Cause Marketing That Fits: Timberland
Stuart Elliott’s New York Times November 16th column about Timberland’s cause marketing (you’ll have to register/pay to read now), combined with an email yesterday from an ad agency friend asking me about cause marketing, got me thinking.
When you consider how to best reach women consumers, you need to understand that they take everything in,… and then do something with that knowledge.
If you play the type of music your customers prefer in your retail store, but your sales staff is poorly trained, there’s a disconnect. And, if you profess to be a warm and fuzzy corporate community but your web site doesn’t show one photograph of an employee or mention your company’s daycare (because there isn’t such a thing), for example, there is also a disconnect. Similarly, in cases where your cause doesn’t “fit” with the other elements of your brand, women will be the first to lose their trust, while it may be a bit less likely that men would notice those details (I welcome comments on this of course!)
Faith Popcorn devotes an entire chapter to the idea that "Everything Matters" in the book she co-authored with Lys Marigold, Eveolution (Hyperion). Furthermore, Helen Fisher, in The First Sex (Ballantine), notes that women tend to think in terms of "interrelated factors, not straight lines," while men have a "compartmentalized, incremental reasoning process.”
If everything is interrelated, the causes a company supports need to make sense and fit the entire look/feel/mission. So, back to Timberland. Elliott writes that the “Make It Better” campaign, which was developed by Arnold Worldwide in Boston, "is broad-based, ranging from magazine advertisements and a dedicated Web site to biodegradable postcards laced with wildflower seeds, which are to be planted in soil, and tips on how to donate time or money to community service and environmental organizations.”
Perhaps not all companies out there have Timberland’s $10 million to put toward their cause-related marketing, but it’s worth looking at what lies behind this effort:
- They now sell a lot more than those boots you remember (or is that just me?) from college, including women-specific lines of boots and clothing etc.
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Given the expansion of their brand, they’ve got a lot more competition in the outdoor industry (Many other outdoor brands have gone way beyond just selling their core product and into also making/selling more lifestyle-y apparel and goods).
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From the get-go, their brand has been about rugged, rustic and outdoors, so there has been an undertone of trees and mountains the whole time.
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The family behind the brand has previously shared their ideology/philosophy via ad campaigns (so this isn’t some one-shot marketing ploy).
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They’ve definitely realized that women are a large part of their core market.
Women who are buying outdoor footwear and apparel have likely noticed all the things I just listed, and, have taken it all in. These same women will find the new “Make It Better” campaign very relevant, compelling, and in keeping with what they already know of the brand. So, there is no disconnect. Rather, Timberland has figured out how to stay in touch with their brand, and stay in touch with their customers all along the way,in order to separate themselves from their competition. They promote and support their causes in a way that really makes sense. It looks like an additional site, www.timberlandserve.com , (obviously cause-related) existed even before this latest Make It Better campaign, and when you check out Timberland’s backstory even further, you see that they are a founding partner of the City Year program - another "fitting" cause.
Now seems to be a period in history when people are concentrating even more on living and thinking locally - as maybe it’s all we have any control over. So, the idea of “making it better” through seeds and volunteering for community causes, among other elements of the Timberland campaign, seems refreshingly in tune and relevant – perhaps especially for women.
As I’ve said, the Stuart Elliott piece is great, so I’d recommend that you find a way to read it if cause-related marketing is of interest.
Of course - I welcome your input on other great examples of cause marketing, as I’m doing a bit of research in this area and could use a few more discerning eyes and ears to help me.
November 29th, 2004 at 4:50 pm
Causal Marketing can go beyond the non-for-profit sector and connect on a level closer to home. One recent example was a campaign done for Whisk detergent this past Spring. It began with posters that promoted dirt- citing facts of how much time kids spend indoors today. They appeared to be public announcements driving traffic to Americaneedsdirt.com where more facts were cited as well as an on-line test for how much tv your child watches a week. The messaging lived this way for at least a month before the Whisk logo was added to both the site and the boards. The way it was done was seamless. They exercised the discipline to let the message permeate before they connected it to the product. The connection to the product was brilliant- it let moms conclude that Whisk was the most potent detergent to get out difficult stains—but more importantly, connected to moms on a different, more emotional level. It nudged without employing guilt. Whisk is a Unilever brand, which also sponsored the latest Dove campaign. They seem to be very progressive in how they have taken social issues head on. It will be interesting to see how it pays off for them.
November 29th, 2004 at 6:57 pm
Wouldn’t it be great if Whisk/Unilever had also sponsored little league teams, soccer teams and other great outdoor kid sports that generated dirt?
You are so right, Carolyn, to mention how that campaign was designed to lighten the guilt load of moms even while marketing Whisk. And you make a great point in differentiating non-profit cause sponsorship versus just social/life issues that could use a re-thinking. There are all sorts of possibilities for encouraging activities that get kids outside exercising and avoiding childhood obesity, I would think. And there are certainly many other social issues that could be highlighted by creative causal campaigns.
Will the ROI be worth it for Whisk/Unilever or not? Just as you say, it will be interesting to see.
It would be great if measured results could account for a longer term societal goal. Companies/brands that take such a step are more likely to reflect the humans behind their products or services, and that will only benefit their overall marketing efforts - especially if women are a core customer. Women notice everything.
December 6th, 2004 at 8:21 pm
Are you sure about the reference in your column to the Timberland article in the NYT by Stuart Elliott on Nov. 16, 2004 on cause marketing? I can’t find anything in the New York Times that day about Timberland from him.