Social Causes; A true ‘InvestmentNowadays, it is getting harder for brands to engage with customers by just providing a mere product or service. Companies now know that in order for them to establish a personal and long-lasting connection with consumers, they need to provide a much higher emotional value to their clients and invest in a relationship of trust and shared values.

In this new era of socially-conscious shoppers, consumers are becoming increasingly demanding and more aware of their choices. Consumers are now interested in finding out whether their chosen brand is associated with good causes and whether they share their own desire to make the world a better place.

According to Whitney Dailey, supervisor of CSR Insights and Intel at Cone: ‘Not only do consumers expect companies to address social issues, they have more positive images of these companies and are more likely to trust them and be loyal to them’.

General customers and more particularly ‘Millenials’ are now determined to take charge and find out whether their favourite brand is engaged with social causes or not. As they have grown up with cause marketing, they know it is almost a cost of doing business, Dailey adds.

And they are right! Let’s be honest, underlying this trend towards social good advertising, is a company’s desire to engage customers and/or potential investors and ultimately increase its market share.

It is clear that the integration of socially-focused outreach programmes within a company’s business activities, is increasingly becoming a widely accepted practice. Now more than ever, corporations and non-profits are realizing that aligning companies and causes, helps them significantly gain visibility, brand recognition and company awareness.

An example of a pioneer brand that has a long history of social marketing is clothing company, Benetton. The Italian retailer has been known for producing provocative advertising campaigns that tend to acquire tremendous exposure across a variety of publicity formats. Benetton establishes strong emotional connections with the public, as well as empowers audiences to take action, through clearly formulated social messages.

Benetton’s latest initiative is the UNHATE Foundation. It helps address the cultural intolerance issue by showing that hate and love are not as far away from each other as we think. The campaign also includes several community educational programmes as well as providing support to NGO’s that encourage and teach tolerance.

In conclusion, even though cause marketing initiatives don’t always reflect a company’s honest good-will, but may instead serve as a way to increase its market exposure and achieve higher sales, it is important to recognise that non-profit organisations and businesses are now realizing their impact in society by joining forces. This is a win-win situation for all commercial companies: they certainly succeed in building a good profile, but more importantly, they have the ability to engender a positive change in audiences by motivating and empowering them to take action against unfair situations or social causes, as well as raising awareness of people’s social responsibility.