Greetings!
I spent an afternoon last week with marketers at a
Fortune 500 company sharing case studies and
discussing best practices.
These people were not newcomers to cause
marketing -- in fact they have several substantial
programs to their credit. And yet you could sense the
hunger in the room for insights that would help these
talented mid-level executives persuade the people at
the top to embrace cause branding in the way
companies like Whirlpool and Target do.
The latest research from Cone Inc. underscores the
need to move from good to great. Consumer desire
for companies to demonstrate their citizenship has
never been higher, but competition for consumer
attention has also reached new heights.
As Carol Cone told us at the May conference, the bar
has been raised. To achieve big things in the
marketplace, we must strive to create programs that
are "authentic, sustainable, transparent, and well-
communicated."
David Hessekiel
President
Cause Marketing Forum, Inc.
