Every so often someone takes the pulse of cause marketing and declares it dead. Critics of cause marketing argue that people see through it – consumers are sick of brands pretending to care about social and charitable causes.
These critics have two things on their side: Regular, high-profile fails and documented public skepticism. Earlier this year, the backlash against Pepsi’s ad featuring Kendall Jenner prompted another funeral for cause marketing. And according to a recent YouGov survey, 57% of people believe that brands support causes on the basis of popularity, not genuine commitment.
Despite the skepticism, brands shouldn’t give up. Aside from the inherent value of doing good, genuine support of a cause helps consumers understand a brand’s values – and in digital, that matters a great deal. Also, I’d argue that the struggles of larger brands tell us very little about the value and inherent advantages of cause marketing for smaller brands.
Cause marketing is native to social.
While a video ad with a commercial message can perform well on social media, social is about more than the messages people absorb. On social, people respond to and share messages that resonate emotionally with them and reflect how they want to be perceived.
People may wish to be seen in a variety of ways -- as living a certain lifestyle, as having a certain status or as the supporter of a particular cause. All three of those things can be connected: Think of a fitness enthusiast on an expensive bike taking a selfie after a charity ride. If identifying with a brand can plausibly help to show a person in the right light -- in any of these interconnected ways -- then people will likely identify with the brand.
Values matter on social media.
The causes you support also reveal your brand values, and on social media, values matter. YouGov also found that 48% of consumers say they need to believe in a brand’s values before they talk positively about it on social media.
That means nearly half of consumers need to be aligned with your brand’s values before you’ll get so much as a kind word from them. That’s a very high bar for any brand to clear. Because supporting a cause gives immediate, clear insight into a brand’s values, it’s one of the most effective ways to reach that standard.
How cause marketing is done in digital.
Clif Bar & Company is a strong example of how to approach causes the right way. Clif produces organic snack bars and other high-energy foods and drinks for active people (runners, cyclists, climbers and so on). You can quickly understand a few key brand values from its website: outdoor adventure, access to organic and sustainable food and family.
Critically, the causes Clif Bar supports are continuous with the business and brand. Clif advocates protecting the national monuments its customers care about. A commitment to organic food is clear from both product ingredients and the brand’s work building urban farms in areas that lack sustainable and healthy food. These commitments are specific, consistent and genuine.
To generalize, cause marketing is best done by:
• Connecting with brand values: Think deeply about what your brand stands for and how the causes you support connect with that.
• Being consistent: Stick to a few causes (or just one) that matter most.
• Thinking about actions as well as messaging: Whether that’s partnerships with nonprofits, donations or volunteering by staff, what you do is as or more important than what you say.
• Being ready for backlash: After the 2016 election, causes that appeared safe for any large brand turned out to be deeply and vocally resented by a minority of people, taking many brands by surprise (and inducing fresh anxiety about cause marketing).
The backlash test is a good indicator of your brand’s commitment to a cause. If you could shrug off social media criticism because you believe in what you’re doing and that your true customers will support you, you may have found your cause. If you wouldn’t be comfortable with your brand coming under attack on social media for supporting a cause, it’s probably not for you.
Why cause marketing suits small brands better.
While big brands can do effective cause marketing, this is one area where small brands actually have the advantage. Small brands are more likely to have niche audiences with distinctive values. They don’t have to be all things to all people and have better opportunities to connect authentically with their audience.
Size also makes a brand into a bigger target for backlash when it's already part of the public conversation. People can rage at Clif in the Facebook comments and vow never to buy their products (and they do!), but Clif would have to do something extraordinarily bad to ever get even a fraction of the coverage of a Pepsi.
Finally, most people will have some background awareness of what a very large brand stands for. So if a brand stops talking about that and suddenly starts talking about, say, clean water, people notice and the change seems jarring, if not cynical. Unless it’s perfectly executed, going too big on a cause campaign can actually harden skepticism.
Cause marketing can be divisive and is not always easy to get right. But supporting good causes and doing good remains worthwhile in itself and is a powerful way of connecting with customers in their digital lives.
