Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cause marketing, chicago, corporate citizenship, kanye, kanye west, michael jordan, MTV, MTV VMA, VMA
Rather Kanye needs a cause marketing campaign….quickly! Too late for doing it out of the goodness of his heart, now his entourage will have to pick a cause that gives him credibility while helping to keep his name out of the mud after last nights outburst on the MTV Video Music Awards. Doesn’t he realize that there are so many more important battles to fight out in the world? Why doesn’t he use his name, his talent and his loud-mouth to speak up for those less fortunate then him and give the media something real to talk about. Why does he insist on having these petty little outbursts on national tv, all in the name of getting attention. I could think of a few things that Kanye might want to consider as his “cause marketing campaign”:
Let me know how this sounds.
1) Education in inner city of Chicago (the city he constantly boasts about as home)
2) Education in any “inner” city in the country
3) Gun Control and Violence in schools
4) Homelessness (especially in Chicago) where home loss is becoming more and more prevalent, as the housing industry continues to see declines
5) Education
etc…..I am sure I could think of a hundred more.
The point of this post: In a time when our country is in great need and great suffering, don’t be petty. Use the attention from the media to do something good and positive for the rest of us. Don’t even get me started on Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame Speech. I am a little pissed off at our Chicago “well knowns” today. Sorry for the surliness.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ammenities, B&B, bed and breakfast, cause, cause marketing, cause marketing campaign, chicago, chicago winter, colorado, conservation, destination, destination resort, doing good, five star, green, green technology, Hilton, honeymoon, hotel, Hyatt, luxury, marketing, marriage, Marriott, message, mountain resort, non profit, resort, retreat, sleeping, spa, temperature, travel, travel web site, vacation, vail, vail cascade, wedding, Westin, winter
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- Like This? Is that so much to ask for?
We are on the hunt for that perfect honeymoon destination and I am shocked at how difficult it has been to find something that “speaks” to us. I have to imagine that we aren’t alone in the world being two young professionals (of varying professions-I market ideas and beliefs while my trusted companion makes limbs) with a love for the outdoors, wine, food, various cultures, small animals, sand and great sunsets. We hate cheesy resorts, all inclusive, hotel beds where you can feel a small indentation of the previous guests and overly crowded locales. We enjoy the finer things and we have stayed at our share of wonderfully luxurious, unique, impressive places (insert Luna Runtun-Banos, Ecuador or Amuleto-Zihuatenejo, Mexico here) but aren’t so lavish that we need only 5 star accommodations. That being said everything we look at makes me want to run the other way.
In this economy and with the resources available I would think the travel industry would be doing everything in their saving grace to use social media outlets, word of mouth marketing and well, just plain ol’ advertising to get their hotel, resort, tour, flight, etc, seen by the right people.
I have scoured every travel related web site for ideas, deals, experiences and I am coming up with nothing. I would love to go to a place that is ecologically conscious, green in their existent and culturally sensitive to their surroundings, but at this rate I would settle for a campsite in Wisconsin. (Did I mention we are going in the middle of January?)
When I started this process, I checked with the hotel we are hosting the wedding at in Vail, The Vail Cascade, A Destination Resort. Unfortunately, they do not have a property in a “warm enough” location for our needs in the middle of January. Remember, we are coming from Chicago, so average temperature must be above 80 degrees on a daily basis in order for us to thaw out properly. However, I did discover that they have a wonderful program called Destination Earth and I have to say it is one of the best “cause marketing” campaigns that I have seen in this genre.
You would think a hotel would have the perfect forum for marketing, experiencing and delivering on a cause marketing campaign. The guest is sleeping on your beds, eating your food, drinking your drinks. They are there for extended periods of time, enough to soak it up and understand a well placed, well done cause marketing campaign. But no one seems to have gotten it quite right.
Destination Earth takes a run at it and does a great job of conveying the message and organizing the initiative. But the delivery of the message to the guest is lost. I wish I could say that it was in part because of this campaign that we chose the Vail Cascade for our wedding, but I would be fibbing. It was only after searching around on the web site for other Destination Resorts that I discovered this hotel’s secret weapon….a cause marketing campaign with meaning, promise and an actual agenda! I should have known the minute I booked our first visit to the hotel that this was part of their brand. I am glad we made a good decision with a good brand but it would have made my decision a lot easier from DAY numero uno.
What about other hotels? Sure just about every hotel, motel, bed and breakfast asks you to reuse your towels and sheets in order to save water and conserve resources, but most people just see it as a sacrifice on their part, a compromise that they have to make while staying in the hotel….that they are paying for. They save towels, water and resources at home and now we are asked to make a choice on vacation?! I don’t want to make choices while I am away, especially not good ones.
The request and the action needed don’t speak much to the feeling of luxury these hotels try so hard to promote. So what compromises are these hotels making? How are they marketing it? What is their agenda moving forward to create sustainability? All questions I would love answered before booking my next vacation, or honeymoon for that matter.
I have done the research and only after googling for several minutes was I able to find a few obscure articles about a few obscure properties, with the exception of Marriott. The placement of the Marriott agenda is hard to find but the information is there and well done.
http://tinyurl.com/mqx9ss. That being said, I have stayed at dozens of Marriott brand hotels over the course of the last few years and not once did I ever see/feel this campaign as part of their brand.
Here is another article about green hotels: http://tinyurl.com/2yh5jr
What else you got for me? I am looking for the little “guy” or “gal” , the ones that are doing it right. Fill me in!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cause marketing, Dexter, george stephanopoulos, George Will, iTunes, marketing, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson Memorial, NPR, Princess Di, Showtime, This Week, tragedy
I heard George Will this morning on “This Week” talking about synthetic grief and the capitalization there of. This is a term I had never heard before but often felt, specifically around celebrities’ deaths and/or tragedies. Take Princess Di or most recently, Michael Jackson, which is what George Will was referring to in talking about this made up feeling of grief.
It got me thinking about grief and cause marketing. It seems that somewhat related to my last post: Your life-Your Cause, grief seems to be the billion dollar industry and a great way for companies to implement a different side of their cause marketing campaigns. Can this actually be considered “cause marketing”? These campaigns are not specifically directed at doing “good” and helping to save an industry or the world for that matter, but more at selling a “hug” while you bereave the latest break up, death, scandal, tragedy, etc.
With every well publicized event comes a well placed, well done marketing campaign aimed to calm our fears and emotions. Can you blame the industries participating? Not really but how effective are these campaigns?
Maybe I am just putting words on what I already knew existed and maybe George Will just hit home when he described this feeling of grief that everyone seems to have over Michael Jackson’s death. Even my fiancé who I don’t think could name five Michael Jackson songs if he tried and certainly isn’t caught up in the world of celebrity, was feeling guilty for not watching the MJ “coverage”, as he put it the other night. So much so that he was willing to pause our Dexter marathon to watch a rerun of the MJ memorial service. And yesterday when I went on to iTunes to check out some new music I had heard yesterday on NPR. What do you think the most downloaded/purchased songs were over the last week? All songs by Michael Jackson, of course! So I guess my question is answered! Tragedy = $/time spent. I am sure the networks would all be happy to hear that.
**I stand corrected this evening, EPN, the fiance, “loves Michael Jackson”. I guess I better get to know him a bit better before we tie the knot in September.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Children, Children's Memorial Hospital, donations, donors, emotion, events, fundraising, Hospitals, money, newborn, newborns, niece, psychographics, radio, Sick Kids, twitter
I drive a lot which means the constant chatter of the radio is always on in the car. I get distracted in my thoughts while driving which means I usually don’t pay attention to what is actually being said unless it directly pertains to my life at that moment. Pretty typical right?
Recently my thoughts have been with new niece who is three weeks old today and who spent the first 2 weeks and three days of her life at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. I spent a lot of time there over the two weeks, checking in on my brother and sister in law, trying to provide a distraction from the crying babies that weren’t theirs or the endless beeping of machines. I also spent a lot of time looking at my new niece Lea and praying that she would be able to go home soon.
So here I am back at home, back to my usual routine of driving a lot, checking email frequently, walking the dogs, eating Dairy Queen, etc and I have suddenly noticed that Children’s Hospital appears at my every turn. It is in my email inbox when I sign on in the morning advertising and upcoming fundraiser. I hear ads for the hospital on the radio every time I get in the car and I recently started noticing snail mail appearing at home from them!
How did they find me? I went in to the hospital as “Visitor 87,543,208,881” and when I left no one checked my fingerprints or id. (In fact, security was so loose that if it wasn’t for the alarm on my niece’s ankle, I most certainly would have tried to break her out). So, I went back through my junk email and sure enough I have been receiving emails about fundraisers for two years from them. I have been, I am sure of it, throwing out snail mail asking for donations and I am positive that whatever radio ads have been playing, have been playing for years but it wasn’t until now…until I had reason to believe in their cause that I chose to listen.
So this begs the question, what is truly an effective way to market your cause or to market a cause related marketing campaign? Cause Marketing is emotional, which is probably why I am so drawn to this field and therefore the demographic is the “emotiongraphic” or the “psychographic” as it was recently called. I like emotion better as there is no better time to get people on board then when you have their heart on a string. Incidentally, I will be making a donation to Children’s Memorial Hospital. What an incredible place with an incredible doctors.
That being said, please post your best strategies for targeting the consumer as they “consume” so to speak. Obviously in dealing with donations and causes, our consumption is a bit different…demonstrated by my most recent visits to Children’s Hospital.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ White Party made some changes this year and not just in location- taking his star studded event from the Hamptons to Los Angeles. This superstar artist teamed up with Ashton Kutcher to raise money for “Malaria No More“. This is the first time in the decade that P. Diddy has been hosting this party where money was donated for cause. See even celebrities know when to use and expand on a good PR opportunity.
Thanks to Jennifer Tuesday from the Hamptons.com we were able to dig up a bit more information regarding the cause marketing portion of the event: ”In conjunction with the White Party, Combs’ Sean John fashion label will produce and sell a limited edition tee-shirt that will retail for $40 at www.seanjohn.com with the slogan “Celebrate Life End Malaria” with a portion of the proceeds going to the non-profit organization. Partygoers will learn how they make additional contributions, purchase tee-shirts, and sign up for volunteering during the event.”
P. Diddy and Ashton partying for a cause
Let’s not forget the celebrities that joined them in the hopes of letting the rest of the world know how important this cause was to them. Quite the party my friends and of course you had to wear white!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Here I am! After months of debating and lamenting over this blogging “thing”, I am ready to take it on. I got a lot to say and so listen up. Check back frequently for updates on cause marketing, social responsibility, corporate responsibilty and all the other words associated with “Doing Good”. I think the world is catching on but the information out there is dry and can be hard to get through. So,l et’s get this party started! Feel free to drop a line anytime. Signing off from Chicago…Happy Fourth Of July. Your one and only, Footprint.
