Millennials Drive Trend in Social Responsibility

We hold business to a higher moral standard today than ever before.   Not only do they have to be socially responsible, we even have the audacity to ask businesses to pay out of pocket to support social causes.

Story time

Once a year when I was a child, my parents gave me money.  It wasn’t my personal allowance – it was my donation allowance.  I would split the money in the two envelopes and send them off to KQED and the WWF.

It made me happy not because I thought I was a “good” person, but because my parents had taught me that it was something we should do.  Besides, the membership cards were snazzy.  Truth be told, they were nowhere near snazzy, but I felt snazzy.

I don’t remember for how long I was a proud donor but I did carry around my membership cards until high school.  When I stopped donating, I began volunteering and it has endured to this day.

Times are-a-changing in personal values

I have noticed that an increasing number of my friends and acquaintances identify with certain charities.  Perhaps it’s a natural result of whom I surround myself with, or maybe I’m on to something.

Driven by Millennials, supporting a personal non-profit will become mainstream.  It will be like having a college plan or a job and will no doubt contribute to the growth of the social sector.

The cycle continues…

When I have children of my own, I will give them money and envelopes.  They’ll choose the non-profits that they like and I will walk them to the mailbox.  They will feel happy, just as I did, but not know why just yet.  They grow up and one day realize that it was pride that made them happy.  A certain pride that comes with being a social care-taker.

We have the audacity to ask businesses to pay out of pocket to support social causes.  How about ourselves?  I hope this observed trend isn’t just anecdotal.

Do you support a personal non-profit?  Do you enable your kids to give?

Happy Holidays!

EDIT:

I just found out about Kids are Heroes (@kidsareheroes on Twitter) where kids are given the support and tools to make a difference.  Thank you Gabe and MaryMargaret!

Why Cause-Related Marketing in a Recession is a Smart Move

Cause-Related Marketing is one of the best things you can do for your brand right now when the going’s tough. Let’s break it down.

What is Cause-Related Marketing (CRM)?

From Wikipedia:

Cause marketing or cause-related marketing refers to a type of marketing involving the cooperative efforts of a “for profit” business and a non-profit organization for mutual benefit.

One stone, two birds – for profit businesses can deliver value to BOTH a non-profit and their customers with ONE charitable act.  Many businesses already are involved in a cause, but have not yet tied it into their marketing strategy.  Is this you?

Cone Blog recently published a nice roundup on some of 2008′s notable cause marketing campaigns.  They include the high-profile Starbuck’s Product (RED) promotion to help the Global Fund in their fight against AIDS as well as Sears’ “Heroes at Home Wish Registry” with Ty Pennington.

Another high-profile example is Subaru’s “Share the Love” campaign which runs through Jan. 2nd 2009.  They will donate $250 to one charity that new customers can select from a pool of five.

The charities are: Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Habitat for Humanity International, Meals On Wheels Association of America, the National Wildlife Federation, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).  Were I a car buyer and considering otherwise equivalent cars, I would likely purchase a Subaru and pick Habitat for Humanity International.

So what? What are the business implications?

The 2008 Cone/Duke University Cause Consumer Behavior Study found that almost 80% of consumers are likely to switch from one brand to another (all else being equal) if the other brand is associated with a good cause, an increase of about 14 percent (from 66%) since 1993.

In improving your value proposition, are you taking into account the “social good” factor?  It has emerged as an integral part of your customer’s brand perception and utility functions.

Not only is this a branding play, but it also has been proven to significantly affect purchasing decisions in certain categories – Cone/Duke University study,

74% increase in actual purchase for a shampoo brand when associated with a cause (47% of participants who saw the cause-related message chose the brand while only 27% of those who saw the generic corporate advertisement chose the brand)

They key is finding a cause that is relevant to you AND your market.  If you’re not already in a two-way dialogue with your market, you should be.  Here I will defer to several social media masters: Jim Connelly, Chris Brogan, Chris Heuer.  A quick and dirty method is to play Subaru’s game and allow your customers to choose.

These stats are all well and good, but say nothing about the bottom line.  This is a starting point, and I will attempt to tackle CRM ROI over the holidays over a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from nowhere else but Napa Valley .

Be the brand who cares

This brings us back to my main point – This recession is the perfect time to strut your cause loud and clear because, especially during tough times, consumers expect brands to pick up the slack and help others when they themselves cannot.

Eric Mower and Associates polled 520 adult consumers and found that “62% said they expect to give less or not at all to charities in the future, yet 85% of respondents said they expect brands to maintain or increase their charitable giving during times of economic tumult.”

What does this mean? If you become the brand who cares during tough times, your customers and market will never forget it.

Happy Holidays all and get ready for an exciting 2009!

Related:

1. “Do Values Matter?” Lewis Green asks, “Are business values important to most Americans?”
2. Advertising Age’s article on recession-proofing your business and includes CRM on their list
3. “10 Reasons to Start/Keep doing Cause Marketing” From Joe Water’s CRM Blog
4. “Retailers Urged to Keep up Charity Moves” Americans in a way blame companies for the current economic situation: “There’s an expectation that companies better pay up”

Tweet this!

What’s your favorite San Francisco Non-Profit?

What are your favorite non-profits in the following areas – Children, homeless, under-served, and animals?

From your suggestions, I will pick two and volunteer up to 100 hours each. (?)

List of Suggestions:

1. San Francisco SPCA animal shelter (@idarose)
2. The Salvation Army (@bertdecker)
3. Hands on Bay Area (@elmundodemando)
4. Delancy’s Street “Life Learning Academy” (@enoteca_joe)
5. Leah’s Pantry (@whatscooking).
6. KIVA.org microlending (@fogandthistle)
7. Rock your Awareness (Vanae)

Note: I don’t mind at all if you are affiliated, work for, or represent the non-profit you’re talking about.

Why Monetize Twitter?

Evan Williams hinted that he will announce a revenue model in early 2009, which has rekindled the buzz surrounding this drawn-out, yet still very relevant topic.

Twitter is so basic that it requires links to external sites to be of any real value.  It’s a transmission medium, and not an information medium – it does not hold any information.

Needless to say, this causes some problems when it comes to monetization.  In the end, Twitter may yet decide to decentralize or take the wise AND easy decision, to sell itself to Google (has Google expressed interest?  Twitter did move to adopt Google’s Friend Connect…and has yet to announce any plans with Facebook Connect).

StockTwits, an application built on Twitter, has just received a round of funding.  This falls into the framework that Roger EhrenBerg put forth Oct 30th

The problem is that when looking at the value stack, it seems that the stuff people might be willing to pay for resides largely on top, and not inside, of Twitter. In short, I believe Twitter needs a robust and well-resourced business development function to cut deals with leading applications and to get into the flow of the revenue. I can also see Twitter setting up its own Red Hat equivalent, offering institutional-grade service and support to corporate users – for a price. Because without these steps, I don’t see what has become a viral and powerful service generating a return for its investors.

If we were to accept Roger’s premise, then twitter would be of great value to some random company like…Google.

Let’s leave that thought for now.  Here are some ways of monetizing Twitter that has been floating around on the interweb:

1. Subscription, charge everyone! A few $ a month? I would pay.  But I like free and prefer the scenario where Google buys twitter and keeps it free.
2. Freemium, or Twitter Pro, where paying users would get access to advanced functionality, such as access to data classification (hash tags, $, and others), groups, personal analytics.  Here’s what Samir Balwani would pay for.
3. Advertising in the streams, similar to magpie, but perhaps graphical, as Jason Calcanis offered almost a year ago.
4. Merchandising to pay the bills.  This one’s quite a stretch, but small pieces add up!
5. Twitter Enterprise.  Now, how much would it cost to build this in-house?
6. Data and Analytics that services built on Twitter would pay for
7. Charge Superusers – Scobleizer bashes it with good reason.

However, there are two cautions that I’d like to discuss:

1. Freemium: Charging for certain things such as going over a certain # of tweets/day, adding links, or following certain users will limit the free-flow of information
2. Adding video and images will fundamentally change Twitter from a transmission to an information medium, which will position the service in the same markets as other microblogging companies such as Tumblr and Posterous.  Is that good or bad? It’s up to you. I throw my vote in with bad because of how I use it.

I’m eager to know what you think so I can put this topic to rest in my mind until next year when Evan Williams blows the lid off this joint.  Until then, I’ll leave you all on this note:

Related Posts:

1. Book of Tens: Ways to Monetize Twitter – Abbey Klaassen
2. How will Twitter Monetize? – David Brim
3. Twitter may have made Dell $1 Million… – Stan Schroeder
4. Twitter Features I’d Pay for – Samir Balwani

Philanthropy & a Job Hunt

Thank you for stopping by! I am trying to reach my philanthropic goals of volunteering 440 hours over the next two years and, at the same time, finding employment.  Please pass this on!

Project Overview:

• Donate 5 hours to a non-profit plus 1 hour to the SF Food Bank for each interview I get, see my Resume
• Donate 1 minute to non-profit for each unique visitor to the site.
• Cap of 440 hours over two years.
• If I get a job through this campaign, I will automatically donate 440 hours

Check out the Co-Donors tab to find out more.

I would also like to talk to YOU, so email me at kynamd (att) gmail (dott) com, find me on twitter @kynamdoan, and leave a comment!

If you like this, are inspired, or think others would like it, then pass this along and help me reach my philanthropic goals while finding employment.

T-minus 2

I’ve got two interviews already and I haven’t even launched! I am very excited.

What’s this all about?

Then go to real Hero. I’m looking for co-donors!

2 days down, 2 to go to live! I’m trying to launch this whole thing on 4 days. I’ve a ton of things to do for example

1. SEO-up this site
2. Digg & ShareThis
3. Partner with co-donors (what is this?)
4. Design and screenprint tshirt at home
5. Record video for Monday launch
6. Talk to SF Food Bank
7. Holiday party! to nab some testimonials from unsuspecting friends

The more you pass, the more I volunteer.  Thanks!

Ky

Looking for Interviews! Volunteering Hours.

Hello! My name is KyNam Doan and I need an interview to get a job in this great city of San Francisco.  The scope of this campaign is limited to San Francisco.

For each marketing interview that I get I will:

1. Volunteer 5 hours to a non-profit(Max 400).
2. Volunteer 1 Hour to the San Francisco Food Bank (Max 40).

For each unique visitor I get to this website I will:

1. Volunteer 1 minute to a non-profit(Counts towards the 400 hours above).

Quick details:

1. The Companies who interview me may nominate a non-profit and you will be able to vote for the top two.
2. If I get a job by the end of this campaign, I will automatically volunteer the maximum 400 hours.
3. I happily accept interview offers until New Years.
4. Voting on the non-profit will run from 1/1/09 to 1/4/09.

Make sure you click to follow this campaign (feed)!  Also, if you share this to 5 of your friends then you will have donated 5 more minutes of my time to a non-profit.  So what do you say?

Thank you for watching and reading. Happy Holidays and be safe!

Best Regards,
KyNam Doan