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Learning from Innovative Back to School Programs
Gleaning strategic insights from some of America's largest education-related campaigns.
For every thing there is a season and for every
season there is a cause marketing theme. In the
case of late summer, that means back-to-school
campaigns -- lots of them.
Surveying the field while shopping for my daughters, I
was impressed with the cause programs retailers
have mounted to capture more of this year's $15+
billion back-to-school spending bonanza.
Looking at adjustments that have been made to some
of the biggest programs provides valuable lessons.
TARGET
Since 1997, Target has contributed more than $100
million to schools through its Take Charge of
Education program, which gives a consumer's
designated local school 1% of their in-store and 1/2%
of their out-of-store purchases made with Target
credit cards.
This year Target added a corporate social
marketing program to its array of back-to-school
offerings: The Classroom Wish List.
This variation on a gift registry makes it easier for
teachers to tell parents what classroom supplies they
need that the school has not budgeted for.
(Teachers spend an average of $589 of their own
money on such items each year and an increasing
percentage of parents buy classroom supplies,
according to two recent studies.)
"Target frequently hears from its guests how hard
teachers work to stretch every dollar of their limited
budgets," said Laysha Ward, vice president,
community relations, Target Corporation. "Classroom
Wish List allows parents to purchase resources for
their child's classroom, helping to supplement high-
quality learning materials and school supplies, while
easing the financial burden educators incur."
Results are not yet public, but the program has been
well received, according to a Target spokesperson.
KEY LEARNING: When looking to expand and
refresh a program, take a look at capabilities you
already possess. In this case, adapting Target's gift
registry enabled the company to perform a valuable
service in connecting teachers with needs to parents
willing to give.
STAPLES
Like Target, Staples, the office product superstore, has several major national education-related programs. The one that caught my eye combines recycling and fundraising: "Recycle for Education".
Throughout the year, parents, teachers and students can earn $1 dollar for a participating school for every eligible ink or toner cartridge.
Launched in July 2003 as a campaign that benefited state education charities when cartridges were dropped off at stores, the program has since been reformulated to enable consumers to support their local schools by mailing in cartridges.
"Consumers coming into stores would tell us 'This is great, but I want the contribution to go directly to my local school," said Staples spokesperson Sharyn Frankel. To date the program has raised over $1.5 million -- one used cartridge at a time.
KEY LEARNING: Don't be afraid to change -- especially when consumers provide feedback. Localization can be logistically challenging, but it is a key success factor for most cause marketing programs.
GENERAL MILLS
The biggest packaged goods player in educational cause marketing surpassed the $100 million mark this summer with a program that continues to expand.
More than 1 BILLION boxtops worth 10 cents a piece have been redeemed since Boxtops for Education was launched by General Mills in 1996.
Now, in addition to sending in boxtops, boosters can raise money for their registered school by shopping online with participating merchants (e.g. Barnes & Noble and Land's End) and by using a Boxtops for Education Visa Card that donates 1% or purchases.
Particularly impressive is the www.boxtops4education.com website. By registering to be a Boxtops Booster, I qualified to receive all sorts of information on raising participation and a up-to-date report on the funds raised by my kids' elementary school ($930 in academic 2004, in case you're interested).
These innovations helped raise participation levels to all-time highs in 2004 -- $34 million dollars raised.
KEY LEARNING: Give cause supporters easy-to-use tools and you'll be amazed at what they'll do. You don't need to be a Fortune 100 company like General Mills to harness the power of the web -- online service providers like Kintera can put them at your disposal for a fraction of what they would cost to develop yourself.
Washington Mutual
A recent tweak to this bank's "WaMoola for Schools" program is expected to increase its already substantial support of education.
Washington Mutual used to give $1 to education for every new checking account opened. In March 2004 it changed that to a 5-cent donation for every Visa check card purchase. The change enables new and existing customers to participate on an ongoing basis.
"In our recent research, we found that education was top of mind among our customers with a large majority indicating that they were extremely concerned about it as a public issue," said Cheryl DiRe, senior vice president and manager of Community Marketing at Washington Mutual. "We took these findings to heart. While Washington Mutual already generously supports educational initiatives, we want to provide an easy, effective way for customers to be more directly involved and help us decide which schools should receive funding from us."
DiRe added that check card usage was purposefully linked to the program, because checking accountholders represent the broadest base of Washington Mutual's consumer customers.
"Our goal is to raise as much in funding as they can for schools. We also see the WaMoola for Schools program as being an example of how we look for new ways to add value to our products, particularly to Free Checking which remains a popular core-relationship product since we introduced it nearly 10 years ago."
Washington Mutual expects to give approximately $24 million to education out of its $115 million in community and employee giving in 2004.
DiRe expects WaMoola to account for a larger portion of that total over time. Between March and the end of August, 1.5 million customers enrolled and 43,000 schools were registered -- including 90% of all public and private schools in the bank's core markets of Washington, Oregon and California.
KEY LEARNING: The viral power of cause marketing teaches us to expect the unexpected. In the case of WaMoola for Schools, for example, schools have been registered in 50 states yet Washington Mutual has branches in only 14!
Apparently a lot of grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends have signed up to support youngsters living far away. Sometimes such information can provide powerful insights or valuable opportunities. We'll check in with Washington Mutual in a year to find out.
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