Cause Related Marketing

The Billion Dollar Mindmap – Business For Change

You may have heard of the Million Dollar Mindmap produced by Ryan Deiss in 2008, well this video and post goes 1000 steps further.

You no doubt have heard of the phrase “Time For Change” over the last wee while mentioned once or twice by a certain Barack Obama.

Well, this is about business for change.

This is the story of the Billion Dollar Mindmap and JointWinWin, the story of how giving money away to good causes can increase your sales and profits.

The term Cause-Related Marketing was coined by American Express back in 1983, there is an ever increasing body of knowledge showing how cause-related marketing is an important part of the business marketing mix, let’s take a quick look at 2 case studies:
Case Study 1

The AMEX Statue of Liberty initiative is widely regarded as one of the very first in cause related marketing. This marketing endeavour had the positive benefits of an increase in some 17% for new card holder signups and 28% increase in card holder spending. Consider the implications of these statistics for a moment. Not only will you make more sales, your customers are happy to spend more!

Case Study 2

In the Cone Millennial Cause Study in 2006, 89% of Americans (in a survey group aged 13 to 25) would switch from one brand to an alternative and comparable branded product (including similar price) if the latter brand associated itself with a “good cause”.
Reciprocal Profits

Perhaps the most recent body of work undertaken is by JointWinWin and documented in the viral PDF Reciprocal Profits – due for release in January 2009. This PDF documents the overwhelming evidence for the use of Cause-Related Marketing in your business and why you need to become a member of JointWinWin.

JointWinWin Goal
The goal behind JointWinWin is simple summarised:

Growing Your Business and Shrinking Poverty

In monetary terms, the first major goal is to raise 1Billion Dollars/Year for charity.
This is a big goal and the you can see why this mindmap is entitled the Billion Dollar Mindmap but you shall also see how achievable and realistic this is (even if it does seem preposterous at first glance).
Lets take a look at the numbers to find out more…
Now we get to see why 1Billion Dollars isn’t as preposterous as it first sounds. There are millions of businesses in the world, the vast majority are 1 man bands.

The numbers documented show 3 levels of average donation commitments, the minimum 0.8% of turnover 1% and 2%.
Even at the minimum 0.8% commitment level, you can see the $1Billion mark is doable.

Many business owners will up the ante when they see the positive results they receive both professionally and personally as a result of cause-related marketing in their business.
The above numbers show 106250 businesses involved to reach the desired goal.

Let’s put this in perspective, there are many individual internet marketers out there who already have email list sizes far in excess of this and some have even eclipsed the 100,000 mark in customers alone.
Like every initiative, it’s all about gaining momentum, the first 1000, 5000, 10000 on board will bring more and more, success begets success and if you are on board first spreading the word you position yourself positively.
Let’s take a look at the virtuous circle of success (technically this is more an archimedian spiral but let’s not quibble). Imagine the starting point in the middle is the beginning of 2009.

As time progresses, we build the number of businesses in the JointWinWin community and as a result the amount of money raised for good causes increases too.
This is why the core focus of JointWinWin will be to help grow your business as a member of the JointWinWin community.
The main points of focus will be on the primary issues we all face on a day to day basis to grow our business…

• Productivity
• Confidence
• Motivation
• Marketing
• Innovation
• Work/Life Balance

Many people think the donation of 0.8% of gross revenue is too little to make a difference – so why bother.
To these people there are 3 great examples which shows them how wrong their thinking is – take a look at the Grameen Bank and Kiva Microfinance to see how a little goes a long way and if you ever have any doubt how a little contribution can go such a long way, bear in mind what Helen Keller had to say:

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.
The ultimate test is a question posed in the survey conducted for the Reciprocal Profits Viral PDF.
“Given the choice between two companies offering the same product at the same price, service level and guarantee. Which would you buy from? The company making a small donation to charity or the other?”
As a business owner, the vast majority of your market (no matter what type of business you conduct) want to do business with you over that of a competitor when you are making a change for good – a JointWinWin situation.

Lastly, the price to become a JointWinWin member is extremely attractive to all business owners.
It’s free.

Get started now and together we will grow your business and shrink poverty.

Other Worthy Causes To Support:

• The 12 for 12K Challenge
• International Network For Social Entrepreneurs
• Business Ethics Pledge

PS  – What did you think of this post?

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Related posts:

1. Increasing Profits By Giving Money Away To Good Causes
2. Change to JointWinWin Website Listing Requirements
3. Cause-Related Marketing to Change the World
4. Guy Kawasaki – It’s Your Fault…
5. Strategic Philanthropy Tip 1