Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alison DaSilva, Ana Maria Irazabel, Ben Goldhirsh, Carol Cone, Cone, Edelman, Good, Good/Corps, IBM, KFC, Kirk Souder, Pepsi, PR Watch, Sebastian Buck, Starbucks, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, TBWA/Chiat/Day, The Pepsi Refresh Project, Toyota Prius
Andrew Adam Newman reports in The New York Times (May 12, 2011) that Good, the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good, is launching an agency, Good/Corps, to work with other companies on philanthropic initiatives.
Good is credited with helping to develop The Pepsi Refresh Project, which awarded more than $20 million to approximately 1,000 projects in 2010. The Pepsi Refresh Project encourages humanitarians to promote their causes on the Pepsi website and on Facebook, and consumers decide who should be awarded money by voting online. Now in its second year, Pepsi Refresh has been recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the five best social-media campaigns.
Mr. Newman writes that Good, based in Los Angeles, CA, met with Pepsi, which had created their new slogan to connect with popular sentiment following the 2008 U.S. presidential election, “Every Pepsi refreshes the world.”
“Over the last three or four years people have been looking at brands and asking, ‘Is this brand part of the solution or is this brand part of the problem?’” said Kirk Souder, executive creative director of Good/Corps. “More brands are coming out wanting to create a new North Star for themselves, and we help them align their business strategy with social impact.”
Or as Sebastian Buck, co-leader of Good/Corps submits: “In an era when consumers actually follow brands in the same manner they follow their friends on Facebook and Twitter, the values revolution is in many ways being amplified by the digital revolution. Customers can advocate both for and against companies, so companies have to be truly authentic. All brands are going to have to cross this threshold in terms of redefining themselves in this new culture.”
Several recent reports studying cause marketing’s impact on consumer behavior and brand perception support Mr. Souder’s claims. A study by Edelman, the public relations firm, found that nearly nine in ten (87%) Americans believe that companies should at least be concerned with societal interests as with business interests.
The 2010 Cause Evolution Study by the cause marketing experts, Cone, reported that 41% of consumers purchased a product in the past year because it was associated with a good cause, more than double the percentage (20%) that was reported in 1993, the first year of the annual study.
Additionally, Cone’s 2010 study claims that 80% of Americans were likely to switch to brands that supported a good cause; and an even higher percentage of 18-24 year-olds were likely to do so at 85%.
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