Cause-Related Marketing
Hemopet
My primary client, Hemopet, is a 501(c)3 non-profit. Its purpose is to rescue greyhounds from the racetracks. Once they are at the facility, the dogs donate life-saving blood for approximately one year and then are put up for adoption. Hemopet does not rely on donations to maintain operations, but rather cutting edge diagnostic tests developed by Dr. Dodds. Occasions do exist that warrant or allow for soliciting donations. The holiday giving season is a good example.
On a more complex level, the California Board of Equalization determined that Hemopet should be taxed for the sale of its animal blood products – even though human blood is not taxed. Eventually, Hemopet had a senate bill written to prevent this taxation. Governor Brown did end up vetoing it along with health and sanitation tax exemption bills. Currently, everything is in limbo. However, I used that opportunity to solicit donations and many of our brand ambassadors devised auctions and fundraisers to help the non-profit out.
PoopBags
PoopBags, Inc. took pride in its philanthropic pursuits. We generally focused on smaller, less well known, unique and national pet-related or environmental causes that touch our hearts.
Earth Day Promotion 2011: “You Buy; We Donate”
The 2010 Earth Day promotion was a free tote bag with any purchase over $50.00. This promotion was not as well received as PoopBags, Inc. had hoped. April sales only increased 2% over 2009.
In 2011, we regrouped and decided that an Earth Day sale was perceived as contrary to our philosophy. Since we are an eco-friendly company, the brand and product offerings appeal to the liberal, educated, upper income, urban set. Of course, we wanted to boost sales. Ultimately, we decided to have a “You Buy; We Donate” promotion. The premise was if customers purchased a minimum of $50.00 worth of products on or before April 30, 2011, PoopBags gave a discount of $.01 and made a donation of $4.21 to one of three organizations. The total amount of $4.22 symbolized the Earth Day date. We wanted to engage the purchasers, too, so we gave them the choice of which organization benefited. The results were outstanding. Sales were 30% higher than 2010.
August 2011: Soup Kitchens for Pets
We teamed up with The Honest Kitchen, a manufacturer of dehydrated raw dog food, to donate boxes of its food to a local pet food pantry. They chipped in 12 boxes of food and we matched the donation. On top of that, we sold our branded t-shirts and donated 100% of the proceeds to additional boxes of food. Overall, we were able to purchase a total of 39 boxes.
Additional Philanthropic Efforts
Pets of the Homeless: Accepted over $1,000.00 in donations on behalf of Pets of the Homeless during the 2011 Holiday Season. Genevieve Frederick, the former Executive Director, understands the mutually beneficial partnership agreement between corporation and organization. She sent out a press release, emails, tweeted and posted to Facebook.
Algalita Marine Research Foundation and Friends of Animal Care and Control: Sold t-shirts and donated gross profits to one of the two listed organizations. Our customers could choose which one.
Aaron’s Dog Park: Raised money and donated poop bags to help a boy scout building a dog park.
Darling: PoopBags’ virtual foster dog.
University of Iowa School of Art and Art History: Raised money and awareness to aid 2008 flood recovery efforts. Hence, my alma mater…
NativeEnergy’s Northeast Mitigation Project: Offset PoopBags’ 2010 carbon footprint. It was very a propos as the project separated cow manure to be repurposed instead of it polluting vital watersheds.