Does doing right have a positive impact on a company’s performance? New research shows indeed it can. Adding what’s known as cause marketing into your marketing messaging can be a powerful way for businesses to attract and retain customers.
Marketers today must focus on cause marketing campaigns and messages that represent what the business truly stands for, rather than just jumping on the latest hot-button issue.
Tune in to this morning’s WJR Business Beat to learn more on cause marketing from Jeff:
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Good morning, Paul.
Does doing right have a positive impact on a business’s performance?
Well, new research shows indeed it can. Adding what’s known as cause marketing into your marketing messaging can be a powerful way for businesses to attract and retain customers. Cause marketing generally refers to a business standing for something in order to strengthen a brand’s value and its attractiveness to customers who also care about the same cause.
Could be fighting for equal rights, could be supporting an environmental cause, or it could be underscoring the importance of wearing a mask and social distancing in the COVID-19 era.
Sounds good, right? It is. But it’s a tough balance to cut sometimes between the hard selling that typically goes with advertising and promotions and the softer side of cause marketing. And if you go there, you must come across as authentic, or there could be worse consequences than not going there at all.
After all, advertising and marketing messages are intended to sell, sell, sell, and keeping a focus on doing good can confuse or cloud the focus of selling hard. And worse yet, you never want your business to come across as disingenuous, thereby hurting your brand equity.
For example, if a company’s messaging includes the importance of wearing masks and then customers see that the brand isn’t taking steps to protect its staff by not enforcing its staff to wear masks, this can have a negative impact on how a customer views the business. And any negative reaction in today’s most competitive environment can have a deleterious impact on sales.
Marketers today must focus on cause marketing campaigns and messages that represent what the business truly stands for, and not just jumping on the latest hot button issue. If you’re going to have any positive social messaging in your advertising campaigns included at all.
So, if you’re a business looking to attract new customers and secure current customers, cause marketing can be a powerful way to help you achieve just that, as long as you come across as genuine and authentic in whatever the cause messaging may be.
I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of StartupNation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.
