Winning With Breast Cancer Cause Marketing

This Wednesday, instead of the usual designer focused post, I’ve come up with a winning idea, although not in the sense that you think. I am talking about the idea of think pink.

As October rolled in, we have witnessed some of the major brands of the world add pink ribbons to their logos (ours included) on their official websites, launch limited edition pinkish items, choose a glamorous fashion model smiling in pink to feature in one of their ads etc.

While most brands only capitalize by going pink, others step out of their way to make some financial donations for the cause with an amount that is equal to their monthly corporate expenditure on toilet paper. All in an attempt to win over customers. That’s when cause marketing becomes questionable.

Let me make this clear – cause marketing is not philanthropy. Most brands tend to merge the two. They think this will win them big bucks but often the do-good image portrayal backfires. This explains why companies that can’t understand the idea behind this important campaign, go overboard to display the message in their marketing campaigns.

Though the awareness crusaders expect people to think pink, some designs or marketing tactics might not have the desired effect. This is especially clear when customers are encouraged to buy pink specific products in the name of creating breast cancer awareness. Here is a list of enthusiastic companies that have been associated with breast cancer awareness but their design themes and marketing ideas make us think – do we really need these pink strategies to win customers over?

Delta Airlines

Image source: Delta’s Pink Plane
Delta Airlines have been supporting Breast Cancer Research Foundation since 3 years now. Each year, they paint their Boeing 767-400s into glossy pink. While critics believe it to be effective, the attempt at cause marketing have actually gone overboard to offer “perks for the pink”.

For example Delta promises that if they get 50,000 likes for their Facebook fan page, then it will directly be translated into $50,000 donation for the research. Now tell me if the brand is not winning big through this or what.

Besides that, some in-flight perks have been offered as incentives to retain clients and the most prominent one includes the signature sandwich pink lunch box. The flight attendants have been wearing pink for the whole month and a limited edition of Delta Merchandise is also available online for purchase. The airline sure knows how to hop on an opportunity!

Burj Al-Arab Hotel in Dubai

Image source: Burj Al Arab in Pink

Even the tourism industry gets the best out of this month. The famous Burj Al Arab has also taken a swipe at cause marketing by turning its tower pink inside and out at night while projecting the symbolic ribbon which can be seen from a great distance.

After this display, the famous tourist destination now joins the Estee Lauder Companies’ Global Landmarks Illuminations Initiative. It will show its support for the campaign on Breast Cancer Awareness and serve pink pastries along with afternoon tea. But this is not all, they have an array of pink delicacies for the month including pink-glazed traditional French mille feuilles, pink cheesecake, pink apple mousse cake, pink choux etc. Guess who’s going to benefit from the sales of these pink confectionaries?

The awareness campaign has even gone overboard with an extravagant use of 100,000 pink roses for the cause. The hotel has several pink floral displays and all the women dining in any of the hotel’s restaurants are presented a single pink rose.

Avon Pink Pamper Party

Image source: Pink Party 

Avon has been in the fight against breast cancer since 1992. It’s a beauty brand that comes up with a wise marketing strategy each year. Since the brand has direct link with women across the world, it has unique opportunities to create breast cancer awareness.

Every year, Avon participates by selling crusade products whose proceedings go directly to Breakthrough’s life-saving work. With their generous contribution of 16 million pounds, Avon representatives and customers have helped raise funds for the noble cause but they have gone overboard when they started Avon Pink Pamper Parties.Though the name sounds a little off-beat, it gives a chance to gather family and friends for some quality pampering and fun filled day to raise awareness and funds.

However, I fail to see that their do-good image, and actually feel they are more concerned with attracting customers and boost sales. So this co-branding is worth a lot more to the company than what they are donating.

Fiamma Jewelry

Fiamma Jewelry is committed to the cause of spreading breast cancer awareness and declares the 10 percent of all sales of their special edition pendant Calli will go straight to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Fiamma has also introduced the classy hope ribbon pendant but the most distinctive feature of this campaign is their presentation. Although the brand goes a little overboard by introducing a whole new range of pink diamond jewelry to support the BCRF cause, their subtle use of colors and expressions have won over the hearts of millions.

They have displayed an excellent example of co-branding but let’s not get carried away. After all, their support towards BCRF has earned them big bucks. And now instead of selling these products for a limited span, Fiamma has made them available throughout the year.  I guess going overboard for the occasion was worth it.

Wilson

Image source: Wilson’s Football Goes Pink

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Wilson sporting goods, the most unlikely of brands has officially announced its support to the cause to help women combat breast cancer. They provide the official ball for the game for NFL that features the pink ribbon. As part of the awareness campaign, all NFL players, coaches and referees are supposed to wear pink apparel for the month of October. All this apparel and the specially designed Wilson balls will be auctioned and the proceeds will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

We all know its “Pinktober” and Wilson wanted to impress its audience with a cause marketing campaign by displaying everything in pink but just by looking at the design it seems that they were short of time and couldn’t think it through. So they just covered everything in pink.

Winter holidays are just around the corner but the period before that is a dry spell for most companies when sales tend to drop sharply. But that won’t be a problem considering opportunities like Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Black Friday are a consolation for companies to prepare for the low season.

Which of the above brands do you think have over done their cause marketing?