cause marketing needs to lead to action

Last Friday I had a meeting about a project a friend is developing. He’s starting a Foundation and the best thing is the fact that neither him or his team members come from the non-profit sector. Instead, they’re from the marketing sector. Curious? It gets better: this foundation is not about a specific cause; it’s about all causes. I don’t want to give much detail because I think it will be best if you see it in a few months when it’s out there, but I can tell you this: it’s a great idea mixed with a great team; it can’t go wrong.

Anyway, from this meeting excellent ideas came up to continue innovating and improving the social development area. From this, I got the topic for this post: the lack of good marketing strategies in non-profits.



I think that people who start up foundations are so eager to help and raise funds to do it, that they don’t pay too much attention to one of the key ingredients for a successful Foundation: communications. In this area, a cause needs to be treated as any product in the market, they must call to action: buy the product! Help this cause! Campaigns must be appealing, interesting and must have great impact.

Those campaigns with shocking images of kids dying in Africa are just that: shocking. But if you want people to feel compromised with that cause, leading them to help, relying on a shocking image just won’t do.

I believe that people want to see results. A big ad with a shocking image, a shocking fact AND the results and accomplishments of the foundation's work.

We all know that smoking is a terrible habit and that adults and children are dying terrible deaths because of this. A big poster on a highway or a magazine is not going to change that. It only works as a reminder but not a real call to action. Sometimes the images are so crude, that people look away and don’t get to see the message (which by the way is written in tiny letters). WWF is a big example of this. They work for the conservation, restoration and research of the environment but does anyone know their accomplishments? I keep seeing their ads like this one

And all I they leave me with is the impact of a great image, and clear reminder of a problem but no clue on how to stop or prevent it.

This is why I believe cause marketing needs to lead to action. An effective campaign will be the one where the Organization shows what they have accomplished but, most importantly, tone that tells the public what to do to support them and enable them to continue their great work.