Marketing Communications

TYPES OF SPONSORSHIP 359

In October 1999, ConAgra Foods, a company owning more than 80 household brands, launched Feeding Children

Better, a cause programme to stop childhood hunger. By partnering with various anti-hunger organisations and

using its extensive distribution, advertising and promotion resources, the company was able to bring more food into

the charity food distribution system and put child hunger on the agenda. Since the beginning of the programme,

50 Kids Cafés (places where kids can have a decent meal after school) have been funded, fresh food deliveries to

relief organisations have increased dramatically and 29 trucks have been purchased for food banks with gifts from

ConAgra. The programme received numerous sponsorship and non-profit awards.

Since 1995, Ford Motor Company has sponsored the Susan G. Komen’s Breast Cancer Foundation. The support

is not linked to Ford sales, but the company helps the organisation with donations, media support and in-kind gifts.

The company also created the Ford Force, a united front of dealers, employees and the general public. More than

12 000 Ford employees and more than 3000 dealers have participated in the activities of Ford Force. The results

have been impressive, both for the Komen’s foundation and for Ford. Website visits and toll-free telephone calls

have increased dramatically, and there is a substantial increase in breast examinations. Ford has been able to create

interest and sympathy among women, previously a low-involved market segment.

Timberland, a lifestyle brand that sells footwear, apparel and accessories, and City Year, a national youth service

organisation, have been partners since 1989. Timberland has donated more than $10 million in grants and in-kind

gifts since the beginning of the partnership. The partnership has helped to promote a service ethic among

Timberland employees, who have contributed over 170 000 hours of community service. Timberland and City Year

have co-ordinated numerous other service events and campaigns. Timberland also opened a City Year office in its

headquarters. As a result, the company was voted by its peers as one of the ‘100 best companies to work for’.^65

These examples illustrate that cause-related programmes can enhance corporate visibility and image, involve

previously uninterested market segments and improve the commitment of the employees and future employees of

the organisation.

BUSINESS INSIGHT

Cause-related sponsorship programmes as a communications tool

Cause-related sponsorship

Cause-related sponsorship is a combination of PR, sales promotions and corporate philanthropy,

based on profi t-motivated giving to good causes. MUSH sponsoring comes closest to traditional

sponsoring in that money is given to good causes in return for exposure and image-building

linkage with the good cause sponsored. Transaction-based sponsorship (sometimes called

cause-related marketing) is diff erent in that a company’s contribution to a designated cause

is linked to customers’ engagement in revenue-producing exchanges with the fi rm.

Although the objectives of cause-related sponsorship are, to a certain extent, the same as

those of other sponsorship activity, more emphasis is put on the impact on corporate or

brand image as a result of the link between the company or the brand and the good cause

sponsored. Research has shown that eff ective cause-related sponsorship programmes can

enhance a company’s reputation and brand image and, at the same time, give customers a

convenient way to contribute to non-profi t organisations through their buying decisions. It is

not only marketing professionals who believe that cause-related marketing can improve the

image of their brands, consumers also seem to be interested. Studies indicate that as many as

two-thirds of consumers are willing to take the company’s contribution to good causes into

account when making a decision on which brands to purchase. A 2000 survey in 12 European

countries indicated that two in fi ve consumers bought a product because of its links to good

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