Three Tactical Approaches

The 20-year history of cause marketing in America encompasses hundreds of case studies ranging from relatively superficial, tactical partnerships to long-term, strategic alliances that penetrate deeply into business and nonprofit organizations. (See the case studies section.)

Tactically, cause marketing programs fall into three general categories:

1. Transactional: Programs that elicit participation with an offer to make a contribution to a designated cause based on consumer activity such as buying a specific product, redeeming a coupon, registering at a website or shopping at a particular retail chain.
2. Message Promotion: Joint campaigns that raise awareness of a cause’s message (e.g. fight skin cancer) or participation in its programs (e.g. join us in a coastal cleanup) while building a positive association with the corporate sponsor or its brands.
3. Licensing: Independent Sector defines cause marketing licensing as “An agreement in which the nonprofit allows its information or knowledge to be used for a fee or an agreement in which a nonprofit's name is attached to a product. Typically, a nonprofit licenses a company to develop, produce, market and/or distribute a mission-related product that is promoted either with the organization's brand name or co-branded with both the company's and nonprofit's names.”

There are few “pure plays” in cause marketing; most programs combine two or three of these tactics.