Meeting one of the original cause marketers

As those of you who have been following the progression of Spring Insight from the early days know, I started the organization with a focus on cause marketing. In recent months the focus of the organization has evolved to marketing strategy but that does not mean that I don’t still fully believe in and embrace the idea of cause marketing.  Indeed, Spring Insight has a charitable giving program of its own.

So, you can imagine how excited I was at the idea of seeing one of the pioneers of integrated cause marketing within an organization speak… Jerry Greenfield, the co-founder of ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s.  The speech he gave was funny and fascinating.  Following are the nuggets I picked up.

1. If you don’t like the way business works, don’t quit, just change it.  You don’t have to be a corporate drone if you don’t want to.
2. In the face of adversity, get creative and engage your customers.
3. The best cause marketing programs are ones that drive your business forward as much as they help a cause.  To support charitable giving, Ben & Jerry’s wanted to support a bakery that helped the disenfranchised.  They developed a chocolate fudge brownie flavor driving both a business goal and a charitable mission.
4. Love what you do every day.

All in all a great evening.

~e