Marketing Charity
November 1st, 2005 by Kaushal Sheth
This idea has gradually evoloved, but it all started a week earlier when I was told to defend one of my post Coke Strikes back by my friend. According to him no doubt the Ad was great but taking literal meaning of word Sar Uthake Piyo was kind of foolish , the tag line lost its authenticity this way. Somehow I did manage to defend saying but idea was really innovative but deep down I knew he was right to some extent.
I came across this really great post at my favourite blog Creating Passionate Users. The notion to use Ads & Money for charity has really moved me. I know its not new ( had seen some soap ad on TV stating will donate some part of money to charity , or the last Saffola ad where company states a part of it will be used in helping homeless child).
Then lo behold idea strucked me, if coke can just donate some part of revenue ( I dont know figures or their profit or anything , idea is just concern to care ) wouldn’t it make their end customers proud ?. Wouldn’t person drinking coke feel (though not immense i might add ) he is proud that he chose coke and not other drink. It will be truly kinda Sar Uthake Piyo ad. Coke are you listening? What you think?
Also if companies can just show end users how they are directly helping charity ( I know lot of big companies do , and tend to keep it like secret ) wouldn’t it help in building their brand image?. Starting this traditon of Marketing Charity as I prefer to call would do lot of good for society and company according to me.
Companies really need to note the idea of charity is there in almost all individual ( was chatting with muslim friend like few mins ago and he is like soon it will be Ramazan Bayram and he will keep fast for 3 days showing concern for poor families, or take case of people tend to donate most on occasions of Diwali , Eid ). If they can just find a way to add this Charity tag with their brand image it will really help them, according to me.
This is just my heart felt idea. I know a part of it may seem unreasonable but even if it is implemented to say 20% extent , it would do great for society.
Posted in Heart Felt |
November 1st, 2005 at 11:00 pm
My viewpoint is a little different.
With the competition so tough, taking such a risk can really hit the company. A more relevant question is “Would you be willing to pay y% more for Coke (for charity) ?” If Coke has to pay a part of its profits to charity, then it would be doing injustice to its investors who expect max. returns on their investment.
Consider an average villager who can barely afford a 200 ml bottle of soft drink once a month. Would it be fair to him? I think that soft drinks are not a luxury.
November 2nd, 2005 at 1:36 am
By the way post was not meant to be coke specific , just took a example to illustrate my viewpoint in this case.
Coming back to point, I never meant that increase rate of coke bottle. I just said if they came up with something like with every coke bottle you drink we provide one glass water in deserts of Rajasthan to needy wont normal urban people have just for a moment a feeling of Pride and thus well the ad would be apt for it.
As for the case of investors I remember that picture damn forgot movie name where this guy inherits million dollar from his grandfather , fights with vice president in finale and convinces investor not to sell stock just for sake to let other’s dream get fulfilled. I will recall and paste later here.
The point is 10 paise , 20 paise dont count, even while travelling by bus dont we pay some 15 paise. At the cost of building brand image it might be assumed as peanuts.
November 3rd, 2005 at 7:40 pm
Yes Yes, by all means it is a good marketing idea. Navneet is doing something similar with its eco-friendly note books.
My only point is that some one would have to incur the cost!!