Welcome
Sample Posts
Blogroll
- Andy Fargnoli’s MKT413 Blog
- Beaton’s Blog
- Blair Blogs
- Blogging with Bunting
- Branding Betsy
- Cherelle Hunter
- Connect the Dots
- House of Ads
- IMKommunications
- Keeping up with Katie
- Kelvin’s IMC Blog
- Liz’s Minute for Marketing
- Losa's (b)Log
- Marketing Marvels
- Nick’s Marketing Corner
- Paul’s Blog
- Robert McIver IMC Blog MKT 413
- Silv’s Stories
- Simplifying Marketing W/ Sam Kahane
- Sofia Ibarra
- The Wonderful World of Marketing
- Thoughts with Scherms
- TO MARKET WE GO
- Tune In With Turek
- victoriaascloset
URLs
Tags
Tag Archives: 413Assign3
Not for Profits: Trends and The Road Ahead
Starting from scratch:
It is the way the best recipes are made, but starting from scratch also takes the most work, not allowing you to cut corners when producing the final product. A Ban Against Neglect, (ABAN) was started from scratch by three young adults looking to build a viable charitable organization to benefit the young mothers and children of Ghana. ABAN was built on a purpose to educate and facilitate the transition for these young women from life on the streets to a more fulfilling and safer living and working environment. With ABAN now up and running, selling the company’s products in order to keep the organization financial viable, they are looking into the future and for them that means expansion. ABAN wants to expand their current program in order to house and train 10 more girls for the coming year, but in order to achieve that goal ABAN needs more revenue at the tune of $25,000.
 |
| Photo Credit: http://www.weatherimagery.com |
In order for ABAN to achieve their goal, they are going to need to implement new strategies into their marketing mix, and look at what has worked for other non-profits in the past. In class Holly Stewart talked about how some non-profits make the mistake of thinking their cause can “sell itself”. This is not the case, because of the plethora of charitable organizations people can give to, there needs to be differentiation, interest and a message that potential supporters can connect to and feel like it is worth their time and money to get invested in this cause, which is what us as marketers need to do in order to help ABAN reach their goal.
 |
| Photo Credit:http://blogs.1037themountain.com |
In today’s technologically driven society Taylor Corradorecognizes that getting involved in social media outlets is key for marketing and getting people aware of your non profit organization. ABAN has already established avenues of social media on twitter and facebook, but now it is time to rev up those pages, along with their website to create more traffic and activity on their sites. Holly Stewart mentioned crowdsourcing as a way for “a large group of people to participate in an online event, make them feel like they are apart of the brand.” I think ABAN can do this in a way as an online auction, selling their products online in a live setting. I think it would also be extremely effective to get some sort of celebrity or well known benefactor on board to promote the brand, for example Bono partnering with the RED campaign, so more people become informed and are more likely to help if they see a face they know and respect on the brand of the organization.
 |
| Photo Credit: http://blog.pinnaclecart.com |
Corrado gives examples of how to be successful with social media when marketing your nonprofit. Corrado highlights was to get supporters to interact with the brand, for example
“Run a contest on your Facebook page and ask supporters to post a video or simply write the reason why they support your cause on your page. You can pick your favorite, and dedicate a blog post and email to that individual. You can even create a Facebook event for your next fundraiser and ask attendees to virtually “check in” the day of. Be creative and test out different ideas to see what drives the most engagement.”
With ABAN being a relatively new non-profit, there are many avenues, our class as marketers can take in order to increase the organizations brand equity, and help them reach their goal of $25,000. We need to look at ABAN’s cause model and come up with an effective plan in order to keep this organization as sustainable and viable as possible!
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Don’t Just Buy an Item, Change a Life
An Award-Winning InsightThis past week award winning brand strategist, marketer, PR exec and writer, Holly Stewart came to my IMC class to discuss her work with non-profits and to shed some light on what works and what doesn’t in terms of strategies fo… Continue Reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Social Cause Marketing
Our class discussion with Holly Stewart this week got me thinking about unique co-branding partnerships. I’m gonna go ahead and say it. The “Buy a Sex Toy, Save a Child” advertisement was about as far from appropriate as a non-profit’s message could be… Continue Reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Importance of Non-Profit Marketing
ABAN – The fabric of change.
ABAN is an example of how one person’s vision can improve the quality of life of many. Callie began ABAN after visualizing the destructive impact of the littered waste throughout the city’s streets that young girls called home. These young girls would not only fall asleep on the streets full of contaminated plastic garbage, but their young children and babies, produced by prostitution and abuse as a way of surviving, would as well. Callie continues to strive to make a difference among the lives of more than 21,000 young girls and children in Accra, Ghana.
Non-Profit/For-Profit
ABAN is an example of how a non-profit can manifest a subsequent for-profit business to support and sustain their non-profit efforts. As like Toms Shoes, ABAN designs and sews fashionable and sustainable bags from plastic bags that are collected and sanitized from the streets. This effort supports ABANs facilities and campus that supports a number of young girls. These facilities offer basic necessities such as food, shelter, and hygiene, in addition to counseling and career services for long-term goal orientation.
Where should we go from here?
ABAN’s has had success so far within the past few years, but the non-profit hope to double in sales revenue, so that they can assist more girls in Accra and neighboring cities in Ghana. The services to these girls are so crucial and need to be expanded. ABAN’s mission is to increase their marketing and collaborative efforts to expand their clientele who empathize with the mission.
Holly Stewart, a successful non-profit marketing strategist, visited our class to discuss how marketing for a non-profit is not considerably different than marketing for a for-profit business. Non-profits seek out loyal supporters to provide monetarily for their endeavors. The goal to capture a supporter is just as important as the goal to capture a customer. A non-profit is just as much of a brand name as Tide or Louis Vuitton. Supporters of a non-profit seek to understand what the mission of the non-profit is, who the non-profit supports specifically, and the quality of support the non-profit is providing. Non-profits have to compete for supporter loyalty, as for-profits do for customer loyalty. Supporters are seeking effective non-profits that can prove efficiency in their strategy and an ability to measure their effectiveness.
As I research more and more for my endeavors with ABAN, I am finding that there are many outlets non-profits can use to raise awareness and revenue. I believe my team is doing an excellent job in jotting down new ideas and collaborative strategies that will excel ABAN in positive direction in the weeks to come.
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
A Helpful Cause
A Ban Against NeglectSo recently we started to undertake a consulting project for ABAN, a social cause company that helps women in Africa. On the streets of Ghana pure water is sold in bags that are around 500ml. The byproduct is around 40 … Continue Reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Do the Honey Bee
Honey bees, high schoolers, and Haagen-Dazs. What could these three things possibly have to do with each other? Well, as it turns out they provide an example of social cause marketing. In recent years, honeybee hives have been mysteriously killed off by an unknown source, and with little consumer awareness surrounding this problem Haagen-Dazs decided to jump on the cause marketing bandwagon.
Through their Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees campaign, Haagen-Dazs provides both education about the topic as well as raising money towards honey bee research at Penn State University. They have a website, www.helpthehoneybees.com, where you can learn more about the cause and how you can take part to help save the bees.
This video was made by a group of high school graduates who worked with and support the campaign by demonstrating their interpretation of the instinctual honey bee waggle dance.
So What is Cause Marketing Anyway?
For the past week our IMC class has been focusing on social cause marketing and how it can be very effective for both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Jocelyn Daw, a cause-marketing consultant, refers to cause marketing as
“a mutually beneficial collaboration between a corporation and a nonprofit in which their respective assets are combined to create shareholder and social value, connect with a range of constituents (be they consumers, employees, or suppliers), and communicate the share values of both organizations.”
We were lucky enough to have guest speaker Holly Stewart come in and give us some great insight into how to best utilize cause marketing for our semester long project working with the non-profit ABAN. Based in Chapel Hill, NC and Accra, Ghana, ABAN works to “empower streets girls while cleaning up the environment.” They do this by collecting the small plastic bags for clean drinking water found on the streets of Ghana and creating bags and accessories from the recycled materials. Hopefully my team and I will be able to develop a great co-branding strategy for ABAN that will help them have success into the future!
To learn even more about ABAN, visit their website at http://www.aban.org/about-us.
Three Take Aways
After a bit of research, reading, and listening to Holly Stewart, I have come to notice three trends that I think are important when it comes to social cause marketing.
1.Telling a story is a great way to create that emotional connection with consumers. As Holly says, it is important to go from heartache to hope. Show your consumers that this is not a lost cause and that there is the chance for a brighter future. With their help, any number of causes can receive great support and take a step towards making the world a better place.
2. Staying in line. When developing your cause marketing it is so important that you keep your cause in alignment with the company or brand that it is working with. In chapter 4, Clow talks about the importance of product positioning and how it creates the perception of how the consumer sees the product. Therefore, when choosing a cause to pair with a brand, do not choose two that don’t “fit.” For example, Holly Stewart mentioned how the Susan G. Komen Foundation established a partnership with KFC through the creation of a pink bucket whose proceeds would go towards the foundation. However, consumers that perceived the Komen Foundation as one that believes in finding the cure for cancer were not happy that they were condoning eating unhealthy, fatty fried chicken for the cause.
3. Keep engaging. Customer engagement is something that will keep coming back in all aspects of marketing. In order to encourage support and donations, it is important for the consumers to know where their money is going and what they are supporting. If brands and non-profits ignore their supporters, they will not continue to support them into the future. Supporters want to be a part of the cause, and the more they are engaged the more likely they will be to open up those wallets!
Sources: http://grantspace.org/Tools/Knowledge-Base/Funding-Resources/Corporations/Cause-related-marketing
Clow, Kenneth E., and Donald Baack. Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education, 2012. Print
Bucket Image Source: http://www.realself.com/blog/pink-high-heels-fight-cancer-boost-sales
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Why "Robin Hood" is Outdated
What Nonprofits have Learned from “Robin Hood”Traveling through the Sherwood Forest in 1200, Robin Hood and his merry men were not a force to be reckoned with. Wagons would be turned over, wild chases would ensue, and pockets would be emptied as the th… Continue Reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Helping others help their country
Ghana has two main problems in their country: pollution and homelessness. Over 40 tons of plastic waste appears every day in the streets of the city of Accra, Ghana. 60,000 people do not attend school, and half of these people (30,000) live in the streets, half of which are young mothers less than 20 years old.
 |
| Image from: aban.org |
ABAN is the organization that wants to change these statistics and give the women of Ghana a better life. They help them learn a trade, make a living, and secure a future, and also receive the tools and skills to change their city into a better and healthier environment.
Killing two birds with one stone…
 |
| Image from: aban.org |
 |
| Image from: chapelboro.com |
Pollution in Ghana is mainly caused by plastic bags, in which clean water is stored. It all started with the creation of a mock non-profit on recycled products, which then turned out to be a feasible idea. Two study abroad students from the United States decided to help find solutions for this country and created ABAN. They provide shelter and schooling to young mothers, and teach them how to reuse these plastic bags and transform them into hand-made products such as bags, totes, and small cases. These products are then sold in stores and online and the revenue is used to sustain the organization. They also receive donations.
Creating the products not only helps reduce the amount of litter collected in the streets of Ghana, but also creates awareness for the people who witness the effort put into making the products.
Holly Stewart came to our class and talked about the trendiness in social causes. ABAN is just one of the different types of social causes existing nowadays. Corporate responsibility plays a big role in a company, especially because it is an influential factor for the buyer, and it has become very popular among companies to have an alliance or sponsor a social cause.
One of the most important factors in social causes, as Holly Stewart says, is to not make your cause faceless or unemotional because once the viewer is able to identify with the cause, that is when the action occurs. There has to be a balance in the cause in order to reach the customers’ heart (and money); unlike the long Sarah Mclachlan puppy commercials that are just too sad to watch that you end up changing the channel instead of investing your time and money in it.
An example of a social cause campaign that has been very successful is the Lee National Denim Day that consisted in organizing workplace drives at which employees could pay $5 for the right to wear jeans to work on the first Friday of October. The campaign started in 1996 and so far has raised nearly $75 million for breast cancer research and advocacy.
 |
| Image from: kansascityonthecheap.com |
Getting the social cause to work is all about strategy and planning out every detail. According to an article in FastCompany by Melanie Pinola, using the “But You Are Free” method will get you the “yes” from people…but just use it if you want to.
The technique consists on making a request but letting the person know that he has the choice not the obligation to do it.
Giving people this freedom makes them more likely to help out. Just like in the Lee’s National Denim Day, the employees are not obliged to wear jeans, instead they feel like they are in control of the decision and before you know it $5 can turn into $1,000.
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Getting Trendy With Non-Profits
Over the past week or two, our IMC class has been introduced to the company we will be focusing our semester’s work on: ABAN. ABAN is an organization that helps to clean the streets of Accra, Ghana, while empowering street girls though means of m… Continue Reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Heartache to Hope: ABAN
ABAN: THE FABRIC OF CHANGEI’m really excited to talk about a really great cause I am learning about in my Integrated Marketing Communications class: ABAN, also known as, “A Ban Against Neglect”. For those who don’t know what ABAN is, it is a non-profit… Continue Reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment