One of the staples of cause marketing is that in addition to doing good, the proposed cause marketing campaign should benefit the business.

The cases often cited: 

• Singapore Airlines launched a cause marketing campaign to bring awareness to Doctors Without Borders. The company held an online auction for all seats on the historic first flight of the company’s Airbus A380.
• Product Red, supported by a number of companies including Apple, Motorola, Giorgio Armani and The Gap,was created to support The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria.

Walgreen’s is giving $100 million to a wide range of health organizations, Lowe’s is supporting Earth Day and a number of forest-preservation initiatives. And Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snacks is giving laptops to school children.

Most of these campaigns are launched with good intentions and do make people feel good about the brand. All well and good.

But I’d like to raise the bar.

In my mind, it’s not enough to benefit the business by boosting sales or bathing the brand in a halo effect.

No, I’d ask that B2B marketers contemplating a cause marketing campaign look at it as an opportunity to express the brand values. To live them in a concrete and meaningful way.

A case in point: Godfrey has a client that is currently embarking on a customer-empowerment campaign. The brand positioning was uncovered after an extensive brand engagement in which we interviewed internal audiences and helped the client uncover this unique positioning that truly embodied corporate values.

After we began helping our clients prepare to launch the positioning at a trade show, we found out that they were considering a plan to support solar-powered devices that extended their life-enriching amenity to Third World countries without electricity.

In my mind, that approach would be an excellent expression of cause marketing in the emerging global economy: an effort that spreads the client’s technology. That promotes, embodies and enriches the positioning. And most of all, an effort that truly benefits mankind.

It creates a new age branding that reflects the realities of the digital age: it’s not enough to pronounce, promote or even shout your brand’s positioning from the highest global rooftops. You simply have to live it.

It’s too soon to tell if our client will work out all the details and the proposed cause marketing program will get the support to allow it to take off. These are tough times, indeed.

But it meets critical objectives from almost every point of view: it supports the brand. It advances the client’s technology. It creates millions of new consumers. It benefits those consumers immensely, enriching their lives and those of their families.

And as a result, it truly embodies the brand’s empowerment positioning, giving it immense impact that goes beyond PR releases and glossy photos. And internally? Well, who wouldn’t want to work for a company that lives up to its marketing so well? A company that, in doing good, does well.