Week of August 22, 2011

Here’s the best of the best of cause marketing information from the last week:

All Cause Marketing is Local
Empowering local stores seems to be a growing trend with national chains (e. g. L. L. Bean, Whole Foods). Sure, a lot of things are the same, including store layout, numerous products, branding, etc. But local stores are getting more autonomy in how they work with customers AND nonprofits. Save Money. Live Better. Go Local? http://bit.ly/qzHFPx

Going Local? Think Retail!
From Joe Waters: “Cause marketing has been a huge part of our marketing efforts and has been tremendous for our brand. When we hosted our first event, our data base included 262 customers, many of which were friends and family members. As of today, we have grown to 15,000.” Leon & Lulu is a destination store with almost no walk-in traffic. Therefore, Cause marketing is critical to her business and it helps to brings new customers to their store. “Cause marketing has been a huge part of our marketing efforts and has been tremendous for our brand. When we hosted our first event, our data base included 262 customers, many of which were friends and family members. As of today, we have grown to 15,000.” Leon & Lulu is a destination store with almost no walk-in traffic. Therefore, Cause marketing is critical to her business and it helps to brings new customers to their store. http://bit.ly/qK6ghd

Protecting Athletes Through Concussion EducationDick's sporting goods is putting $1 million in cause marketing muscle behind athlete concussion monitoring and education via a program they've dubbed PACE (Protecting Athletes Through Concussion Education). Dick's will donate $1 to PACE with each consumer shoe purchase (in store or online), Foursquare or Facebook Places check in and sharing via Facebook and Twitter. The money is expected to fund baseline neurocognitive testing of more than a million athletes via school athletic departments. . From Cause Marketing Forum. http://conta.cc/n49NJc

GIVE EducationIn mid-July Proctor and Gamble launched GIVE Education to increase awareness of the student dropout crisis in the U.S. and raise funds to help keep students in school. With each redemption of P&G's specified brandSAVER coupon, the company will donate $.02 to Communities in Schools, a leading national nonprofit focused on dropout prevention. The donation is uncapped. The campaign also leverages a Facebook page that generates an additional $.25 donation for each video watched. . From Cause Marketing Forum. http://conta.cc/n49NJc

Do Big Stunts for a Cause Bring Big Results?
Fundraising galas and walkathons a bit too tame for your blood? Perhaps a little body art, a hostage goldfish or a brush with death would be more your style. You wouldn’t be alone. Cause supporters are going to extremes these days to prove their devotion to a cause. The Social Tattoo Project is hoping a few diehard advocates will get inked in the name of a cause. The Project reveals four topics each week, and via crowdsourced voting, decides which lucky volunteer will soon have a permanent reminder of a cause or event that mattered in that moment (#humantrafficking, #Haiti, #Norway, #poverty and #Japan, so far). http://bit.ly/qHx2Qc