Got Pink?

by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer, July 7, 2009

There will be no shortage of pink products on store shelves this October, and Target has announced that, once again, it will sell a limited-edition line of Sonia Kashuk beauty products.

The assortment of five products - ranging from a $9.99 metallic pink eyelash curler to a $19.99 travel-brush kit -- will be available from Sept. 16 through Nov. 4. And 15% of the purchase price will go directly to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

And this news has got us thinking again about the ghetto of pink-ribbon press releases we'll have to wade through in the months ahead, and how much we love when companies like Target do it right. Ever since the pink ribbon emerged as a symbol for the crusade against beast cancer back in the early 1990s, untold numbers of marketers have linked product sales to this ever-so-popular cause. Car companies, appliance manufacturers, and even good ol' M&Ms slap on the pinkface, making breast-cancer the Elvis Presley of cause-related marketing.

And sometimes, it's been a beautiful thing, combining doing good with genuine marketing synergy - look at way Avon has prospered in recent years. Since 1992, the company has raised and awarded more than $585 million to breast-cancer groups in more than 50 countries and has ridden the wave of that goodwill into other important causes, including campaigns to stop domestic violence. For its customers - not to mention the armies of women who toil as Avon reps, the marketing message is crystal clear: Avon loves women as much as it loves lipstick.

Other companies have stumbled, as consumers become savvier about spotting pink-washing. Take Yoplait's Save Lids to Save Lives effort - a 10-year-old campaign urging consumers to mail in the pink lids. For every lid it collects, it donates a dime to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. (Never mind the faulty math premise here, and that consumers would do more to end breast cancer by donating the cost of the 41-cent stamp they'll need to get the 10-cent contribution from the company.)

Last year, activist group Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA), which refers to October not as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but Breast Cancer Industry Month, made General Mills' Yoplait the target of its "Think Before You Pink" campaign, faulting the food giant for making Yoplait with milk that contains growth hormone rBGH, banned in some countries because of its potential links to breast cancer.

Not surprisingly, General Mills announced earlier this year that it would no longer use rBGH milk in its yogurt - an inevitable change, given consumer sentiment, but one made long after savvier marketers, including Kroger, Wal-Mart and Safeway made positive headlines by moving to eliminate rBGH products from its shelves.

So maybe now is a good time for all marketers to take a deep breath, and rethink their pink plans. If you want to be taken seriously, revisit the basic questions groups like BCA and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation now routinely urge consumers to ask.

Label your cause-related products clearly, so consumers can easily see exactly what percentage of proceeds will be donated, the exact name and nature of the group receiving funds, and any cap you'll put on donations. And if you're not willing to do so ... why bother?

It's a jungle out there: If you're going pink, it's time to step up your game.

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3 comments about "Got Pink? ".

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Uriah Av-Ron from Oasis Public Relations, July 8, 2009 at 9:26 a.m.
Sarah -- Insightful article about cause-related marketing! It would be great if you could expand this concept too provide more examples of what is working (beyond Avon). I'd love a similar look at two other colors -- Red (Gap) and Green (everyone).
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Andrea Learned from Learned On, LLC, July 8, 2009 at 10:24 a.m.

Thank you, Sarah! There are a lot of great causes, even those with no particular color affiliation, that deserve brand consideration/support (and can be done well enough that the women's market, in particular, might notice). And, imagine doing a big push NOT in October with all the rest of the brands that seem to take the lazy way out of "cause marketing to women?" Talk about differentiation! Be bold brand marketers.. you can do it!

Mickey Lonchar from Quisenberry, July 8, 2009 at 11:57 a.m.

Sarah, your article does an outstanding job of pointing out the difference between authentic cause-related marketing and those cases where it is viewed as a marginal tactic. I was glad to hear you take Yoplait to task for its efforts. It could be argued that the Yoplaits of the world may do more harm for the cause than good, as consumers are inundated with messaging that says "buy our product and (choose one) beat breast cancer/save the whales/stop underage drinking." After a while, it enters the realm of clutter, where the cause really doesn't resonate as a reason to purchase.