Question

Distinguish between green marketing, cause related marketing and philanthropy and give an example of each? What are some concerns consumers may have regarding cause-related marketing?

Answer 1

Green marketing is use of environment friendly approaches to marketing. It could use recycled paper, non-toxic paints, etc. to create marketing collaterals, use clean energy to produce the digital marketing content, etc. Basically when you use environment friendly and sustainable way to sell you products and goods, it is called green marketing. Ikea is a company that is well-known for green marketing

Cause-related marketing is the approach used by many corporates where they market their social responsibility initiatives. Through this, they attempt to achieve profitability and social benefit at the same time. One of the well-known example of cause-related marketing is probably Salvation Army’s red kettle campaign. The donations are used to fund the institution and the poor during Christmas season.

Philanthropy is a giving money or other types of resources to the needy so that they can sustain themselves for a period. The other word for this is donation to the charity. An example of philanthropy is to donate money to the homeless shelter or orphanages.

People may have concerns about cause-related marketing because it is understood that portion of the benefits raised through these marketing campaigns will be used to fund the organization as well. However, what will be the share of that portion is often unknown. If an organization gets $100 as donation, it may keep $80 for itself and give $20 to the poor. That defeats the purpose of the cause. The problem is that this break up and the internal operation of the organization is not transparent and thus, the consumers may be concerned.