Cause Alliance Marketing

RESOURCES

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market and co-founder of FLOW, outlines the principles and practices of Conscious Capitalism, a new business paradigm, which views the higher purpose of business and the system of inter-dependent stakeholders every business operates in.

The 2007 PR Week/Barkley Cause Survey reveals the high correlation between Corporate Cause activity and consumer loyalty, as well as other significant benefits.

IBM Institute for Global Solutions 2008 study on Attaining Sustainable Growth through Corporate Social Responsibility outlines the state of the art of thinking and practice in CSR.

Following are some other useful resources and links:

Talk the Walk: Advancing Sustainable Lifestyles through Marketing & Communications. A great study funded in part by the UNEP and The Global Compact.

Strategy & Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, from the HBR

Cause Marketing Forum
An excellent source of information about cause marketing, including many case studies.

The growth of Cause Marketing
According to the IEG Sponsorship Report, North American corporations will spend $1.34 billion on cause marketing sponsorship in 2006. That's a 20.2% increase over 2005, nearly double the overall sponsorship industry growth rate of 10.6%.

BACKGROUND

Definitions
Principles
Why Cause Marketing Works
Keys to Successful Cause Marketing
The Value of Alliances
How to build and sustain productive alliances

Definitions

Cause Alliance Marketing is dedicated to serving business and society by producing outreach, education, and engagement programs that provide an important service to society while addressing the marketing, sales, and business development objectives of program partners.

Marketing is essentially a process of communications designed to facilitate relationships that lead to ongoing business. Everything an organization does can support its marketing program, deepening relationships with core stakeholders, increasing business with them, and engaging them to attract new customers.

Cause Marketing is built on the documented fact that people appreciate the service companies provide to society through engagement with social programs, and reward them with increased loyalty and patronage.

Alliances are formal relationships between organizations, created to leverage each partners’ assets and capabilities to address shared interests. Alliances provide access to the resources and relationships of others, in exchange for reciprocal benefits.

The cause marketing alliances facilitated by Cause Alliance Marketing address shared social interests, and address partners’ specific objectives through mutually beneficial collaboration. Recognizing the nature of the issues they are designed to address, the Cause Alliance Marketing programs are long term, ongoing, multi-channel programs, with an evolving array of partners.

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