A high-profile form of cause-related marketing occurs at checkout counters when customers are asked to support a cause with a charitable donation.
The March of Dimes's objective was to increase fundraising while motivating the collection of pledges by the program's deadline.
This cause marketing campaign and partnership raised an unprecedented[4] $2.4 million, to become the most successful promotion[4] in the history of Chapters West of the March of Dimes, while providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in free publicity and stimulating a 2.2 million person attendance, a regional theme park record, for the opening year of the Marriott entertainment complex.
[7] Recent interest in cause-related marketing is generally argued[weasel words] to stem from American Express, which apparently[citation needed] coined the phrase in 1983.
Following various pilot schemes in 1981, American Express developed a campaign to donate funds to a number of different non-profit organizations as part of the San Francisco Arts Festival.
Card usage was reported[citation needed] as having increased significantly and relationships between American Express and their merchants also improved as a result of the promotion.
From the charity's point of view, despite being a short-term campaign, $108,000 was raised, making a significant contribution to their work.
In more recent years the term has come to describe a wider variety of marketing initiatives based on the cooperative efforts of business and charitable causes.
[8] According to a 2007 report published by onPhilanthropy,[9] cause marketing sponsorship by American businesses was rising at a dramatic rate.
The same study also indicated that a significant percentage surveyed would prefer to work for a company that was considered socially responsible.
[citation needed] Earlier studies by Cone indicate an upward trend in the number of Americans who associate their own buying habits with cause marketing as well as an expectation that companies be "good corporate citizens".
These benefits occur because this marketing model gives the consumer the feeling of being a philanthropist while doing something as simple as buying a pair of shoes.
Companies have created programs to help sellers and corporations donate a percentage of their sales to a nonprofit organization through the use of auctions.
[20] Cause marketing can take on many forms, including: Transactional Campaigns: A corporate donation triggered by a consumer action (e.g. sharing a message social media, making a purchase, etc.