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Marketing with a Cause
 Improve reputation by supporting a good social cause
What's the Point?  Living Proof  How to do it
 Viridian Nutrition

Viridian Nutrition supports a wide range of good causes. It has a joint initiative with the organic retailing chain, Fresh & Wild, which aims to generate funds for the Children's Country Holiday Fund (CCHF) and boost sales of Viridian products through Fresh & Wild stores. For every bottle of Viridian vitamins purchased through the six stores between April and December 2002, Viridian donated 20p to the CCHF. In addition, for every Viridian bottle recycled through the stores, Fresh & Wild gave another 25p to CCHF. The CCHF provides ten-day holidays in the countryside for underprivileged London children aged five to 12. Many of the children would not have the chance of a holiday without CCHF. Viridian has continued with a further promotion in 2003 with Kids Cookery School.

The Results

Viridian's cause-related marketing campaign has had a direct impact on its bottom line. It has experienced sales growth in excess of 100% year-on-year and the number of health food stores the company supplies has more than doubled in the last year. It has also had a direct positive impact on the local community.

 Who else is making a point?

Quadrant, a small communications company in Wales was looking for a way to grow its brand. Welsh National Opera (WNO) was keen to engage with local SMEs. In 2000 they built a sustainable, highly flexible partnership with clear agreed objectives. Quadrant invested cash and donated skills in staff media training, video and filming of WNO performances and school workshops. This enabled them to market the brand in England as well as in Wales and to demonstrate their outstanding technical capabilities.

The Results
Quadrant has developed its profile and reached new audiences by associating the brand with the excellence of WNO. The partnership won the SME award of Arts & Business in 2003, recognising the valuable benefits gained by both parties.

CHAMPs, the Construction Helping Missing Persons Scheme, led by Penlaw & Co. involves a selection of construction companies working with the National Missing Persons Helpline. Posters of missing people are displayed on the lorries of participating companies. The lorries involved in the scheme travel over 4.7 million miles in a year.

The Results
This scheme has had clear benefits for the businesses. It has helped to raise awareness of the various companies involved, created a better image of the construction industry and improved relationships amongst the participating companies. It has raised awareness of missing people and raised additional funds for the Helpline.

 Why is this important?
  • 83% of the British public have purchased a product or service associated with a cause or charity they care about compared with 68% in 2002. Source: Business in the Community, Brand Benefits 2002
  • Companies which take part in cause related marketing are seen as being more trustworthy and more innovative by consumers. Source: Business in the Community, Brand Benefits (2003), Giving Now (2003) and Secrets of Success 2002
  • 95% of consumers who have participated in cause related marketing programmes recognise the benefits for charities and good causes. Source: BitC Brand Benefits 2003
  • 80% of consumers and 85% of charity fundraisers think marketing programmes are a good way for charities to gain funds or equipment. Source: Business in the Community, Reaping the Benefits 2002
 Download the how-to guide in Full
 Each 'How-To' briefing is available in pdf or word formats. To read the PDF document with a screen reader please link to the Access Adobe website which provides useful tools and resources. Adobe also has a free online conversion tool for PDFs.
 PDF Icon  PDF file Cause Related Marketing.pdf
size 163kb
 Word Icon  Word file Cause Related Marketing.doc
size 40kb
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