Tag Archives: Cause Marketing

Blog, Cause Marketing, Rosica News

Why Cause Marketing Matters

Posted on by Rosica Communications

What is cause marketing or cause-related marketing (CRM) and why is it important?

Cause marketing is a public relations and marketing strategy. By forging an alliance with a nonprofit or “cause,” a company can leverage the public’s demand for socially responsible corporations and achieve its business objectives. Its relevance and power has never been more important than it is today.

Did you know that up to now, only 5% of all nonprofit giving came from corporations? This indicates that companies must not know the value or understand the impact – on business and marketing. Here are some important facts about cause marketing:

  • Successful cause marketing can bolster sales, build brand awareness, improve employee morale, help manage or avoid a crisis, create a fresh public relations strategy, all while making a positive contribution to the community
  • 84% of Americans think charitable giving by corporations is important (product, dollars, services) and a company’s charitable giving affects nearly three-quarters (73%) of Americans’ purchase decisions
  • Cause marketing demonstrates compassion and community involvement, which leads to improved recognition/awareness, emotional connectivity with customer, and increased loyalty
  • 89% of consumers say they want brands to shift money and resources to produce products that help people meet pandemic-related challenges

In partnership with Lakeland Bank today, Chris Rosica, president of Rosica Communications, presented on this timely topic – highlighting cause-related case studies and instructions from his book, The Business of Cause Marketing. These included:

  • Selecting a strategic charity/cause marketing partner
  • Ensuring your cause-related marketing initiatives get noticed
  • Utilizing CRM to bolster reputation management and impact crisis communications
  • Executing media events that command attention
  • Coordinating photo opportunities and visuals that appeal to media, which typically ensures media coverage
  • Measuring the impact on employee retention and customer and public perception

There are numerous cause marketing examples Rosica’s PR agency has been involved with, including Famous Amos Cookies, Rollerblade, Stew Leonard’s, HALOLIFE, Healing Hands, Verizon, ShopRite, and numerous others. All garnered print and broadcast media coverage with clear and compelling messages about the company and its mission, and some campaigns won national awards for the results.

When it comes to photo opportunities, here are a few we created, resulting in tremendous media coverage:

  • “Kicking off” Boys & Girls Clubs week for Boys & Girls Clubs on the 50-yard-line of Giants Stadium with kids, the State Director of BGCNJ, and a former Giants player
  • Instead of a traditional ribbon-cutting to open a new restaurant in Ridgewood, New Jersey, we created an ice sculpture ribbon and had the executive chef, restaurant owner, and mayor cut the “ribbon” with a chainsaw
  • Rather than the predictable oversized check presentation to a nonprofit, on behalf of a leading supermarket client, we created the world’s smallest $10,000 check – with a giant magnifying glass, which we gave to a hospice organization

These are just a few examples from Rosica’s book, The Business of Cause Marketing, that he discussed at this seminar. Rosica says, “Do good and do well.”

Blog, Cause Marketing

Top 5 Reasons Why Companies Employ Cause Marketing

Posted on by Rosica Communications

Today is World Corporate Social Responsibility Day.

From a business standpoint, it’s also the perfect opportunity to employ cause marketing.

Cause marketing is a public relations strategy that leverages the public’s demand for socially responsible corporations by forging an alliance between a for-profit company and a non-profit organization (or “cause”).

Under a cause-marketing campaign, a company incorporates a philanthropic agenda as part of its marketing strategy, garnering ongoing media attention and visibility through cause-related events, public relations activities, internal communications, merchandising, advertising, package design, online social media, and marketing. Cause marketing principles can be applied to any business model, whether the corporation is business-to-business or business-to-consumer, and regardless of company size.

Here’s the Top 5 Reasons Why Companies Engage in Cause-Marketing Campaigns:

Reason # 1 Give a Boost to Sales

Cause marketing attracts media attention, which gives the public greater awareness of the company. When properly implemented, cause marketing attracts media attention, which gives the public greater awareness of the company. And greater publicity (especially positive publicity) always translates into a bigger bottom line and desirability factor. A company that engages in a cause-marketing campaign enjoys increased sales because consumers show a greater interest in conducting business with charitable corporations. Because cause-related marketing impacts a company or brand’s image, it also impacts customer loyalty, which means that a company sees repeat sales from its existing client base and attracts new ones.

Reason #2: Build Brand Awareness

Did you know Famous Amos Cookies began with no advertising budget? No advertising budget whatsoever. However, in a textbook case still studied in college marketing classrooms today, Famous Amos and Literacy Volunteers of America (another little-known brand) partnered to develop grassroots media events that spread the message nationwide. With the help of Rosica Mulhern & Associates and its founding partners, Bill Mulhern, Marilyn Rosica, and John Rosica, the team-built brand awareness for Famous Amos Cookies, which eventually was purchased for millions.

Reason #3: To Improve Employee Morale

Companies that face high employee turnover and demoralized employees can ignite their employees’ passions by engaging in cause marketing. Common sense dictates that happier employees are more productive employees. If employees feel deeply passionate about a cause and understand that the company is concerned with more than profits, the company will see greater productivity and lower turnover. Companies that engage in cause-marketing campaigns will witness the entire corporate culture change for the better. Employees, excited about going to work, will feel good about the work they do.

Reason #4: Manage or Avoid Crises

In a perfect world, cause marketing should be proactive. Optimally, it should begin long before a company faces a public relations crisis, so that if and when an obstacle presents itself, the company has already established itself as a charitable one, and the fallout is not devastating. But let’s face it—many companies turn to public relations only as a solution to a crisis. If properly executed, cause marketing can help counter-act the reputational damage of a crisis by showing stakeholders your organization cares about a cause. This helps improve your brands image in the public eye.

Reason #5: Create a Fresh Public Relations and Publicity Strategy

One of a company’s main challenges is to keep itself fresh in the minds of its audiences when the company has nothing new to report. Ongoing media attention helps corporations (both business-to-business and business-to-consumer) build their brands by providing third-party endorsements, thereby boosting credibility and visibility. Cause marketing gives a company an evergreen story to tell. In terms of public relations coverage, this practice keeps the momentum going; it keeps the spotlight on the company year-round.

Nearly every company, regardless of size or objectives, should incorporate cause marketing into its public relations strategy. To order The Business of Cause Marketing, from Noble Press, visit Amazon.

Contact pr@rosica.com for more info…

Rosica News

Rosica Communications Opens Burlington, Vermont Office

Posted on by Chris Rosica

Rosica Communications, a national PR agency specializing in thought leadership, media relations, content marketing, social media management, corporate communications, SEO and cause marketing, is opening an office in Burlington, Vermont. With several clients already in the state and in nearby New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Canada, Rosica will focus on expanding its footprint.

According to agency President, Chris Rosica, “Vermont is home to a plethora of authentic food, beverage, snack and spirits companies with great stories behind them. This aligns with our tradition of helping consumer products companies in this space achieve their communications goals. While we’ll be spending a lot of time in the Burlington area, we’ll also focus on the entire state of Vermont and nearby New Hampshire, New York State, Massachusetts and Canada’s Quebec Provence, which have a growing base of smart entrepreneurial companies with distinct personas and unwavering missions to produce only the highest quality products. We are already working with companies in all of these areas and look to grow significantly.”

About Rosica

Founded in 1980, Rosica serves a diverse consumer products, healthcare, B2B and corporate clientele. Its PR and communications capabilities include positioning and messaging, thought leadership, media relations, social media management, crisis communications, content marketing, corporate communications, tradeshow marketing, cause marketing, direct marketing, media training and blogger outreach. Rosica’s social media services include strategy, management, branding, content development/optimization, follower acquisition and social sweepstakes. The PR firm’s online marketing team, based in New Windsor, NY specializes in SEO, online reputation management, online reviews management, online advertising (PPC and social ads) and website development. As a “thinking partner” focused on achieving its clients’ objectives, Rosica creates and executes thought leadership programs with clearly defined KPIs and measurement metrics. It crafts compelling, authentic stories and effectively disseminates client news, while supporting their sales efforts.