Cause-Related Marketing: The RED Campaign (Essay Sample)

Cause-Related Marketing
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Cause-Related Marketing
The RED Campaign
RED is a nonprofit organization that partners with private companies to make unique RED-branded products which when sold, a percentage of the profit goes to the Global Fund to support African HIV/AIDS programs. For instance, it can collaborate with Apple to develop RED-branded laptops, which instantiate corporate contribution to the Global Fund. The donation is then spent on catering for HIV-related programs, especially in countries that record a high prevalence of the disease. To illustrate this, Nixon (2008) highlights a case in Rwanda, Kigali, where the nation's AIDS treatment and research center was under-resourced, and doctors could not provide adequate care to patients. However, enough money was generated to construct 33 testing and treatment centers through the RED campaign and purchase enough medicine for 6,000 women. 
The success of nonprofit and corporate organizations partnerships’ lies in their ability to pursue a good cause to make the world better. 78% of American buyers believe that businesses have the obligation of being socially accountable, and most companies, therefore, strive to keep abreast with this norm (Brennan, 2010). By so doing, these firms market themselves as socially responsible and, ideally, create more sales. In the example underscored by Nixon (2008), Dell's Red debut laptop was featured by RED in one of the campaigns that generated over 22 million dollars to fight HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. Irrespective of these partnerships' positive impacts, detractors disapprove of RED's transparency over revenues generated and how they are spent. Most critics claim that more money is invested on advertisements than financing HIV/AIDS-related programs, which is usually not the case (Nixon, 2008).
 
The Cone Trend Tracker and Cause-Related Marketing
Partnerships are meant to be mutual, and similarly, in a collaboration between RED and a private company, both may benefit as they impact society positively. For instance, the firms will gain the reputation of being socially conscious and enable them attract credible investors. Moreover, members of the Not-for-Profit (NFP) firms are likely to get employment opportunities from their partners. Likewise, the funds raised via different campaigns will be used to handle HIV/AIDS programs and other welfare activities valuable to underprivileged people. Finally, for the above gains to have a lasting impact on the consumers, the company and RED may celebrate their collaboration with a special event where they can invite a renowned person or even create a logo. Such an experience will capture the buyers' attention and potentially create traffic to the associated company's products.  
Negative Implications of a Private Sector/NFP Partnership
The purpose of private sector/NFP partnerships is to raise resources that support people's social well-being, like fighting HIV/AIDS (Moosmayer & Fuljahn, 2010). However, if not well planned and executed, such business engagements may lead to negative implications that can ruin the brand's image. Some companies, for instance, instantiate dishonest marketing campaigns to boost their profit margin. Giving a minimal amount out of the earnings indicates inconsistency and lack of commitment towards the given objective. For transparency, therefore, corporations may be compelled to declare their inflows and outflows for inspection publicly. Further, Baylin, Cunningham, & Cushing (1994) advises private sector and N