Comments on: Charity Add-on: Does it Work? Is It Real?

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By: Melissa Brown

Melissa Brown — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:17:48 +0000

Does it encourage consumers to bring their business to companies? Probably not. Does it foster good will towards a company when they find out that part of the “profits” are going to charity when they check out? Maybe. Can this “profit” figure be manipulated and misleading? Of course.

However, I think it’s a bit much to portray Yoplait in a negative light because of their Pink Lid campaign. Frankly, people don’t buy Yoplait because of the pink lids. They buy Yoplait because it’s darn good yogurt and they have that Whips! stuff that is nearly addictive.

What Yoplait has done with their pink lids campaign runs much deeper than a cost-effective marketing campaign. Rather, it gives consumers a sense of ownership in the charity process–they see each of those lids as their own contribution to the cause and take responsibility for collecting and sending them in. I don’t know one person who would go out of their way to buy an extra supply of a perishable food item so that they could support breast cancer. And I don’t know any that would stop buying Yoplait if they quit doing the pink lids, either.

True, the campaign has reflected positively on Yoplait in the eyes of the general grocery-buying public. And yes, it is a small percent of their annual sales. But when’s the last time any of the nay-sayers wrote a $235,000 check to their charity of choice, raised a cause’s awareness on a national scale, and gave their customers a large chunk of ownership/responsibility in the success of the fundraising? If you consider that poor corporate behavior, then a lot of us are in BIG trouble.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:45:03 +0000

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By: Arthur Bland

Arthur Bland — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:47:44 +0000

My motivation is partly marketing, and partly personal. – This must be it Dixie.

By: Arthur Bland

Arthur Bland — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:53:57 +0000

I believe it does!

By: Dixie Vogel

Dixie Vogel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:22:07 +0000

This is a very interesting conversation to me. I run a small business in a highly competitive field, and have been considering for some time doing a charity add-on (percentage of sales price, not profits, as it’s just so much easier to understand). The nature of my business is such that I cannot compete on price with the big players, so my niche is personalized service and being easy to work with.

Many of the questions brought up here – percentages, choice of charity, what motivates someone to choose one provider over another, are ones I’ve been looking at myself. While I have indeed done “real life” volunteering and nonprofit work, I’m not at a point in my life where that is how I choose to give.

My motivation is partly marketing, and partly personal. Like Rachel, I want part of my business to be about giving back. And you know what? I’d like to attract the kind of customers who care about giving back as well. People who like giving in one way or another are often just nice people. Having nice customers does indeed improve the quality of my life.

By: Luz Spielberg

Luz Spielberg — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:32:02 +0000

I agree Marek. But of course, somehow this charity add-on tactics sometimes do affect others buying attitude.

By: Kris Bovay

Kris Bovay — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:20:29 +0000

Unfortunately I find myself somewhat cynical about ‘charity add-ons’. I’d rather the business not tell me, but do something. I was talking to a business owner I’ve known for years and we somehow got on the subject of ‘giving-back’. He told me about how his company had adopted a town in Africa and was helping that town become self-sufficient (business plan, small business loans, etc.). The point was I’d known him for years, they’d been involved in this for 6 years and rather than talking about it, they were simply doing it. That I can respect.

By: Marek Fodor

Marek Fodor — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:30:19 +0000

I don’t think it is MEANT to affect buyers’ behavior, Tim. I think it’s obvious it does not, but companies still do it. It is a legitimate way (one of many) of allocating part of profit to charity, letting customers to decide what causes they want to support.

Perhaps you are right and 10% of net profit is too little. But still, it is a lot more than many other cash-flow rich, fast-growing and profitable companies donate to good causes.

What do you think is the net effect of you (with your track record) criticizing companies who do good, but not enough (according to your subjective criteria) – will you cause them (and your readers) to be more charitable? Or …