Cause-Related Marketing is a commercial process with the help of which entrepreneurial businesses and charitable institutions form a partnership for marketing any specific image, product and a service for enjoying high-end benefits, mutually. In other words, it can be said that Cause-Related Marketing is more of a symbiotic process where both the parties benefit mutually. This kind of marketing is a marketing tool which can be used for addressing the relevant social issues throughout the day by providing better resources and funding alternatives. At the same time, it also addresses some relevant entrepreneurial objectives and tries to sync them with the resources and funding option.

For example, when the Cadbury Limited Company of UK collaborated with the Save the Children organization for raising funds for saving little kids and providing focused community programs for them; the corporate image of Cadbury Limited improved to a commendable extent. This is a perfect example of Cause-related marketing.

Benefits of cause-related marketing

Apart from improving the corporate image of businesses and providing funds to a charitable institute, there is also a couple of other additional benefits of cause-related marketing. Some of these benefits are listed below.

  • Builds a strong connection: This is probably the most significant reason you should opt for cause-related marketing. This marketing process builds an extremely strong connection between the concerned corporation and the cause for raising the money. For instance, in 1980’s, the American Express launched a large number of cause-related marketing campaigns. One of these campaigns was concerned with the Staten Island, where the American Express donated an amount for restoring the Statue of Liberty. This was done from every single credit card application the company received from that area. In this way, the cause of the company ended up relating to the core business values. So, when businesses end up building a strong bridge from itself to its supported cause, it also creates a situation where both the businesses are sponsoring the actual cause and at the end of the day, it is the cause that wins.
  • Emotional appeal: Successful cause-related marketing takes place when the efforts put in by both the organizations, finally appeal to the emotional facets of the target market. So, if a company rolls out a cause-related marketing campaign for raising money for the animal shelters, it will likely appeal to the feelings of the target market. This will also ensure that the efforts of cause-related marketing will have higher and better pay off. So, when a campaign strikes the responsive chords of the audiences, uses an emotional trigger, the donors are automatically motivated to splurge in the campaign.
  • Brand identity: When a corporation uses the tool of cause-related marketing, they eventually end up building a better and stronger brand identity. As people get an emotional connection from the brand, they end up choosing the brand instead of its contemporaries. In this way, the sales and the brand identity of the company improves in the long run.