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Robert Gray explains why adopting a cause suited to your brand is essential to good CRM
'The Ultimate Win Win Win', a report on cause related marketing (CRM) released by Business in the Community toward the end of last year,found that 86% of consumers have a more positive image of a company they see doing something to make the world a better place. Such an impact should not be overlooked.
It explains why Tesco recently ran its high-profile Computers for Schools programme for the ninth consecutive year. It explains how Halifax has raised more than 10m for three charities through its Visa charity affinity card. And it explains why Persil enjoyed a 25 % uplift in sales while raising 260,000 for Comic Relief through donations made for every special edition 'Red Nose' box of washing powder sold.
Unilever, owner of the Persil brand, has recently acquired ice cream company Ben & Jerry's, which is famous for its social marketing activities. Arch rival Procter & Gamble, meanwhile, is known to be developing new CRM programmes with Saatchi & Saatchi Cause Connection.
This month, the company is using its Always and Tampax sanpro brands to support charities Marie Curie Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Care, positioning itself as a brand concerned with women's health issues in the process.
Expected added value
"Consumers are discerning," says Business in the Community director, CRM, Sue Adkins. "With price and quality increasingly equal,consumers are looking beyond the price and functionality of a product or service; they are looking for additional points of difference. Consumers are also expecting companies to help address the social issues of the day.This is not value added,but value expected."
This was the driving force behind the tie-ins McVitie's and Trinity Mirror sought with the government's Maths Year 2000 initiative. The two worked together in a campaign to raise millions of pounds of free maths equipment for schools.
Helena Rubinstein,chief executive of international brand consultancy The Lab, agrees there has been a shift in the way consumers make purchases.This has come, she believes, at a time when companies are seeing a "higher purpose" to their existence, creating fertile conditions for CRM.
"It's a very human thing," she says. "If, as an employee, all you think you are...