Comments on: Spin on Cause Marketing Strategy Stirs Controversy

By: Bob McClain

Bob McClain — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:14:27 +0000

I agree that some people completely missed the real value of the conversation and that is that value-driven marketing is a powerful and successful marketing strategy. It is also much easier for a small business to implement this kind of strategy than for a large corporation.

A coffee shop owner who donates a certain portion of their profits to breast cancer research and participates in fund-raisers will be perceived as much more genuine than if Ecolabs did the same thing.

However, there are ways around the “anti-big corporation” attitudes. McDonalds opened Chipotle as quietly as they could and the stores took off like a rocket because very few people realized this was a McDonalds business until it was too late. They were hooked on the convenience, the quality, the prices and the “cool” marketing.

What if Barnes & Noble quietly started a chain of small, intimate “neighborhood” bookstores as franchises, owned and operated by locals, but backed by the corporate efficiencies and marketing muscle of B & N? Would there be an anti-Walmart style backlash?

By: Gloria Holmes Cooper

Gloria Holmes Cooper — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:24:04 +0000

I agree with Maddie in that regardless of the label it is still marketing to a target audience. I think sometimes the new millennnials have simply found a new hook by calling it cause driven. I don’t mean to knock the altuistic sounding handles but as Joe said, even non- profits have to put the groceries on the table.
The big corporations have so finely honed target advertising to specific demographics that we often feel almost spied upon! I think maybe that is the real issue with anti-preneurs, that of feeling manipulated. I think the real appeal of cause driven marketing is feeling the opportunity and freedom to choose to identify with a common cause (maybe even containing a certain nobility to it) even when they know they are being solicited for business.

By: Want to Be Famous at FriendFeed? Jazz Up What You Share with the FriendFeed Bookmarklet | GROWMAP.COM

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:26:04 +0000

[...] FriendFeed bookmarklet did NOT pick up their title Spin on Cause Marketing Strategy Stirs Controversy from their post so it is important to add a title for them when sharing. Often I use their titles; [...]

By: Dave Webb

Dave Webb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:31:35 +0000

Roger – I agree with your observation about the millennials. A younger demographic often expects a more edgy, in-your-face approach to marketing and will respond if you connect with them.

Thanks for your insights & contribution to the conversation!

By: Roger Carr

Roger Carr — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:40:13 +0000

Hi Dave,

One key point of marketing is to identify who your target audience is. If your target audience is not young people (primarily in the millennial generation), then this article is not going to resonate very well.

In general, the millennial generation is influenced by a desire to support worthy causes. They steer away from large corporations and traditional advertising. They also are very mobile and “networked.” I don’t care for the term antipreneur, but getting upset over the message in the article is not going to change the new generation. We’re going to have to understand what is important to them and market to using terms and communication channels where they can be reached.

I did not feel the article was “anti-marketing” as much as it was addressing “new marketing.”

By: Dave Webb

Dave Webb — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:45:14 +0000

Maddie – “It’s all marketing. When it works, it’s because it’s genuinely motivated. If not, the web 2.0 world will see right through it.” I think you make a good point here. If a business uses an “anti-marketing” marketing strategy to make a strong emotional connection to their target market, they’ve given them what they want in their relationship building experience, and ultimately, their buying experience.Today’s marketplace is not stupid. They’ll know if you’re not real and they may even realize your “anti-marketing” message really is marketing. But they won’t care if you market to them if they identify with the message you are putting out there.

Excellent insights from a fresh voice – just what I hoped for (and expected) when I pointed you here!

Joe – It’s true that it can be difficult to be authentic, but that “common thread” that tells the “Real Story” is what organizations need to be focusing on in the new networked economy. Good products and services that provide good value are not enough for an organization to cut through the clutter these days. People are bone-weary from the burden of sifting through the thousands of marketing messages they are exposed to every day. Making that emotional connection on something they are already passionate about may just be the energy drink they’ve been looking for.

By: Joe Dager

Joe Dager — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:19:34 +0000

I thought the article was right on. However, it is difficult to be authentic. So many small businesses work under the pressure of having to put groceries on the table today that they will seldom tell their “Real Story.” But also more amazing is that typically when small business and even nonprofits look back on the previous 12 months they can find a common thread that attracted their best customers to them. That is how I explain their hook or their authenticity.

Without checking sources, but often looking to Dr. Seuss for inspiration, did he not have a book on “I want to be somebody different.”

By: Maddie Grant

Maddie Grant — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:52:17 +0000

Dave, thanks for pointing me to this discussion! What I find really funny about the whole hoo-ha, and what many commenters on the article are reacting against, is that this type of cause-related “anti-marketing” marketing, is just another kind of marketing. I think you are right that the “anti-preneur” label is misleading and is actually irrelevant to the subject, which is using causes or politics to sell something. This can fall under what Rohit Bhargava calls “un-whatever marketing” (positioning your brand as the opposite of something else) OR “karmic marketing” (doing good with your brand), but it’s all marketing. When it works, it’s because it’s genuinely motivated. If not, the web 2.0 world will see right through it. Personally, I see it all as a very Gen-X style of doing things, where you can have different layers of meaning to what you are doing – i.e. selling something, building a business, making money, advancing a cause, bettering the world. For associations and non-profits, this is actually a very good model because non-profits are actually NOT not-for-profit, they have to make a living and stay in business like everybody else, but they are uncomfortable with that paradox.

By: Dave Webb

Dave Webb — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:26:52 +0000

JP – Duly noted. Thanks for the clarification and your contribution to the conversation.

By: JP Micek

JP Micek — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:01:29 +0000

Aloha Dave,

Thanks for the mention. Just wanted to make one minor correction. I never said “the business owners anti-capitalist.”

I merely stated that BizWeek’s preposition in the article and their central trope was seriously flawed. If they based the term “anti-preneur” on the correct definition of Entrepreneur (instead of their own mis-guided one,) it would indite the people featured in the article since they’d be fighting themselves.

They ARE entrepreneurs capitalizing on emotional currents in the market to sell more of their products or services. They ARE providing a solution, wrapping it in emotion and profiting. No different than what corporations do, and definitely what successful entrepreneurs do.

The subjects of the article (and BizWeek themselves) ARE capitalists. They are who they’re actually fighting against.

I’d find the entire concept put forth in the article quite humorous, if their juvenile veil of political postering were not so offensive.

Of course, thats all IMHBAO.
)