• by David Hessekiel  @DaveCause, August 9, 2011

At the Cause Marketing Forum, we're scratching our heads over a paradox. Every day we see more companies and brands engaging with causes, but many of them shy away from describing their efforts as "cause marketing."

Is a mission-driven company like Toms, built around donating a pair of shoes for each one purchased, engaging in cause marketing? Sure -- but you'd never find that term on its Web site. And what about companies such as Nike and Starbucks, which are both doing a world of good, but don't use the term "cause marketing" as their calling card? If they don't call it cause marketing, should we?

One source of this problem is that we're drowning in jargon: corporate social responsibility, strategic philanthropy, social entrepreneurism, shared value, purpose-driven marketing, cause-related marketing, etc. Different players favor different phrases. Some have taken to beating up on the term "cause marketing" because, in their minds, it refers to the most promotional, opportunistic, short-term forms of corporate engagement with causes.

Cause marketing -- as we define it -- isn't dead. In fact, companies need it now more than ever. It is the art of breathing life into corporate social initiatives by engaging consumers, employees and other stakeholders. It encompasses a broad range of strategies and tactics and very often leverages the brand and capabilities of a prominent non-profit partner.

Cause marketing rescues from obscurity business efforts that support communities, protect the planet or bolster social causes. Without it, many of these admirable initiatives would be virtually invisible to consumers and even employees, relegated to a CSR report read by a tiny few.

Not all cause marketing is world-class work, but we needn't beat ourselves up about that. That's no different than the output of any other branch of marketing. What's exciting is the impressive number of corporate social initiatives being launched by everyone from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, and how they are experimenting with online and offline cause-marketing tactics to engage people in new ways.

Here's just one great example:

On a corporate level, Levi's has made Herculean efforts to reduce the impact its clothing has on the environment, diving deep into supply chain and product life-cycle research to identify areas of environmental waste and impact. Its cause-marketing efforts -- communicated with everything from product tags to rich digital communications -- revolve around moving consumers to 1) reduce the water and energy used in laundering and 2) donate clothing to lengthen its useful life (part of a mutually beneficial relationship with non-profit partner Goodwill Industries).

These campaigns work so well for Levi's because they are totally in synch with the focus of its corporate social initiatives. Thanks to this integration, Levi's should have little trouble keeping people engaged on this topic with fresh programs well into the future.

CSR/cause marketing convergence is the future. Cause marketing serves the important role of making corporate social initiatives tangible, comprehensible and engaging. Depending on program objectives, it can enhance business reputations, strengthen customer loyalty, attract, retain and motivate employees, move product and more. Those results are the fuel that strengthen and sustain valuable corporate social initiatives through good times and bad.