Public Relations Commentary

Increasingly, public relations pracititioners have to know not only how to write for the Web, but also how to manage and respond to blog postings. This blog was created to use in my public relations courses to help my students prepare to blog and learn how to respond to others in a virtual yet professional manner.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Cause-related marketing

This may be a silly question, but if for-profit businesses use cause-related marketing to promote their products or help nonprofits to raise fund, does it mean that there will be a raise for the price of the products or services? If this is the case, then how can the partners in the cause-related marketing prove to the public that the fund goes to the place where it is supposed to?

2 Comments:

  • At 10:11 PM, March 24, 2008, Blogger Emily Burnett said…

    I was under the impression that prices would not increase for goods and services, even if a business is making donations to NPOs when a customer makes a purchase. But I don't have anything to back that up.

    Is Target's donantions to schools considered CRM? Everytime you use your Target card, a percentage of your purchase is donated to the local school of your choice. Target tends to have slightly higher prices than WalMart, but I don't think it's because of these donations.

    Another point I'd like to bring up using Target as an example... The article argues that CRM is unethical because the consumer doesn't have a choice in the contribution. However, at Target, you are able to choose which school you want the donation to be given to. And you don't have to use a Target card- you can pay with cash or another credit card. So in that case, the consumer would have a choice.

     
  • At 12:22 AM, March 25, 2008, Blogger Jon Pharr said…

    I also agree and believe that the prices would not increase for goods and services However, in Targets case, they may be tricking consumers. I researched about this Target campaign and found on a blog for Cause-Related Marketing (here is the link: http://causerelatedmarketing.blogspot.com/2007/05/target-and-national-teacher.html), that their campaign may not be fully truthful. During 2007, Target ran advertisements in accordance with National PTA Teacher Appreciation Week voicing to consumers to thank their teachers by giving them “The Worlds Best Teacher Gift card.” The advertisement never mentioned that any proceeds would be donated to this 501 3c or that any money would be donated to local schools. The blog stated: “In effect, what Target has done is create what appears to be a micro cause-related marketing campaign out of thin air but with no money going to an actual cause.” There were no comments or follow-ups to this blog but this raises some very interesting questions regarding the ethics of some of these cause-related marketing schemes.

     

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