Cause related marketing works

People often get confused by the term ‘cause related marketing’. They shouldn’t: it’s simply marketing related to a good cause.

The idea is that people will buy your goods or services because you have told them that a proportion of the sale price will be given to a charity or good cause.

Research shows that when price and quality of goods/services are equal, people tend to choose the one that offers this feel good factor.

In the UK, people are very familiar with this type of marketing around Red Nose Day and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Big brands line up to sell us consumer goods and let us know that 1p or 10p for each purchase will go to charity. The same principle applies for companies selling services.

Even though we’re a tiny business, Ideal has always practised cause related marketing. Partly to practise what we preach, but mainly because it works.

Each year we choose a month to donate 1% of fee income to overseas aid via UNICEF. We tell everyone about it with a bit of humour and, without fail, that month sees an increase in business.

This year has been no exception. Thank you to everyone we did business with in July - one percent of your invoice this month is being given to UNICEF to buy footballs.

If you want a sounding board for your cause related marketing ideas, please get in touch.


Debbie Griffiths www.idealCSR.co.uk