Cause Marketing Speaks Loudest to Moms and Millennials - A blog by Joanne Fritz
Joanne Fritz has worked in the nonprofit world for most of her 30-year career beginning with teaching at the secondary, college, and university levels. She writes extensively for Nonprofit.About.com
Cause Marketing Speaks Loudest to Moms and Millennials
The latest Cone Cause Evolution Study reveals that moms are the demographic most open to cause marketing...they practically demand the opportunity to shop with a cause in mind.
According to the Cone survey, some 95% of moms find cause marketing acceptable, and 9 out of 10 want to buy a product that supports a cause. They are also more willing to switch brands (93% vs 80% average) in order to support a cause. All of this means that moms purchased more cause-related products in the past year than any other demographic (61% vs. 41%).
Not far behind moms are Millennials (18-24 years old), who also do their shopping with causes in mind. Ninety-four percent of this age group find cause marketing acceptable (vs. 88% average), and more than half (53%) have purchased a product benefiting a cause this year. Notably, this group of young people wants to work in socially conscious companies, and make investing choices based on their social or environmental values as well.
The Cone survey revealed some interesting data about how consumers view the voting campaigns that have been popular recently with large corporations. These usually ask customers to vote on which issues or causes the company should support with its CSR initiatives. But, in the Cone survey, 61% of the respondents said they would prefer to see a company make a long-term commitment to a focused issue rather than determining themselves which issue the company should support in the short-term.
