Cause Marketing: Build Your Image Through Socially Responsible Partnerships, Programs, and Events

Cause marketing—as practiced by Ben & Jerry promoting environmental issues—is a wonderful tool if it resonates with your customers and makes sense in terms of pairing the right products with the right cause at the right time. But it can backfire when there is no fit, exposing companies to charges of opportunism, lack of dignity, or the dreaded "they just don't get it." Author Marconi uses post-September 11th advertising as an example of companies that created restrained and tasteful cause marketing ads (KMart's full page cut-out American flag, branded only by a small logo) and others that may have crossed the line into poor taste (a Marriott ad that sympathized with victims' families, and also announced a new "Come Out and Play" weekend package in the same ad).