What Is Cause-Related Marketing and Why Is it Important Today?

The social causes of today do not get any recognition by themselves. So, well-known brands pair up with newbie NGOs to spread awareness for the same. In this article, we talk about the benefits of cause-related marketing.

What is Cause-Related Marketing?

Every advertisement you watch today has an edge to it. Some take you by surprise; some capture your attention, some make you want to buy the product, and some push you to change the channel.

The credit for the edge of an advertisement goes to social causes around the globe. The people of today feel moved, motivated, and woke by social causes that get addressed by the television industry, cinema, and their fraternity.

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Cause-related marketing stands by each advertisement, pamphlet, campaign, brochure, movie, and introduction to any product you come across today.

Advertisement platforms that feature quirky topics, sexual innuendos, weird commercials, nastiness, and issues surrounding the LGBTQ community get the most attention nowadays. These are the social causes of today. We live in a world where we still need to address our sexualities. And accept the ones with quirkiness in them.

How to Define Cause-Related Marketing?

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It is a mutual relationship between a corporate organization and a non-profit organization. Corporate organizations want to gain profits for their products and services. Non-profit organizations desire the public and political parties to know, understand, appreciate, accept, fight for, and live with social causes.

Some of the top social causes of today include:

• Role of media in the life of a celebrity and society
• Gender bias in politics
• Trolling
• Sexual harassment in workplaces
• Post-Covid world
• Global refugee crisis
• Impact of social media influences on youth
• Acceptance of LGBTQ
• World Peace
• Mental illness myths

Of course, there are many more topics, but these are some of the few that can garner much attention.

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Statistics to Back Cause-Related Marketing

According to Higher Visibility, Cause-related marketing has a vast number of advantages; these include:

• 93% of worldwide consumers are loyal to brands that understand the advantages of cause-related marketing.
• 91% of worldwide consumers love to shift to brands that support a good and prevalent social cause. Example? Tinder recently embraced cause-related marketing through LGBTQ acceptance.
• 83% of global Gen Z and Millennials feel brand values must match their values.
• 3% of worldwide consumers feel they have boycotted brands for their stance on social causes.
• 62% of Gen Z and Millennials feel they love to buy products from brands that portray their ideologies and belief systems.
• 64% of Gen Z consumers want to buy products from eco-friendly brands.
• 89% of global consumers believe the corporations that possess cause-related marketing strategies stand a chance to ace today’s marketplace.
• 70% of consumers want to know how companies address social and environmental issues of the world.
• 46% of consumers keep a tab on a company’s actions in terms of social causes.
• 85% of global consumers feel a purpose-driven organization will gain more profit than an organization that is not a supporter of cause-related marketing.

Benefits of Cause-Related Marketing

Below are a few benefits of cause-related marketing.

1. Fulfillment of corporation and non-profit organization’s social responsibility

Every citizen’s prime duty is to serve the country. It could be by throwing garbage in the garbage cans, not spitting in public, or not urinating in public places. The services and products of the corporation must have a positive impact on the world.

2. Improvement of the image of both the corporate world and NGOs

Corporate image is everything in the world of advertisement and marketing. The advantages of cause-related marketing for the corporate world and NGOs include setting an example for the world to follow, like, share, and subscribe to.

3. Formation of a relationship with the people of the community

Selling a brand is one thing, but selling it to the people you understand is another. Through cause-related marketing techniques, you get to develop relationships with the crowd. The crowd buys your product with sheer trust. And how else would you gain confidence without developing a relationship with them?

4. Attainment of loyalty to a brand

The loyalty of global customers to brands that support a social cause is beyond par. Examples to prove it include:

•  #BlackLivesMatter campaign by McDonald’s when African-Americans are tortured in the United States.

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• Womb Stories campaign by Bodyform to normalize talking about menstruation, menopause, infertility, and endometriosis.

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• ‘Beer for Girls’ campaign by BrewDog Forest to address the gender bias and gender pay gap.

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5. Enhancement of employee morale and values

Any human resource management of a company strives to boost the morale and values of its employees. When an NGO pairs up with a corporation through mediums such as social cause-related marketing, it tends to strike a nerve in an employee’s heart, mind, and soul. They feel the corporation they work for supports the public. The public includes their immediate contacts, family, and themselves.

Conclusion

Social issues in India and worldwide are not going to come to a halt. If the public wants the corporation to recognize, embrace, and take care of social causes, what’s the harm in it?

The social cause-related marketing success graph can only go upwards when done correctly. The more we know about it, the more we can tackle it.

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