand can rise above the sea of black ribbons, donations and self-congratulatory campaigns.

Brand integrity and commitment to the cause matter: Dimitar Vlahov

Cause marketing can be a valuable tool in the arsenal of corporate marketing departments. It has been growing in popularity and it has proven especially attractive when combined with smart storytelling and original digital content. Effective examples include Procter & Gamble's feminine hygiene brand Always supporting gender equality by questioning what it means to do something "like a girl"; beer giant Heineken standing for moderate consumption of alcohol; and restaurant chain Chipotle confronting flaws of conventional mass agriculture.

 

  At the same time, however, research shows that not all cause marketing is effective in the eyes of consumers. The levels of success vary based on the extent to which a cause is supported and the overall perceived authenticity of the resulting communication campaign.

A major research project on this subject, commissioned by Havas Media, found that brands which embed social and environmental benefits in their core products outperform the stock market by 120 per cent and generate higher levels of loyalty, purchasing intent and overall consumer advocacy. The key driver is that "consumers no longer simply consume," as experts at Wolff Olins and Flamingo put it - instead, consumers are more informed, engaged and vocal than ever before, thanks in large part to social media. But what does deeper-than-usual commitment mean? And how can brands go about creating it? Case studies from the global Sustainable Brands community give us important clues. In particular, two strong forces are propelling brands beyond ordinary cause marketing - the force of supplementing messaging about a cause with specific brand-led actions, and the force of purpose-driven product innovation. Both serve to demonstrate that a given cause is more than a side project.

One powerful illustration of specific brand-led actions is Unilever's work around improving handwashing habits around the world. Not only does Unilever's Lifebuoy soap brand speak in favour of transforming handwashing habits, but it has also been directly in charge of Global Handwashing Day and other on-the-ground initiatives in efforts to be an inseparable part of the solution. In another practical example, food brand Cascadian Farm has recently launched Bee Friendlier, an initiative aimed at helping bees thrive by planting over 1 million native wildflower seeds through consumer-facing aerial seeding events. In the context of product and service innovation, one recent example is American pharmacy chain CVS' decision to give up $2 billion in annual revenue by quitting the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products, with the intention to replace that part of the business with smoking cessation services. The news drew widespread positive attention, generating 218 million print and broadcast impressions, and 200 thousand social media impressions in just a week following the announcement.

Dimitar Vlahov
Director, Content Development, Sustainable Brands

Good CSR ads should push for social change: Jessie Paul

You probably remember the Tata Tea Jaago Re campaigns, built around social causes like voting or gender equality. In something of a coup for its 2013 Choti Shuruaat campaign on women's empowerment, Tata got Shah Rukh Khan to pledge to put the actresses names ahead of his own, a promise Khan made good in Chennai Express.

Cause campaigns often result in a high rate of awareness for their message, given the ad firepower behind it. They can lead to very high rates of discussion online, depending on how edgy they are. Therein lies the rub: how edgy can you be without offending a large part of your target audience? After all, social change is only required because everyone isn't on the same page. A recent Airtel TV ad kicked up a storm on social media by showing a lady boss making her male colleague work late, and then leaving for home. It is then revealed that the lady boss is actually his wife and while he has been slogging in office, she has been home cooking his dinner. The message Airtel was aiming for was confusing - is it okay to be your husband's boss at work? Even if you're the boss in office, you cook at home for the husband. Then there was Philip's 'Husband Initiated Movement', which got men to take over a task like cooking for 10 minutes so that the wife could do a monthly breast self-examination. In my view, this digital campaign reinforced the stereotype that all women do is cook and clean.

Good CSR ads must push for social change - Aircel's "Save the Tiger' campaign created awareness but it was never clear how the campaign reflected "good network" or how it served to educate against tiger poaching.

It is not easy to find causes that make people talk and yet are appropriate for your brand to be associated with. The more social acceptance there is, the less shock value. Research shows that some issues like child adoption, animal rights, rights of the differently-abled, etc are considered "safe" while issues like same sex marriage and second marriage are most likely to go viral. What eventually matters is figuring out how your product fits into the cause and how your organisation will live the ad.

Jessie Paul
CEO, Paul Writer Strategic Advisory, and author, No Money Marketing

Linking with social issues is a win-win for business and society: Carol Cone

Call it 'shared value', 'CSR', 'sustainability' or 'purpose', it is important to treat cause marketing like any other business strategy and companies need to be clear on their objectives, how and where they would like to have an impact, who they would like to inform, and engage with. Importantly, companies and brands need to understand that for the strategy to be successful, it cannot be just for society (it is philanthropy, then) or just for the company (it is promotional, then). It has to achieve both: to be relevant to society and to the company. Cause marketing, hence, is not just to bring in social benefit or commercial benefit. It is to bring about both.

Our most recent research, titled 'Brandshare', showed how in an increasingly transparent world, especially in developing markets, there are huge upside opportunities in using cause marketing. Our research was around the globe, with 15,000 people in 12 countries about the performance of nearly 200 brands in 11 industry sectors. We asked people to evaluate the importance of 14 brand behaviours and evaluate how effectively a selection of brands performed on those behaviours. We found that globally 87 per cent of the consumers want brands to share something of value with them. However, only 17 per cent of the brands were doing it effectively. Our research showed that only when brands gave societal benefit, did the consumers change their attitude towards them. So it is important for brands to combine the three benefits - rationale, emotional and societal. When brands combined all these three benefits effectively, there was an increase in the likelihood of the consumers to one, recommend the brand, two, share information and content about the brand, three, advocate the brand, and four buy the brand themselves.

When not done effectively, cause marketing can rouse negative chatter and hurt sales. A cause marketing plan fails when brands don't establish its relevance with the product and their approach is to drive short term sales. They don't educate their sales representatives who are truly the brand ambassadors of the products, and fail to integrate the values of the brand with the mission. For example, a US fast food company that offered junk food in pink trays purportedly to raise awareness about breast cancer got a lot of flak, given that food high in fat is believed to be a contributor to breast cancer.

Best practices, besides finding authentic relevance from the brand to the consumer and the cause, includes partnering with a credible NGO to provide credible information and engagement with the cause for deeper impact, reporting back on the progress and comprehensive communications via website/social media, packaging, special events and advertising. Cause marketing is a journey for every company and brand that recognises we live in a social world. These brands understand that consumers want a value exchange. This is a powerful strategy - consumers want it, and employees want it too.

Carol Cone
Global Chair, Edelman Business + Social Purpose

Echoing the ethos of the product in cause marketing is important: Vikram Grover

Cause marketing is actually a powerful strategy that has evolved over the years to become one of the most important techniques in branding. However, it is the implementation of this branding tool that makes all the difference; if not done properly it can work negatively for a company. For Tata Tea, the cause marketing strategy has worked successfully because we had both, business and societal goals.

The company wanted to federate a number of tea brands - Tata Tea Agni, Tata Tea Gold, Chakra Gold - under an umbrella campaign so that each and every product in our tea category could benefit. With this objective in mind, we needed to look at a cause marketing strategy that could further enhance and be in sync with the image of our company and its heritage. With this aim, our 'social' branding took root in 2007 and we began the Jaago Re campaign. Here's how it was relevant. In India, tea is a product that is associated with the process of awakening. People get up in the morning and feel alert with that cup of tea, so we wanted to stress on the physical, emotional and a social awakening, an awareness that could shake up the society, bringing about positive change. What made our cause marketing strategy click was simply the fact that no one else had, till then, dabbled in cause marketing in a relevant manner. We encouraged a 'differentiated discourse' in cause marketing with Jaago Re and made it a success without diluting the heritage of the brand. A major reason for Jaago Re's success was the fact that we got into it for the long term to prove its credential. While we understood the relevance of getting a business benefit out of the campaign, our company genuinely believed that this campaign had the ability to make a sustained difference. So the group did not shy from investing in the campaign year after year.

One of the major challenges was taking up causes ahead of time-so that we get talked about in the media and find resonance with the masses. Our intent was to involve the consumers while also offering solutions to the problem without taking away the relevance of the product (in our case, tea) even once. So our campaigns have taken on issues like corruption, elections, among other topics. Though we found great success in our earlier campaigns, we noted that we needed to include women in the Jaago Re campaign effectively. They are the decision makers and it was imperative for the campaign to find resonance in that target group. We realised this and soon created Jaago Re campaigns from the woman's point of view.

The entire idea of Jaago Re, which is today hailed as a benchmark in cause marketing strategies all over the world, has been to link the product's story to an issue that needs to be urgently dealt with.

Vikram Grover
VP & head marketing, India & south Asia Tata Global beverages

Cause marketing needs to be seen as a long-term strategy: Ashish Bhasin

Though effective, I don't think companies, particularly in developing markets such as India, are using cause marketing effectively. Now, here's the thinking that demarcates brands that use it effectively, and those who don't. There's one set that wants to use it to capitalise on social issues and causes and there's the other set that uses it to genuinely align its brand philosophy and ethics to the cause. So companies can't use it merely to tick the 'CSR activity' box and hope for speedy results.

Here are some techniques to make this strategy work. Firstly, whatever cause the brand is adopting, needs to be seen as a genuine commitment, it has to be consistent and in sync with the values of the company. So, an organisation embroiled in controversies and corruption cases, for instance, cannot expect to be seen as an "honest" brand by its target customer by latching on to a cause. Cause marketing is not a tactic to salvage brands.

Secondly, it is a good idea to have a first mover advantage in that you take up a cause even before others take note of the issue. Sometimes companies can look at 'flavour of the month' causes (with the Swach Abhiyan mission on the go, for instance, companies can take up cleanliness and hygiene as a valid cause branding strategy). However, they need to ensure they are in it for the long haul and can sustain it.

Simply put, campaigns in cause branding need to be sustained over a period of time. This allows customers to understand the seriousness of your intent and ensures them of your commitment to the cause while also reflecting your brand value. If companies are looking at short-term cause branding activities (effective as on-ground activities) then the involvement of the entire organisation is essential.

Ashish Bhasin
Chairman & CEO, South Asia Dentsu, Aegis Network