Industry Trend - Cause Marketing

As I browsed through VerticalResponse's marketing blog, I stumbled across a blog post on cause marketing (original blog entry can be found here). The entry starts off describing an event where the writer was instantaneously motivated to purchase something from the store she was in just because the clerk told her that the store supported the (Red) campaign. Then she later goes on to promote cause marketing and how small companies can support various non-profit organizations.

If you look around your local shopping mall today, you will indeed see that cause marketing is a popular trend, and it is pretty ubiquitous. Big companies are pairing up with small non-profits to support various causes - and gain goodwill from their customers in the process.

The following paragraph pulled from the original blog post on VerticalResponse proves my point. Here, the writer encourages companies who partake in cause marketing to talk about their success!


"Make sure once you get to a place that seems significant, get loud and proud. Talk about the amount of money your cause received because of the profits you were able to give. Tell stories about lives that may have been saved, or successes of the cause because of businesses like yours. People love to do business with a winner and you and your staff will feel great about the work you do.
Ingrain cause marketing in your company and it could be a boost to business, a boost for your cause and a boost for employee morale for years to come."

As a consumer, does cause marketing work on you?