Cause-related Marketing: Generosity Water

Blog Post #3: Cause-related Marketing

Maggie A., Gillian D.,  Lisa S., and Shelby W.
June 29, 2018

What is Cause-related Marketing?

Cause-related marketing can be defined as the “design of corporate initiatives that enable charities to profit from a revenue-providing exchange that fits both the consumer and company objectives” (Guerreiro and Rita, 2015, p. 1729). Usually, with a CRM initiative, a specific donation amount is tied directly to the sales of a product as the initiative is designed to promote the former’s sales and the latter’s cause. Essentially, with cause-related marketing, products are marketed normally through advertising and point of purchase, but the donation aspect of the promotion is added to the advertising and packaging of the product.

The benefits of cause-related marketing?

Cause-related marketing campaigns help increase the brand awareness in new markets, customer goodwill and help companies gain new customers who are motivated by their desire for the cause to try a product for the first time. Researchers have found that “consumers prefer charity incentives, rather than promotions when buying frivolous versus practical products” (Guerreiro and Rita, 2015, p. 1729). Charities often benefit from the increased exposure, which increases donations. Brand building can be beneficial for both the company and the party if they are a good match and their values align.

What are the potential drawbacks of Cause-related Marketing?

Guerreiro and Rita (2015) explain that “the motivation of a company to support a cause is a key determinant of cause-related marketing effectiveness” (p. 1729). Consumers often get wear when a company supports a cause; they immediately think the business has an ulterior motive and the charity is insignificant in comparison to the benefits to the company. It can also be quite tasking and costly for the charity and company to set up the systems required to track sales and donations and develop advertising and packaging.

Steps to developing a cause-related campaign

1.     Situation assessment

2.     Objective setting

3.     Target audience selection

4.     Creating a marketing mix

5.     Developing budgets, timelines and evaluation criteria.

Case Study: Generosity Water

Generosity was launched in 2015 with the mission to help people with life’s most basic need. Through their site, they educate people about the current global water crisis, explaining that “there are currently 663 million people in the world that do not have access to clean drinking water and each year this crisis kills more people than war, AIDS, and famine combined” (Generosity, n.d.). They express their commitment to ending the water crisis in this lifetime and encourage their customers to join them in breaking the cycle first by providing access to water to create a lasting change by improving health, economic growth, access to education and equality for women and children who are less fortunate.

Generosity’s CRM initiative and why it’s attractive to customers

Generosity’s slogan: “more than selling water, we believe that people matter and everything we do is an expression of that fundamental value” (Generosity, n.d.), is a very inspiring call to action, that would motivate people to act immediately. According to Guerreiro and Rita (2015) “the image of the brand regarding its efficiency in helping charities is of the utmost importance to reduce consumer scepticism and it depends on the charity’s efficiency in using donors money to positively impact society” (p. 1729).

Generosity has done a great job developing a strong brand, from their name, to their logo and slogan, they are clear and consistent in stating what their mission is. They have developed a brand that is memorable and easily differentiated from their competitors. How? They don’t simply provide water to those in need, they provide “alkaline water with a Ph balance of 10.0 to provide optimal hydration and help neutralize your body” (Generosity, n.d.).Their website, as previously mentioned, educates consumers on the current water crises and uses ethos, logos and pathos to adequately explain the severity of the situation.

On a more superficial level, Generosity’s page is very aesthetically pleasing and simple. The text, colours, white space and even their bottles present a luxurious product mimicking the likes of Fiji water and Smart water that are well-know semi luxurious water charity brands. This immediately prompts consumers to associate this product, Generosity with quality, instilling their trust in the initiative.

Potential Pitfalls of Generosity Water

The ‘glamour’ of the website trivializes the global water crisis. Upon accessing the landing page of this website, they appear to be a water company and nothing more, The landing page features an image of a beautiful woman on what appears to be a yacht. Except for the name that implies that you are ‘giving’ there is not much that prompts a consumer to think about the cause first. Generosity water makes it a point to differentiate themselves from their consumers stating that by producing a high-quality alkaline water they are “generous to [their] health and generous to people” (Generosity, n.d.).This is a brand is an example of an organization that loses consumer interest because they appear to be more concerned about their bottom line that the cause.

At the very bottom of their landing page, it is mentioned that for every bottle of water purchased, Generosity provides two people in need with clean water for one month (Generosity, n.d.). Again, this information is placed at the bottom of the page, which will not convince consumers of the brand’s dedication to the cause. Under this section, there is an image of a bottle and a prompt stating that by “scan[ning] the QR code on your bottle [you] can see the exact community you helped with your purchase” (Generosity, n.d.), yet the website doesn’t offer that feature.

The “Projects Funded” tab in the navigation menu redirects you to a page with two options – Learn How We Give and Buy Cases Online. While you can click through to buy as many cases as you want and have them delivered to your home, the Learn How We Give section redirects you to a FAQs page that only addresses questions about Generosity water -  its advantage over competitors, where its made and its benefits. This CRM initiative can be a significant drawback to Generosity for all of the aforementioned reasons. Essentially, this organization is at risk of being perceived as a business that is exploiting a charity because the money that is allocated to the cause is insignificant in comparison to the company’s profits.

References

Guerreiro, J., Rita, P., & Trigueiros, D. (2015). Attention, emotions and cause-related marketing effectiveness. European Journal of Marketing, 49(11/12), 1728–1750. doi:10.1108/EJM-09-2014-0543

Generosity (n.d.) Retrieved June 26, 2018 from http://generositywater.com/