Cause Marketing? Think Social Purpose

If you’re thinking about developing a cause marketing initiative, before you leap, take a step back and consider your social purpose first. Here’s a checklist to get you underway.

We’re often devising cause marketing initiatives as part of a new or evolving brand strategy and for good reason. Activated in the right way, cause related marketing and the inspiring stories it generates can form a robust pillar of your ‘do good to do well‘ strategy. But fail to plan it properly, fail to dig into the social purpose of your business and the whole exercise could fall pretty flat.

But what is ‘Social Purpose’? Where does it fit with your business and how do you define it?

Thanks to Paul Klein, the president and principal energy behind Toronto’s Impakt Agency in Canada, here’s a quick fix checklist on how to think about your Social Purpose, and this is relevant to firms of all sizes and industries.

• The social purpose of a business should embody the purpose of its leadership and its leadership should embody the social purpose of the business.
• The social purpose of a business is based on the belief that social change is good for business and business is good for social change.
• The social purpose of business speaks to the ends (social change) rather than the means (corporate social responsibility).
• The social purpose of a business is integrated with, and indivisible from, everything the business does to make money.
• The social purpose of a business is aligned with and supports social issues in a way that is consistent with the unique culture and character of the business.
• The social purpose of a business is genuine, ongoing, and unassailable.

There you have it.. food for thought that’s really well worth chewing over.