Saving the World as a Marketing Technique

For poor children. For cancer research. To save the rainforest. For more sales!

Is “social responsibility” a “marketing angle”? The answer is yes, and sometimes more than that. I have used social-conscious appeals for my own clients and they have worked great. Lately, however the trend is growing and businesses are designed completely around this aim. In other words, saving the world in one way or another is the purpose of their company, enmeshed in their business plan, not just an overlay in their marketing plan.

The way to the cause

Here are three main avenues that businesses choose to save the world:

1. Nonprofits including foundations and philanthropic agencies with a specific cause;

2. For-profit businesses that launch specific campaigns for a cause (the marketing overlay); and 3. For-profit businesses that are built around a specific cause.

Lately the retail sector seems to be on fire to save the world, including for-profit businesses with an aim to make a difference. The Body Shop was one of the first I can remember that encouraged reusing their plastic bottles and making it popular to forego a bag for your merchandise. Now it’s a prevalent values statement for companies. Whether it’s a free pair of shoes going to a third world country for every pair you buy (TOMS), or a percentage of proceeds going to medical research (Happy Nappers, and many more), these philanthropic endeavors draw us to products so we too can help save the world.

Is it a gimmick?

When the purchase of a product benefits the world, the feel good appeal puts consumers in a position to reason, “If I buy this, I help the world too. How wonderful!”

Reading TOMS website, you’ll find it very convincing that selling shoes in a for-profit environment (online, Nordstrom) is a means to an end. Basically, that the mission of the company is to shod children around the globe, and selling shoes helps make that mission possible. It’s no different than a non-profit holding a dinner auction to raise money to buy books for local children. Same result, different angle. Very clever!

If you’re going to buy it anyway, okay. But let’s be clear that those companies are not philanthropic, 501 c 3 nonprofit organizations. They sell stuff and make money. They are using their generosity as a marketing angle to get you to choose their product over another—and join their team to save the world. The retail sales price of one of the “buy one and another goes overseas” products, pays for two of those products, the shipping to get the one to a third world country, the staff to oversee that endeavor as well as the production of the product, and enough money to make a profit. In other words, you are helping to save the world with your pocketbook, which is similar to a nonprofit contribution, but the company makes a profit. The company also benefits from the marketing and perhaps tax deduction of its donation. The retail price for a pair of TOMS, for instance, ranges from $38 for kids to $98 for a pair of women’s vegan boots and $100 for men’s perforated leather shoes. Not exactly on the low end and not a tax deduction for you. 

Does it Work?

As a consumer, you can instead buy the competitor’s product for half the price and give the difference to your favorite nonprofit. But, as a start-up business, this might be an angle to consider. After all, TOMS has donated more than 1,000,000 pairs of shoes.

Lately it’s very cache, even important, to have a social-responsibility factor in your marketing plan, your mission, or in your core values. It does work. People want to feel they are backing companies that recycle, use sustainable products and natural resources responsibly, and have an organic, natural feel to them.

I think this is a generational trend as much as it is part of the prevailing “rivers of thought.” The Millennial Generation is generally socially liberal and is disgusted by waste (i.e. paper bags), and tends to feel a strong obligation to take care of the earth. Composting = good; drilling for oil = bad. Companies that don’t have a social agenda are off-putting to them.

What Can You Do?

More old-school professionals are not as blatant with their community service. They volunteer to serve on boards, they chair fundraisers for non-profit organizations and they sponsor charities with cash and prize donations. Their service is personal and doesn’t necessarily involve their whole business and its personnel.

If you run a small business and a cause is not already at the center of your existence, there are still many ways to help without doubling your prices to do it. Local eatery Johnny Rebs has coin jars on the tables next to bowls of peanuts for their patrons to deposit a few coins or a dollar when they dine. Their “Shell Out for Charity” campaign raises money for charities that rotate throughout the year.

Martha Alderson, the Plot Whisperer promised to plant a tree for every Like she got on her Facebook page during a certain time period. She reports that 120 tree seedlings were planted in American forests from her campaign.

You can do something simple or you can choose to do something very ambitious like create your own fundraiser or service campaign. Large or small, it is important to give back to your local—or global—community.

What Else Is True?

How many versions of the truth are there? Some would argue that the truth is finite and therefore just one answer for any question. That’s true in math and for some sciences, but not for most of everyday life.

More than once, I have used kaleidoscopes in training presentations to represent that there are many versions of the truth. Ask three people to look through a kaleidoscope and tell you what color is in the center and you are more than likely to get three different answers—all true.

I use this demonstration to show that many people—though appearing to disagree—can in fact be telling the truth. It’s the truth as they see it, as they know it and commit to it. Some people are open to understanding that other answers may be correct and some people are insistent that their answers are the ONLY right answers. That’s where group dynamics get interesting.

I’m not suggesting to abandon all of your opinions in the name of compassion or cultural sensitivity. I want you to apply this thinking to your press releases. Most of the time, your press release will be used as a starting point for a reporter. The reporter will interview people that you mentioned and people that you didn’t. The reporter might already have an idea about your topic and take a completely different angle than what you suggested, simply because they see it differently.

Before you issue a press release, read it like a reporter taking it as an assignment, acknowledging that the reporter sees the center of the kaleidoscope differently than you do. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Does anybody care about this? Have I compelled them to care? What’s newsworthy about it?

I once had a client who was nominated for an award that she did not win. She asked me to issue a press release about it. About what? As Gertrude Stein said, “There’s no there there.” Unless there was something she had overcome to get nominated in the first place, there was no reason any newspaper would pick it up. There were no qualifications for the nomination either, anyone could nominate anyone.

2. Can a reporter take action with this story?

In other words, let the reporter know your news before it happens so they can be there and take some pictures. If you are reporting something that already happened—a decision, an event, an award—then supply pictures and quotes to the press regarding the reaction to what happened. 

3. If a reporter speaks to my competition or opponent on this topic, what will he or she say?

Anticipate your opponent’s side of the story and refute it. Right up front, just get the naysayers out of the way. If you know the other guy says the center of the kaleidoscope is yellow when you contend it is blue, then address it like this. “Though many people claim that the center is yellow, they fail to take into account that the kaleidoscope needs to be turned 45° in order to be viewed according to the manufacturer’s recommendation. When used properly, the viewer sees blue.” Hyperbole aside, you want to address the issue and get it out in the open in a way that leads the reader to agree with you. Some reporters will incorporate your statement and not call the opposing side for an opinion, while others will call your competition right away. 

4. Are my statistics and facts accurate and proved by a legitimate agency or organization? Are there statistics refuting my argument?

This is extremely important. It’s very easy to lie with truthful statistics. If I say, “Our program has a 98% success rate,” that sounds impressive. But if I left out that the success rate is only based on the 40% who stay in the program, that could pose a problem if the reporter digs that far. Perhaps 40% retention is better than your competition and you’re still okay. Think about the other side of the statistics before you publish them. If 40% stay in the program, what happens to the 60% who dropout?

Be mindful that there are more versions of the truth than what you are putting in your press release. Think them through for optimum results. 

Derek Sivers has become one of my favorite speakers to watch on YouTube with short TEDtalks. Here’s his video that demonstrates how things are different (or weird) worldwide.