Causes ... and Effects

Cause-related marketing is increasingly popular, both with corporations and with consumers.

For consumers, it's a way to wear their values on their sleeves (perhaps even with a t-shirt!); not surprisingly, most of us like the idea of spending our money with companies that do good. For corporations, it's a way to present a more human face, and to move product, often at a higher profit margin, as reported in Kris Frieswick's article in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine early this month.

There is nothing ethically wrong with higher profit margins per se. There is, however, something ethically wrong with misleading your customers.

I suspect that most consumers buying pink-ribbon-bedecked products this month assume that some portion of the purchase price will be contributed to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.

Sadly, this is not always the case.

As reported by Kerry Gold at The Atlantic online, and by Aimee Picchi at Daily Finance, a pink package may mean very little. Picchi reports (and Gold quotes) that a "pink Swiffer sweeper, made by consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble, ...sports a pink ribbon accompanied by the phrase 'early detection saves lives.' So how does purchasing a pink Swiffer help the cause? It's unclear from the label, because it contains no information about how its purchase will help breast-cancer causes. And, according to a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman, the company will only make a two-cent donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation if a consumer uses a coupon from Procter & Gamble's brand saver coupon book, which was distributed in newspapers on Sept. 27. Without the coupon, the limited-edition pink packaging on the Swiffer is simply designed to draw awareness to the cause."

Having now read the fine print, do you get that warm fuzzy feeling? How do you feel about buying pink Swiffer products? How do you feel about P&G?

Such deceptive practices will eventually be revealed for what they are, and could have a hugely negative effect on brand perceptions.

But beyond the fine-print problem that can be found throughout cause-related marketing (I'm not singling out the pink-ribbon folks because they're particularly wrong-minded about this; I'm singling them out because we are awash in pink this month), there are problems that are specific to breast-cancer related marketing.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation has trademarked a pink ribbon symbol; in order to carry the official pink ribbon, a corporate partner must agree to adhere to the Better Business Bureau's Standards for Charity Accountability, among other requirements. A minimum contribution of 10 percent of the product or service is the "recommended donation." If partners cap their donations -- at, say, $500,000 in one year -- they are supposed to inform consumers that the cap has been reached. But research by Frieswick and others shows that Komen doesn't track partner behavior as closely as it should.

Moreover, there are any number of other breast-cancer foundations out there, and any number of other generic pink ribbons. Is anyone watching what they do? How much they give (or don't)?

Breast Cancer Action, an advocacy group, recommends that shoppers "think before you pink": Ask questions like, "How much money from this purchase actually goes to breast cancer research?" and "What is the company doing to assure that actually contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?" (BCA refers to these companies as "pinkwashers")

Moreover, as the number of pink products grows every year (pink packages for chicken sausages?!? pink mobile printers?!?), the connection between cause and supporter becomes more tenuous. I expect two results: first, increasing consumer cause-fatigue, and then, falling profits.

If you think breast-cancer research is a worthy cause, write a check yourself. Don't count on the corporations.