Blog #5: Comments on previous blog posts
Blog #5
Shelby Wong, Maggie Agbojo, Gillian Deyl and Lisa Schaetzle
Comment 1
Hi Group 2:
Thanks for your blog post - I certainly can relate to some of your criticisms in terms of forceful participation in fundraising. I agree, that it feels shallow and unfulfilling when you are forced to partake and cold-pitch (often on a door-to-door basis) to customers. I also believe that customers would find this type of pitching swallow, and feel like they too, are being cornered into participating.
That said, I can appreciate team challenges in terms of fundraising, but perhaps there is a better way to motivate employees, leaving them feeling like they are making a difference on their own watch, and not on the agenda of the highly paid corporate team in a large brand organization like Aveda.
Gillian
Comment 2
Hi Group 1:
Thanks for your response to Generosity Water.
I certainly agree that their website raises some red flags in terms of transparency in their use of funds. It is challenging to have the motivation to give to organizations like this when their communication channels make us feel as though we are being stolen from.
I also agree that is is strange that an organization that is concerned about the environment uses plastic bottles - seems like conflicting missions. While I believe in supporting organizations that work towards water access, there are certainly other organizations that I would rather give my money to.
Gillian
Comment #3 –
Group Five Blog #4
Birthday Pledgers for Charity: Water
This was a good post. It immediately defines social marketing to clarify and differentiate it from social media marketing and compares the selected charity to similar charities and their approaches to solving the global water crisis. The post mentions that many of these charities are focused less on creating awareness, but more on shifting there aware publics to becoming active publics. This is interesting to me because the charities I’ve looked at throughout the semester have always seemed to do the opposite.
They put a lot of effort into explaining what the issue is and the impact of our actions and lifestyle choices on the living conditions of people in less developed countries. I thought that Charity Water had a great tactic to get people involved and motivated for the cause, making it a competition and allowing then to be creative. Especially in a world that is dominated by YouTubers, Social Media Influencers and the likes. Similarly to social media challenges like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge tend to go viral and reel in a lot of donations. At the least they do a lot to get the attention of latent publics.
Maggie
Comment #4 –
Group Two Blog #2
United Nations Foundation
The United Nations Foundation page has to be the most captivating NPO website I have seen yet. Immediately upon entering the website you are made aware of what they do. Everything from the image slideshow and description of their work in different countries around the world, to their immediate call to action that states “Take Action” motivating viewers to do just that. They are consistent in their messaging, in line with their mission, visions and values, always staying true to their brand.
I agree entirely that they use strategies including emotional appeal in their videos and photographs and repetition with their call to action prompting viewers to take action and donate. This is a great site and nothing less expected considering the United Nations Foundation has been around for a while and is one of the most well know foundations in the world. Great job guys!
Maggie
Comment #5
Lisa Schaetzle
Reply to Group 1: Social Marketing and Water
Module three, involving social marketing, interested me, therefore I enjoyed this blog post. Within the blog, this group has reiterated some aspects about social marketing that I found capturing; social marketing works best when a specific behaviour is targeted, the consequences of the negative behaviour are provided and alternative behaviours are demonstrated.
Millennials, such as myself, most have short attention spans and trying to capture and MAINTAIN their interests with a two-minute YouTube video would be a challenge. The suggestion to use an exciting local influencers to promote the campaign would be a great tactic to reach a millennial audience! To spread awareness about the organization and its cause, creating a social media campaign would be the most beneficial to reach the target audience.
Comment #6
Lisa Schaetzle
Reply to Group 3: Waves for Water and BMW
It is great to know that a company like BMW has not only invested financially in Waves for Water but also has invested employees time into the charity. Having BMW employees volunteer for a charity committed to such a great cause has enabled a partnership between the two organizations to form. As you mentioned, large corporations often get criticised for only engaging in CSR programs for positive publicity, but understanding that BMW has not broadcasted its services for Water for Waves changes my perspective on large corporations like BMW. Water for Waves and BMW’s program ‘Care4Water’ is a movement that exceeds the publics expectations simply by creating a mutually beneficial partnership between a charity and a large corporation. I really enjoyed reading this blog post!
Comment # 7 -
Shelby Wong
Group 5 Blog: “Confusing cause-related marketing by Stella Artios and Water.org”
You raised some great questions about this seemingly effective marketing effort by Water.org and Stella Artois. I completely agree that on the surface, this seemed to be an incredibly successful effort. The SuperBowl commercial slots are the most coveted advertising placements in the world, receiving the highest amount of exposure a brand could ever imagine. Again, it seems like a noble cause with $3.13 going towards the cause with every Stella Artois chalice purchase, but a further examination reveals poor optics. How much of the proceeds are really going to the charity, especially at the price discrepancy noted and with the SuperBowl commercial expense? Very great points and it’s something thinking about when critically assessing other cause-related marketing campaigns.
This was a very informative blog post about the appeal of cause-related marketing campaigns. However, I do pose a question regarding the Stella Artois partnership specifically: is this campaign still effective if the product is undesirable? Does the social contribution component cause consumers to desire the product, even if they don’t need it? To me, I would not feel compelled to purchase a chalice even if it was dedicated towards a good cause. I also wonder if there is data on the effectiveness of cause-related marketing campaigns as a whole. Surely, there must be some campaigns that just aren’t effective, regardless of whether they are attached to a good cause.
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