Cause-Related Marketing

Cause-related marketing is defined by our textbook as "the cooperative marketing efforts between a for-profit firm and a nonprofit organization."

One cause-related marketing campaign that I have stumbled upon is a collaboration between Chili's Grill and Bar and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  The Create-A-Pepper to Fight Childhood Cancer campaign was established in 2002 in seven Memphis-area Chili's, and has now become a nation wide campaign.  To participate in this campaign, customers donate $1 and color a chili which gets posted on the wall of the restaurant.  T-shirts and Zip-up hoodies are also sold in an effort to raise more money for the campaign.

It occurs annually during the month of September (Childhood Cancer Awareness Month) and to date the campaign has donated over $41 million to St. Jude.  They have made a commitment to donate at least $50 million, which is the largest donation in the hospital's history.  There is a facility named after Chili's, The Chili's Care Center, which provides state-of-the art technology and care.

To learn more about the cause-related marketing campaign you can visit http://www.stjude.org/chilis.

Chili's Create-A-Pepper campaign has been extremely successful, and there have been no problems with it, it is a clean campaign.  Can you think of any other successful cause-related marketing campaigns?  Where they created selflessly, or did the company have another agenda?