Is “Mission Marketing” the New Cause Marketing? (Part Two)

Last week, I began this two-part post with some of the results of a survey by Boston-based marketing consultancy Cone Communications that irrefutably shows that the annual onslaught of pink products to support breast cancer awareness is backfiring among customers.

I posited that consumers see these efforts as what they really are:  a short-term promotion designed to drive a bump in sales, but without any long-term commitment to the cause.

To see what I mean, take a look at online retailer Etsy’s “Tickled Pink” campaign.

The atrocious title aside, the site is remarkably long on pink product, but virtually lacking in any specifics about how much of a donation would be made to breast cancer charities, or even which charities would be the beneficiaries.  One blogger dug deeper and found that of the 24 products listed, only eight actually claim to support breast cancer organizations.  To my mind, this is far from anything resembling cause marketing.

I remain a fervent believer in the power of cause, not just as a way to drive sales and build brand trust and affinity, but also as a means of visibly and concretely demonstrating what the brand/company – and its people – stand for.  But, to do so, cause must be looked at seriously and strategically, with an allocation of significant resources, a long-term view, total transparency and specific and measurable metrics. (See Part One, for two sterling examples from Avon and AT&T).

In the midst of this October’s breast cancer campaigns, I was delighted to see another kind of purpose-based marketing initiative emerge:  Red Bull Stratos and its sponsorship of Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking fall to earth from a height of 24 miles above the Earth.

I have read several posts from marketing commentators and columnists that called this a terrific example of corporate sponsorship.  And, I would agree.

But, I think there is more to it than just sponsorship.  I would call it “mission marketing”.

It was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime event viewed by many millions around the world.  It also resulted in breaking such records as free fall from the highest altitude, longest free fall time, and fastest acceleration (by human or object) to the speed of sound.  But Red Bull Stratos focused on the even bigger idea:  that this was also a meticulously planned and executed mission with a goal of delivering substantive scientific data.

Red Bull’s sponsorship included the deployment of a team of the finest aeronautics and medical professionals who studied the jump for its scientific value.  According to the Red Bull Stratos website, that included:

• Aiding development of a new generation of space suits (including enhanced mobility and visual clarity) to aid passenger/crew exit from space;
• Developing protocols for exposure to high altitude/high acceleration
• Exploring the effects on the human body of supersonic acceleration and deceleration, including innovations in parachute systems.

In my opinion, this is big – huge – thinking at its best.  It is also in complete support of the kind of benefits that Red Bull aspires to represent:  energy, concentration, focus and determination.

Appropriately and refreshingly, it was a low-key – dare I say humble – partnership.  Take a look at the website at the center of the campaign.  The brand is almost nonexistent in its presence, just enough to inform the visitor of its sponsorship.  The event and the science constitute the visitor experience.  And Red Bull underwrote lots of digital content for deep immersion.

What I also found rare was Red Bull’s exceptional patience for the payoff.  The jump was first announced in early 2010, over two-and-a-half years before it actually occurred.  But once Baumgartner jumped on October 14th, the world turned to the Red Bull Stratos site, the official home of all information related to the jump.  The media coverage alone must have numbered in the billions of branded impressions.  Red Bull made excellent use of its social media properties to drive engagement and consumer connection.

Is that enough?   Will it drive sales and closer brand affinity?  It may be too early to tell and will certainly depend upon how Red Bull continues to find ways to extend its connection to the event and to the scientific mission.  But, given how well the brand has succeeded to date, I have every reason to believe they will.

Steve Jobs — Intuition, Insights, Inspiration and Innovation

Welcome to Questions and Insights!  I look forward to having you join the conversation.

Like most of us, I’ve spent the last two weeks thinking about the world-changing, industry-revolutionizing innovations that Steve Jobs left as his legacy:  those insanely great products that changed how we interact with everything from our music and friends to the world-at-large.

Hundreds of writers have honored his memory far better than I can, but I agree that he was, indeed, a modern-day Henry Ford or Thomas Edison.  Like those pioneers, Jobs possessed an uncanny intuition that knew what consumers desired.  In the many essays memorializing his career, I was struck that nearly all of them made the point that Jobs eschewed research, focus groups and other insight-gathering methods we routinely use to understand consumer audiences.  Instead, he relied on his own instincts.

Now, this may seem a contradictory point for a blog devoted to consumer insight, but I propose that it proves the point.  Jobs was that rare, exotic being: a business visionary with intuitive powers that went straight to the heart of the next great thing that consumers would love — and he knew what they wanted way before they did.  His intuition was hard-wired into his own inspiration and he knew how to use his inspiration to fire up Apple teams.  That,  in turn, led to powerful and imaginative innovations for consumers.

Jobs was a 1 in 100-year phenomenon.  Most of us have to rely on a combination of intuition and insights to guide our thinking.  In my career, I’ve only met one colleague with similar powers of intuition: one of my earliest mentors, Carol Cone.  In the earliest days of establishing her firm, Cone Inc., she intuitively saw that the then nascent trend of fitness walking could bring long-term health benefits to millions of people.  In partnership with our client, the walking shoe brand Rockport, she and the rest of us at Cone Inc., created the fitness walking movement.

Fast forward to 2011.  Carol is now widely regarded as the “mother of cause branding”.  But back then, when she was moving her firm towards a specialty in cause and social marketing, she knew that her intuition was not enough.  She realized, as she began to create such iconic cause campaigns as those that her agency developed for Avon, Reebok, Con Agra and many others, that deep insights around consumer needs and concerns was essential in aligning brands to causes — such as breast cancer research funding, international human rights and feeding America’s hungry — that would resonate honestly with consumers and address pressing social issues.

My point: for most of us, intuition can’t stand alone.  It does propel us down the path, often the right path.  Intuition, however, is not always reliable.  In those instances when you absolutely positively know your thinking is on the money, go with it!  But, for those other times, listen to the consumer and trust a disciplined approach to gleaning insights to guide your strategy.

See you next time.