Cause Marketing and Purpose Washing
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of “Wokewashing”
Is your company committed to a cause, or are you jumping on the latest bandwagon? When your marketing misaligns with an issue, it’s woke washing and consumers know it (especially Gen Z)!
Yet, marketers are caught between customers who expect them to embed values in the brand and jumping into an issue where they have no authority. Using case studies of what works (Ben & Jerry’s; Steak Ums) and what doesn’t (Disney and “don’t say gay”; the Pepsi/Kendal Jenner commercial), this talk will provide strategies for aligning mission with marketing, helping you to make a difference rather than merely virtue signaling. The bottom line: when you are clear about what issues to take on and make them part of our corporate DNA, you no longer have to jump into the fray.
Grab your free download about some of the many dirty doings of Purpose Washing…
…and prepare to get #HOODWINKEDWISE.
Cause Marketing Book
by Dr. Mara Einstein
Compassion, Inc.
How Corporate America Blurs the Line Between What We Buy, Who We Are and Those We Help
Pink ribbons, red dresses, and greenwashing—American corporations are scrambling to tug at consumer heartstrings through cause-related marketing, corporate social responsibility, and ethical branding, tactics that can increase sales by as much as 74%. Harmless? The answer is a resounding “No!”
In Compassion, Inc.: How Corporate America Blurs the Line Between What We Buy, Who We Are and Those We Help, I outline how cause-related marketing desensitizes the public by putting a pleasant face on complex problems. We look at the unseen ways in which large sums of consumer dollars go into corporate coffers rather than helping the less fortunate. I end by pointing out companies that truly do make the world a better place, and those that just pretend to.