Cause Marketing Causes Buzz About Campbell’s Soup

Saturday May 11th is the 15th annual letter carriers canned food drive, where donations are accepted at the mailbox and delivered to local food banks. As reported by APM’s Marketplace, Campbell’s Soup, one of the largest corporate sponsors, stands to profit by helping promote a cause – a prime example of cause marketing.

Marketplace reports that companies spent an estimated $1.3 billion on cause marketing last year, a 20% jump from the previous year.

Some critics think that going down a cause marketing path is treading on thin ice, especially if a company actively promotes (through ads and public service announcements) the purchase of its own products to support a given cause, something savvy consumers could see through.

At the same time, companies engaged in cause marketing are supporting worthy causes.  In the case of the letter carriers food drive, Marketplace reports that the one-day event generates 70 percent of all of the food donated nationally through food drives.

So is cause marketing exploitive or altruistic? That answer is arguably a hot debate topic, one that consumers will ultimately have a hand in shaping and answering.