There’s no denying that cause marketing campaigns can be successful but there are new expectations that require attention. Companies interested in adopting a cause marketing campaign need to execute so that the campaign resonates with their audiences in a way that is sincere and that evokes a strong connection between the company’s brand and it cause of choice. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty does that for me because it targets women of all ages, shapes and sizes throughout the U.S. and brings them together to celebrate natural beauty and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable in their own skin. 

 Cause marketing is a marketing effort that benefits social and other charitable causes. Some of the most influential cause marketing campaigns include: the (RED) Campaign, Box Tops for Education, the Livestrong bracelet campaign and the Yoplait Save Lids to Save Lives campaign. These big campaigns have been around for years and continue to populate the Web, TV and print mediums as well as our local grocery stores and coffee shops.

Just last week I took this picture of the latest Tully’s product display. This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Tully’s is just one of the many companies to join the cause. In October, the color pink is everywhere. We’re all familiar with the little pink ribbons. The pink ribbon symbolize the fight against breast cancer and now, years after the introduction of the ribbon, the color pink provides the same recognition year round.

According to a recent USA Today poll, 84 percent of all Americans including 95 percent of those ages 18 to 29, now “shop for the cure,” buying pink products to benefit breast cancer research. While highlighting the campaigns success, the poll also illustrates mixed feelings about the campaign with consumers feeling that Breast Cancer Awareness is taking all the limelight away from other cancer originations that need recognition and funding. Recently, there has been a heightened skepticism associated with some cause marketing campaigns. According to an article in Philanthropy Journal, 67 percent of consumers feel that companies are supporting organizations to merely sell product.

Taking into consideration the mixed emotions towards these nation-wide campaigns, it seems that it’s no longer enough to merely sell a product to benefit a good cause.

-Amy

Google Adwords presents a cost-conscious solution for any company to begin online advertising. Because Adwords is both technical and artistic, it is best to use professional counsel like a firm or media buyer to set-up a campaign.

With Adwords, potential customers can be recruited by organic Google searches, and companies are able to highly target potential customers by geographic region and through select keywords. For example, a local-based company would want to set their Adwords within a 20-mile radius to ensure they are reaching the right location.

Ads are made up of campaigns, each containing one or several search terms. Google allows advertisers to have any number of campaigns. Adwords is unique in that the ad is created based on the message or service the potential customer is searching for, not the message the company wants to deliver to the potential customer, as with a traditional ad campaign.  

Costs for advertising incurs each time an ad is clicked, up to a prefixed daily amount. Those costs can go as low as a company wishes, although $250 a month seems like the lowest reasonable amount. How does the budget limiting work? If a campaign budget is set at $10 per day, once that budget limit is reached, the ad will not appear for the remainder of the day. The cost per click for each ad will vary depending upon the popularity of that keyword.

For a company beginning Adwords, it’s best to start small and build spending and campaign size once a better understanding is gained of how Adwords functions and what keywords are most effective. Ideally, there should be a dedicated employee, or an outside media buyer, to monitor and modify the campaign on a continual basis.

An effective Adwords campaign requires continual monitoring and refinements. Google provides several helpful tutorials and tips for best practices with Adwords.

- Bailey

Word of mouth marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing disciplines in the world. More and more companies are doing it, more and more agencies are specializing in it, and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is growing rapidly. As for what kinds of businesses stand to benefit most from word of mouth campaigns, consumer products and services are at the top of the list.

But despite the discipline’s growth, it’s hard to wrap one’s head around just what it is and how it’s done. So what is word of mouth marketing? According to WOMMA, it’s “giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.” OK then, how is it done most effectively?

That depends. There are a number of different types of word of mouth marketing categories, including: buzz, viral, community, grassroots, evangelist, product seeding, influencer, cause, and the list goes on. To determine how best to carry out a word of mouth campaign, a number of factors are at play—a couple of them being the actual product and the target audience.

Looking at those two variables alone, an effective word of mouth campaign can range from the enormous and expensive to the targeted and cost effective. In my opinion, great word of mouth marketing doesn’t need to be expensive and it doesn’t need to be complicated. One of my favorite campaigns is Lululemon’s ambassador program, where the company invites respected yoga instructors in all their target markets to buy their apparel at deep discounts. Their program has been a wild success. Go to any yoga class and take a look around—anyone not wearing Lululemon gear will be in the minority.

Word of mouth marketing can also come through the design of a product itself. Think of the first time you saw an ipod. It was pretty mind-blowing, right? There were mp3 players before the ipod, but they didn’t really catch on because they weren’t designed very well. But when the ipod came out, it was so elegant and so easy to use, it spread like wildfire, largely through word of mouth. Everyone just had to have one!

You can even combine these two ideas of influencers and product design. Le Bernadin in New York City was recently recognized by Zagat as the most popular restaurant in the city (knocking off Gramercy Tavern after a 15-year run). In a recent interview, chef and co-owner Eric Ripert addressed the importance of the waiters’ uniforms. They’re designed by Prada (and I suspect Prada provides them at a deep discount if not for free); they’re custom fit to each server; and they’re of course always kept clean (dirty uniforms is #95 on Mr. Ripert’s list of 129 restaurant cardinal sins—click here to see the others). Imagine having someone wearing well-fitting Prada answering to your every need! Sounds good to me.

These are just a few examples of how word of mouth can be used effectively. It’s an enormous and exciting discipline, and although it’s often associated with social media, studies show that 90 percent of word of mouth takes place offline. Is your company doing everything it can to maximize word of mouth in all its forms?

-Nathan