7 Keys to Marketing Genius: Old Cause, New Tricks
The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn
There has been more cause related marketing lately, but is this a new idea? Cause related marketing has been going on for the last century, but it is increasing today. When modern marketing began in the Western countries, the population was living on a subsistence level. Advertising promoted the value of products and went into technical details of what the item could do for the customer. In the late 60s there was a cultural and financial shift. People had more money and they were tired of the same old advertising. People were also disillusioned with materialism, so ads started to emphasize the emotional. Perfume ads talked about how the scent made you feel like a woman, not how big the bottle was.
Today we are living in one of the most prosperous times in history. People have also realized consumer products cannot provide for emotional needs no matter how appealing the advertising. At the same time there is a lack of community. People, especially prosperous people, like to give to society. Since there is a distrust and lack of participation in traditional institutions like churches, many people do not have an outlet to give to their communities. Consumer products come to the rescue. Cause related marketing meets additional time and convenience needs of consumers by letting them have their Duncan Hines cake mix and contribute to charity too.
For psychology buffs, I will point out that this pattern correlates with psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. Consumers used to be just scraping to survive so advertising appealed to their base needs of survival. Next there was advancement to the next level of emotional needs. Finally today, we are at the pinnacle of the hierarchy: self-actualization, fulfillment by giving to others.