ARTICLES

Grocery Headquarters
Making a difference
By Kim Ann Zimmermann
Published: August 1, 2009

Retailers and manufacturers are using in-store displays as well as special products and packaging to keep charitable contributions flowing.

When families are struggling to make ends meet, charitable contributions often take a back seat. While donations to charitable causes in the U.S. reached an estimated $307.65 billion in 2008, according to Glenview, Ill.-based Giving USA Foundation, that is a 2% drop in current dollars over 2007. Among organizations working to meet people's basic need of food, shelter and clothing, more than half (53%) said they are underfunded or severely underfunded for 2009, according to Giving USA's most recent survey.

Hunger-related charities, along with causes such as breast cancer and autism, are getting a boost with special products and packaging as well as in-store displays.

But experts suggest that careful planning and consideration is important to keep consumers from experiencing "cause fatigue."

"The retailers are the gatekeepers, which is a powerful position, so the messages really have to be relevant to the shopper," says Melissa Radin, principal with PowerPact, a Richmond, Va.-based media company that specializes in cause-related marketing. "Studies have shown that people are still giving, but they are giving less. In today's economy, the cause-related environment is more competitive than ever. The consumer is overwhelmed by the rainbow of cause colors and programs when they shop online or in the store. They are desensitized and exhausted."

Radin says it is important to go beyond the norm by finding ways to be more meaningful to consumers. She says that retailers and manufacturers need to work together to develop campaigns that will be relevant to shoppers while improving sales. PowerPact has worked with Mott's, Yoplait and FUZE, among other brands, on cause-related marketing campaigns.

For example, in 2008, PowerPact worked with Yoplait and 40 participating retailers to develop specialized marketing programs for its "Save Lids to Save Lives" breast cancer awareness campaign that were tailored to each grocer's consumer. "Each program had unique names and tactical pieces," she says.

There should be some local ties to the cause, says David Hessekiel, president of Rye, N.Y.-based Cause Marketing Forum. "While the store may be part of a chain, each individual location is part of the community it serves," he says. "If I have four choices of retailers for my grocery shopping, I'm more likely to choose the one that I feel most connected with."

Southfield, Mich.-based Hiller's Markets, which operates seven stores in Southeast Michigan, promotes local causes throughout the year. In July and August, shoppers will be asked to support the local chapter of Celebrities Against Autism, which offers support and guidance to Michigan families.

"In its nearly 70-year history, Hiller's Markets has been as dedicated to the community as it is to the grocery business," says CEO Jim Hiller. "In the past two decades we have encouraged community connections at every touchpoint, from a wildly successful scrip card program involving hundreds of community organizations and houses of worship, to relationships with lifestyle- and food-specific community groups, to cash register fundraising campaigns and food bank donations of food and drink." The grocer has a long history of working with non-profits, including ALS of Michigan, Jewish National Fund and Gleaners Food Bank.

While the grocer's charitable efforts are nearly constant, Hiller says he is not concerned about overwhelming customers.

"Shoppers self-select which campaigns they want to support and we promote each one with subtlety," he says.

FEEDING AMERICA
While Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods is a far-flung organization, the company tries to make an impact at the community level by working with retailers to support local food banks, according to Angela Wiggins, senior manager of community involvement.

"We've been a long-standing partner with our retailers in the fight against hunger," Wiggins says. "We support Feeding America, which we feel is a natural extension of our business."

As one example, she points to Kraft's successful partnership with Jewel-Osco, a Supervalu banner, in raising funds for Chicago-area hunger initiatives through its "Recipe for Hometown Hunger" program. "Donations were made for Kraft items such as Ritz crackers and Tombstone pizza that people would normally purchase," she says.

Hunger is also among the charitable initiatives at Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. Its "Give" program is the company's multi-brand platform focused on social sustainability efforts, according to officials.

P&G's "Give A Meal" program supports Feeding America. In November 2008, for every coupon redeemed from brandSAVER that month, P&G provided funds for one meal through Feeding America.

"With 'Give' programs, we endeavor to build joint value creation with our customer partners making 'Give' come alive in the store either as a free-standing program that drives volume, or in support of social sustainability programs the customer already may have in place," says Steve Sholtes, P&G's industry affairs manager.

In addition to the Give platform, individual brands have their own social sustainability programs, Sholtes says. Some examples include: Pampers' tetanus inoculation campaign; Tampax/Always Protecting Futures, providing feminine care products and education to African girls to help keep them in school; Donations of PUR water to the Children's Safe Drinking Water Kenya program; Tide Loads of Hope campaign, which provides clean clothes and comfort to families affected by disasters; and Dawn Saves Wildlife, which involves donations for cleaning of oil-damaged waterfowl and marine mammals, in cooperation with wildlife groups around the world.

For more information, contact:
frenchie@powerpact.com

In addition, P&G's Corporate "Live, Learn and Thrive" program provides matching grants for social sustainability programs that improve the lives of children under the age of 14.

Hunger relief is one of the key charitable initiatives at Camden, N.J.-based Campbell Soup Co. "Our corporate social responsibility platform has four pillars: education, hunger relief, wellness and community revitalization," says Jim Sterbenz, vice president, sales planning and strategy.

Experts agreed that it is important to make the program attractive and simple to execute.

"We had a meeting several years ago with some of our top brokers and we asked them for ideas on how to move more product," says Doug Renfro, president of Fort Worth, Texas-based Renfro Foods. "Among the ideas that were generated was using pink lids to promote breast cancer awareness. That was something simple we could do, yet it could have a real impact. The company that makes the lids doesn't care what color we make them and this is something we can do easily."

While the company wanted to support a local charity, it also wanted to tap into the vast promotional and marketing resources of an organization such as Susan B. Komen for the Cure, Renfro says. Renfro Foods was a sponsor of the Tarrant County Race for the Cure and made a $5,000 donation to Fort Worth's Cook Children's Medical Center's Leukemia-Lymphoma Program.

Renfro offers retailers 36-jar shippers that can be used in in-store displays. "Some larger retailers have used these as part of 'pink zones' they are creating with other products promoting breast cancer awareness and smaller retailers have done endcap displays."

While many companies adorn their products with the colors of many causes, some such as Tasty Baking Co., The Bachman Co. and Multipet International make specific products to draw attention to causes such as breast cancer, childhood cancer and autism.

"We hadn't done a lot of products with lemon prior to this relationship," says Jon Silvon, Tasty Baking's director of marketing. This is the third year that the special-edition TastyKake Krimpets have been issued by the Philadelphia-based manufacturer.

"We had done a number of things for charities in terms of donations and sponsorships, but not at a product level," says Silvon. "This was unique for us." Alex's Lemon Krimpets are a lemon jelly-filled variation on the company's well-known sponge cakes. Tasty Baking will donate 10% of the proceeds from the sale of the krimpets, which will be sold through the summer.

The charity was chosen, according to Silvon, in part because of the local connection. "Alex was treated at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia," he says.

PERSONAL CONNECTION
Like pediatric cancer, autism impacts a number of families, so many shoppers have a personal connection to the cause. "So many people have a child, family member, friend or neighbor who has been impacted by autism," says Laura Unger, marketing communications coordinator for The Bachman Co., the Reading, Pa.-based snack manufacturer. The company's president, Scott Carpenter, has an autistic daughter, Unger says, which inspired the company's involvement with Autism Speaks.

In 2008, The Bachman Co. debuted a pretzel in the shape of the Autism Speaks organization's puzzle piece. This built upon the company's awareness campaign that began in 2007 with the placement of autism information stickers on its bags of selected products.

Like Bachman's puzzle pretzel, the pink dog toy from Moonachie, N.J.-based Multipet International to raise breast cancer awareness was also born out of personal experience. Leslie Yellin, the company's director of business development, is a breast cancer survivor.

"My company was phenomenal during my treatment and this is a way to give back and raise awareness," Yellin says.

Earlier this year the company announced that it had raised $20,000 toward breast cancer research through the sale of the toys.

In addition to raising money to fight breast cancer, the company has expanded its philanthropic efforts with a Support our Troops version of its popular loofa toy, which is covered in camouflage fabric with a yellow ribbon.

Hackettstown, N.J.-based Mars Snackfood US has also sought to personalize its campaign to support Susan B. Komen for the Cure. In addition to its pink packages of M&Ms, the company's Dove brand is also supporting the effort by including messages from breast cancer survivor in special packages of Dove bars.

"All things being equal, shoppers will pick a product that supports a worthy cause," says PowerPact's Radin. "That's a powerful thing for the retailers, manufacturers and the charitable causes they support."

A "not-only-for-profit" company
PeaceWorks Holdings founder and CEO Daniel Lubetzky refers to his company as a "not-only-for-profit" organization. "Since its beginnings in 1994, PeaceWorks has been a business that pursues both profit and peace," he says.

The New York-based company was founded in 1994 on the business model of selling healthful food products that are produced by neighbors on opposing sides of political or armed conflicts. The company pursues peace through the support of its PeaceWorks Foundation and the One Voice Movement. "We donate 5% of all profits to empower the moderates in the Middle East who want a peaceful end to the war through a two-state solution," Lubetzky says. "We believe that the social bottom line and the business bottom line are interconnected."

In the interest of peaceful coexistence, the company is also promoting random acts of unexpected kindness, a play on its line of all-natural fruit and nutrition bars called KIND. Field marketers will soon be on the streets, helping people with small tasks such as hailing a cab or carrying a bag. They will also be passing out cards that say, "You've Been KINDed." The recipient of the act is encouraged to go the www.KINDed.com website, enter the code on the card and record the good deed that was done for them. Then they can do a nice gesture for someone else and pass the card along.

While details are still being worked out, company officials say that members in the longest chain of good deeds will get to suggest a cause to support anything from a neighborhood community garden to a national charity. The list will be narrowed down and the KIND community of visitors will be able to vote on the cause to support.