Brand Spirit : How Cause Related Marketing Builds Brands

The only guide to understanding and making the most of one of the hottest trends in branding today

Nothing builds brand loyalty among today's increasingly skeptical, hard-to-please consumers like a proven commitment to a worthy cause on the part of a company. Known as Cause Related Marketing (CRM), this approach to branding has gained a great deal of momentum over the past decade, thanks, in no small part, to such recent, notable examples as McDonald's commitment to saving the rain forests and BMW's breast cancer fund-raising initiatives. Now, in the first book to explore the business benefits of CRM and its positive and negative impacts on business strategy, two experts explain the concept and fundamental principles of CRM and its place within the contemporary discourse on branding. And, with the help of numerous, fascinating, and instructive case studies, they demonstrate how marketers can harness the power of CRM to position and enhance customer loyalty to a brand, product, or service.

Cause Related Marketing, or CRM, is an increasingly popular corporate practice that seeks to tie a company or brand to a charitable effort. Think promotions promising a percentage of sales to specific nonprofits, or advertising touting particular philanthropic programs in addition to products or services, and you get the idea. At its best, CRM aids charities (raising awareness as well as cash), businesses (associating them with authentic social benefits), and consumers (providing ways to acquire products or services while simultaneously making charitable contributions). At its worst, the process rings hollow and may actually serve to hurt the companies involved. Hamish Pringle, former vice chairman of marketing for Saatchi & Saatchi, and Marjorie Thompson, current director of the company's Cause Connection, believe any firm that's sincere can use CRM.

In Brand Spirit, they explain the way a number of such campaigns--including the American Express Charge Against Hunger, Avon's Breast Cancer Awareness Crusade, and Reebok's Human Rights Now! Tour--were developed to assist relevant programs as well as enhance corporate image. Pringle and Thompson show through these and other detailed case studies how mutually beneficial programs are devised and deployed, and what they can achieve. "Commercial enterprises will continue to see real benefits in helping ensure a harmonious balance between the stronger and weaker in society," they write, "and in structuring themselves to deliver the optimum blend of self-interested altruism to their communities." Their subsequent proposal is a solid blueprint for companies of all types and sizes that wish to demonstrate actively a genuine commitment to the concept of corporate social responsibility. --Howard Rothman.