Do You Have Compassion Fatigue?

October 1, 2008

Pink. Online or in-store any day in October you’ll see pink ribbons, pink logos and pink symbols, all supporting the worthy breast cancer cause. This celebration of pink at first seems like a winning equation for both brands and nonprofits: but is too much of a good thing too much? Take a walk down any street in America and notice how many people just aren’t wearing yellow bracelets any more. Instead you’ll see red, the new love color of the day, thanks to Bono’s creation of Project Red. What’s the deal? Is pink and yellow out and red in? Probably, but red won’t be in for long if we don’t change the way we market causes.

So many causes supported by so many brands looks to consumers that everyone is doing the same thing. People simply can’t connect which brand goes with which cause. They don’t know who supports what. So they support nothing.

This support nothing-attitude is called compassion fatigue. The consumer is overwhelmed by the rainbow of cause colors and programs when they shop online or instore. They are desensitized and exhausted. This makes them actually less likely to buy your product or shop in your store because it’s tied to a cause. Ouch.

Involvement in cause marketing is intended to build consumer loyalty. But if the consumer is burnt out can nonprofit relationships and cause marketing programs really pay out? Is it possible your cause programs may actually be undermining your company’s success with consumers over the long term? You bet. But there are ways to combat compassion fatigue. The key is to recognize it exists and go beyond the norm by finding ways to be more meaningful to your consumers.

Hand Over Control.

Consumers are in the driver’s seat, so hand them the keys and give them the tools to take control. Create programs with them in mind, use the cause to connect the brand to them. American Express (AMEX) did this with the “Members Project” and it worked like gangbusters. Instead of telling their card members what cause program they were going to participate in they invited consumers to pick the cause/issue AMEX should support. AMEX received over 9,000 ideas, had 1.6 MM unique visits to their web site and saw a tremendous increase in their refer a friend program.

Connect Everywhere.

Be everywhere your consumer is. Find ways to be more relevant to them in their digital lifestyle. Connect to your consumers’ needs through relevant insertion of your brand and the cause into their online social communities. Give them something to talk about. You. These days, marketers should be spending 1/3 of their marketing budget online creating blogs, viral content, widgets, personal homepages and more.

Be Unexpected.

Surprise your consumers by taking your program in a different direction. Turn them onto your brand and the cause by giving them the opportunity to make a difference easily.

Crate & Barrel did this with their DonorsChoose.org gift certificates program. Instead of asking consumers to buy before donating funds they simply thanked customers by sending 3.6 million gift cards. The gift cards thanked customers for shopping at Crate & Barrel and invited them to make a predetermined donation to DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit group that funds projects for needy school teachers nationwide. This shift in the paradigm paid back, as stores sales increased 15% in the six months following the promotion.

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