Today, I stumbled across a really good article, Charity Gives Shoe Brand Extra Shine by Christina Brinkley of the WSJ. Christina highlights Tom's Shoes, Judith Ripka and others who have been tieing their brands to charities. I love the spirit of Tom's Shoes and I love Judith Ripka jewelry as she has been very committed to the Alzheimer's Association. It's not that they set out their business with cause marketing in mind. It just evolved out of a passion and commitment to raise awareness and funds for charity.
I find that the newer or smaller fashion and beauty companies don't quite feel they are "at the point" to do anything charitable oriented like bigger brands. One shoe designer said to me that one day they hope to be and to emulate Tom's Shoes. What is great about this is the designer is already socially minded and feels it's important to make a difference. On the other side is the notion that they feel like they need to be in 'some place of success' to give back. Well, success is relative and once you arrived a 'the place' there will always be another level of success they'll desire to achieve.
The beauty of cause marketing is that it is not a donation! That's right. No check writing for the sake of helping out. Well, not exactly. Cause marketing offers different types of campaigns for fashion companies. One of them is a percentage of sales going to a cause. So, ideally that percentage can be 5% or $5 of an item sold. In addition, campaigns do not go on forever. You can run one for 1 week or 1 month.
Nothing thrills me more than to work with entrepreneurs in the fashion and beauty industry. They are true creatives, risk-takers and passionate. If people are buying your product anyway, why not take a week or 1 month to make the purchase matter. Consumers l-o-v-e knowing their purchase is connected to a cause.
You can catch Christina's article here and read more about why cause marketing is appealing to consumers and how it is benefiting the companies and the causes they give to.
