Business and charity. The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, and excuse me putting on my marketing guy hat for a moment, doing good is good for the bottom line as well.
Since I’ve come on board as marketing manager at Express Auto, we’ve focused our attention particularly on causal marketing. Identifying causes that we believe in and that our staff can stand behind, while at the same time specifically targeting local non-profits that have their own public relations machinery. Now, be careful what you take away from that last sentence because the operative there is, “…that we believe in…” That is the pivot point where Causal Marketing can cross the line into cynical manipulation.
For us, the root cause we have found in common from the principals, to the service technicians and sales staff is children and family. As a BHPH dealership, we know that many of our customers are single mothers and families on the edge. We serve an underprivileged population, and it’s to that population that we have decided to give back.
It is not enough to do good, you must be seen to do good.
This is the guiding principle that I operate under when finding promotional and sponsorship opportunities. For example, earlier this year we teamed with the Battle Creek Bombers, a local baseball team. We are part of their Community Outreach initiative. We purchased blocks of 30 tickets each for 15 games this season. The tickets to go for free to local organizations like Big Brothers/Big Sisters. So over this Summer, 450 at-risk kids will get to go out to a ballgame on us. In exchange for that, as well as knowing we’ve done something good for our community (these kids are, after all likely the children and grandchildren of our customers), we got in park signage, sponsor banners on the Bomber’s website, a joint press release distributed by their Marketing arm as well as ours, program book advertising, we’ll be at the games distributing Express Auto caps to the kids and getting pictures with the players and the mascot, and a good deal more.Last year our employees raised money for Pretty Lake Vacation camp, a local Summer camp for at-risk youth. The company matched what the employees raised and we presented a check to the camp at our main offices with cake and photos and videos. Another joint press release, another promotional event surrounding our philanthropy, pictures and video on Facebook and the blog, incoming links from Pretty Lake and the local media.
Doing business and doing good.
Our big August promotion this year? In conjunction with one of our radio vendors we are coordinating to do a month-long event called the, “Backpack Giveback”. Bring in a backpack or school supplies and get $200 towards your down-payment. We’ll be the title sponsor across three local radio stations, the exclusive auto dealership sponsor, and the exclusive drop-off point for people wanting to give. We’re essentially carpet bombing the airwaves during the month of August with everything from simple mentions, to radio spots, and on-air interviews about the promotion.In September we’re combining a blood drive at three of our locations with the grand opening of our newest store in Benton Harbor, Michigan. We’ll give buyers a $50 service gift certificate for donating a pint of blood, or $200 off their down-payment. The promotional value is enormous, as Michigan Blood will be pushing the event heavily through their press channels just as we are doing the same. Again — everybody wins in this scenario.Think beyond just the satisfaction of giving back to your community or the vague ‘branding” response that you get from being seen as a charitable company. As owners and managers our first responsibility is to build a thriving business. We owe that to our staff and their families; to the our vendors people who depend on us for their livelihood; to our customers. No, what I’m talking about here is a way to consider direct community involvement and even philanthropy as justifiable marketing expenses.
Doing business and doing good is good business.
