Campbell's Soup Parlays Pink Ribbon to Double Soup Sales

You know that it's October when the leaves start turning and the world turns a glorious pink. Yes pink, the herald color of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) is showing up everywhere.

Advertising Age reported yesterday on Campbell Soup's cause marketing success story -- turning its iconic soup can on its ear by replacing the traditional red-and-white with pink-and-white, and adding a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness month at Krogers, a major national supermarket chain.

This is an incredibly smart strategy, and one that makes a far greater impact  since it's on a product package so broadly recognized (and  one that does generate some emotional feelings of comfort, warmth and Mom). Few product packages  match the power of the Campbell's soup can.

Campbell's took its cause marketing to the max by "pinkifying" its best-selling soups. The result? Campbell's sales for these varieties to the 2,500 participating Kroger stores doubled for the month of October, and motivated Kroger managers to display the soups outside the soup aisle.

It'll be interesting to see sales figures at the end of the month. Assuming the campaign is successful, and since women are the main family shoppers, I bet it will be, Campbell's plans to expand the campaign roll out for October 2007.

Win-win for Campbell's and for breast cancer awareness as Campbell will donate $250,000, or roughly 3.5 cents per pink can, to the Susan G. Komen Foundation in exchange for its doubled order. And a win for Kroger too.

Worry not, Campbell's shareholders. The potential benefit for the soup scion is huge. 91% of consumers reported, via a recent Cone Communications survey,  that they have a more positive image of a company or product when it supports a cause, and a full 90% will consider switching to another company if it's aligned with a cause.

What this shouts to nonprofit marketers is that there's lots of opportunity out there for cause marketing development. Arm yourself with the right data (Cone's research findings are a great start), and get going.

Keep your eye out for future posts outlining when cause marketing is right for your nonprofit, and how to take the first step.

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Comments

[a fundraiser]

Great post. I blogged about the same topic on my site at:

http://donttellthedonor.blogspot.com/2006/10/pink-ribbon-cans-double-sales-of.html

And I also posted about the Susan G. Komen deal with M&M's:

http://donttellthedonor.blogspot.com/2006/09/658172-pounds-of-mms.html