Cause-related marketing campaigns come in many different forms. It is a company’s contribution to a charity and involves consumers taking action in some way. Typically, a company commits to making a donation based on a percentage of sales from products, or includes customers making a purchase of some sort. The campaign tends to have its own branding that is co-branded to be aligned with the company. There can be many benefits to a company that uses cause-related marketing campaigns however these types of campaigns can also have a negative impact as well. (Blackboard, 2013)
Shell Canada has a unique example of a cause-related marketing campaign. From a communications standpoint, the company mostly succeeds in achieving its objectives. There are however, a few areas that Shell could focus on to lessen the negative impact it has on the company’s image.
An explanation of the campaign
The company is currently in its fifth cycle of the environmental funding program, FuellingChange™. Each time a person makes a purchase of any kind at a Shell retail location (that could be fuel, lottery tickets, to-go food, etc) a code is printed on the purchase receipt. The customer can then log on and sign in to the FuellingChange website, enter the code and use that code to vote for various environmental not-for-profit organizations participating in the program. Organizations can sign up by submitting an application via Grantstream, a widely used funding application program used by many large corporations for donating/social responsibility purposes. The organizations are categorized by: land, air and water. Each organization must be acting to conserve and/or protect one or more of these categories in some way in order to be accepted into the program. The more purchases you make at a Shell retail location, the more codes you can redeem to vote for your favorite participating organization. The organizations with the most amount of votes at the end of each four month cycle, from each category, gets grants from Shell. Grants range in amount from $25,000-$100,000. Just for being accepted into the program each organization also gets $10,000 regardless of the amounts of votes received. In total, Shell Canada donates $2 million each year towards participating organizations that improve or restore Canada’s environment. The breakdown of the funds: three $100,000 winners, six $50,000 and 12 $25,000, plus the extra $10,000 for those who did not receive enough votes to quality for the larger prizes (FuellingChange, 2013).
The campaign runs a variety of contests and promotions throughout each cycle. Each long weekend, voters receive emails that provide them with free codes to redeem votes (usually between 30-50 free votes each promotion). In addition, Shell Canada is very active in communicating with its FuellingChange audience. It frequently posts tweets and facebook status updates to maintain contact with its stakeholders. In addition, at each retail location you will find signage for FuellingChange and computerized messages that run across the screen when you fill up with gas. Retail employees tend to be quite knowledgeable on the program as well. A very professional website is updated regularly that will give interested publics all the information necessary in order to make an educated decision on whether or not they wish to participate.
Does Shell do a successful job in its communication efforts related to FuellingChange? Based on the information collected through the website and through insider knowledge (a group member is an employee of Shell), yes. It has regular and consistent communication with its FuellingChange stakeholders – the voters, employees, participating organizations, etc. It also builds relationships with local communities by donating money to local causes and allows participating organizations to host events at retails sites in an effort to build awareness. In addition, all FuellingChange branding is co-branded with the Shell logo, which strengthens brand recognition for both the campaign and the company. Consumers can get involved and feel empowered through having the power to choose where Shell donates its funds.
Areas that fail
Shell does not have specific, measurable objectives to effectively measure and evaluate if it is succeeding or failing with its FuellingChange campaign. It is suggested the specific, measurable, action, realistic and timely (SMART) objectives are in place to help the campaign redirect to be as successful as possible. In addition, although Shell does benefit by being seen as socially responsible to many of its publics because of the environmental funding done via FuellingChange, many people think that Shell is not donating enough of its profits to this cause. When you consider that Shell made $46 billion in net cash from operation’s earnings in 2012 (Shell.ca, 2013), $2 million isn’t enough to donate, says many people via the customer service email logs. Also, Shell has the potential to grow participation in FuellingChange among its customers extensively. There are currently just over 500,000 votes this cycle across Canada, which means many more customers could be involved. While many commend Shell on this environmental cause-related marketing campaign, many people think it is a ply to get more customers to buy purchases from Shell over other competitors. Or, they feel that Shell should allow Canadians to vote without having to make a purchase instead. In addition, although Shell strives to be a leader in corporate social responsibility, it did not make the recently released list of Canada’s top 50 socially responsible companies (MacLeans.ca, 2013).
References:
How it Works. Retrieved on June 15 from http://fuellingchange.com/
Social Investment. Retrieved on June 17 from http://www.shell.ca/en/environment-society/social- investment.html
Cause Related Marketing.Module 3. Retrived on June 17 from https://wwwacad.mtroyal.ca/adc/comm4849/index.php?page=a3_b1_c3
Canada's Top 50 Socially Responsible Companies. Retrieved on June 15 from http://www2.macleans.ca/canada-top-50-socially-responsible-corporations-2013/
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