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Sep 26, 04:17 am: Unlikely bedfellows create change

This isn’t the first time I’ve said this: Change happens because people that don’t normally work together, or even like each other, act in concert (1, 2, and 3) and I’ve said that the business community needs the civic sector (1).

Want more evidence? If you got the paper edition of the NY Times this Sunday, or last, you may have noticed the full page ad from Target with a Red Cross logo on it. They’ve partnered to help increase awareness, and preparation, around disaster relief (1, 2). According to an article in DMNews, this is more than just bottom-line:

Cause-related marketing partnerships continue to rise, as shown by the American Red Cross and Target stores at the “Together We Prepare” session at the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s annual Bridge Conference in Washington, DC.

Already in 2006 $1.36 billion has been spent by corporate sponsorships on nonprofit organizations, a 20 percent increase from 2005.

“It is not about meeting the bottom line anymore for corporations,” said Shelly EspiEspinosanager of community relations for Target, Minneapolis. “You need to be doing well and doing good.”

The organizations each cited quality, mission-related strategies, brand reputations and reaching a new market as key criteria in making the partnership.

Doing well by doing good. Corporations who want to be more than a check. Brand and an ability to open new markets.

So, does this mean that those of us in the civic sector have to be better at describing our brand, sharing it, and understanding the market to which we provide access? What does it mean when many of us, almost by definition, serve people who cannot afford services — or, presumably emergency kits — in the customary marketplace? Is this what’s really meant about civic organizations becoming “more business-like”?

Or do we have to understand how we are more than just a cause for marketing vehicles?

Surprise. I think it’s the second. You want people to use your emergency kit? Ask ‘em to help you build it. They can put the photos and how-to on flickr. They can make and share videos. I’m just saying. We don’t represent a demographic or a place for corporate employees to volunteer. We represent half of the conversation.

tagged: marketing, causemarketing, target, redcross, partnerships, change