Marketing
Issue No. 33 - February/March 2007
Using social causes for marketing
by Dr David Corkindale and Dr David Corkindale
Dick Smith started a range of food products featuring the Australian flag and offering consumers the opportunity to “Buy Australian”; Channel Nine in Adelaide stresses in its news bulletins that “We're local”; some businesses advertise that they are “family owned” and presumably deserving of support because of this.
Do these appeals work? Would it be better to promote the performance features of products and services like better flavour, more sports coverage or better prices?
The answer seems to be that appeals to altruism can work, but by no means universally. You have to understand the circumstances and the type of purchase being made.
The size of the influenced segment
The environmentally friendly, hybrid-engined Toyota Prius, is more expensive to purchase than an equivalent standard car but is in high demand: there is clearly a segment of customers that is prepared to pay a premium to 'do something for the environment'.
An important commercial consideration is: how big is such a segment in a market and how do we identify members of it?
A recent research study has explored these issues1. For small-priced, everyday items - the so-called “repertoire” market - the researchers suggest that segment is small; for occasional, considered purchases they suggest the segment can be as large as 50% as long as all necessary and desirable functional features are met.
This makes sense: people will support some worthy cause as long as their main needs are being met and they are getting good value, but they need to think about it: buying habitual, everyday items does not involve much thought, though.
Also, it's not simple to identify who makes up the influenced segment. The researchers claim such people are not the young, wealthy, well-educated women who are typically thought to support good causes most enthusiastically.
This finding mirrors some research we did at the Uni of SA 10...
