IHOP is Flipping Flapjacks to Make Miracles! ~ What is Cause Marketing? #cause #causemarketing

Image via Wikipedi

Flip for Free Pancakes!  -Join IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day

• on Tuesday, February 23, 2010, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., 
• we'll give you one free short stack (three) of our famous buttermilk pancakes.*
  All we ask is that you consider making a donation to support local children's hospitals through Children's Miracle Network, or other local charities.

What do FREE pancakes have to do with making dreams come true?- the Children's Miracle Network and other charities?
...Macy's with Feeding America?, Marriot with March of Dimes?, Wally "Famous Amos' " cookies with literacy? - Literacy Volunteers of America?

It involves

• corporate social responsibility, 
• fundraising,
• nonprofit innovation.

It's called "Cause Marketing".

Cause marketing or cause-related marketing refers to a type of marketingnon-profit organization for mutual benefit. The term is sometimes used more broadly and generally to refer to any type of marketing effort for social and other charitable causes, including in-house marketing efforts by non-profit organizations.
The creation of the term "cause-related marketing" is attributed to American Express, and it was coined to describe efforts to support locally based charitable causes in a way that also promoted business. The term was then used to describe the marketing campaign led by American Express in 1983 for the Statue of Liberty involving the cooperative efforts of a "for profit" business and a Restoration project.
Cause-related marketing is a powerful marketing tool that business and nonprofit organizations are increasingly leveraging. According to the Cone Millennial Cause Study in 2006[10], 89% of Americans (aged 13 to 25) would switch from one brand to another brand of a comparable product (and price) if the latter brand was associated with "good cause". The same study also indicated that a significant percentage surveyed would prefer to work for a company that was considered socially responsible.

Cause marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Building a "Tribe" by Supporting a Cause

Social media marketing and social marketing are often confused for each other. Social marketing has long been a synonym for cause marketing. In thinking about how these two terms often get confused I realized: they are the SAME thing. We have fought to separate the two and make them out to be completely different. One that uses “technology” and another that “helps” people.Today I argue that all good social media marketing is social (cause) marketing. Cause marketing has always been about organizing a group of people in support of something: quitting smoking, fighting cancer, saving the environment, healthy eating etc.

Examples Of Social Media Tribes | Digital Capitalism

How should authors/publishers integrate "Cause Marketing" with "Platform Building"?

Platform development has always been about building from the author's sphere of influence and affinity relationships. By properly identifying with/and supporting a recognizable cause, an author's "attract-ability" is immediately enhanced.  This is "book promotion" that allows the purchaser to participate in contributing to a greater good. Creative innovation will bring together a strategic positioning with a directly related charity or a cause that is "top of mind" with the intended audience. 

...cause-related marketing promotions can increase your sales as much as 74%...
Nothing builds trust with your brand or service like a connection with worthy causes. You show you stand for more than profits, and the message resonates with your target audience.

Cause Marketing | Emerge Digital

What are some ways that your company has incorporated
"cause marketing" into your overall promotional strategies?

Does your book or publishing project relate uniquely to a special cause?

Is there a cause that you particularly support?

What are some suggestions that you might have
to make "cause marketing" truly "win-win"
for both promoter and for the supported cause?

Related articles by Zemanta

• ServiceNation: A campaign to inspire a new era of voluntary service in America (servicenation.org)
• Rite Aid Raised More Than $5.1 Million for Children's Miracle Network in 2009 (eon.businesswire.com)
• IHOP Sets Goal to Raise $1.75M on National Pancake Day 2010 (buckdaddyblog.com)