Author: Drew Neisser

I walked my dog this morning. Of course, I walk my dog just about every morning. Part of our routine is to stop at the coffee cart on the corner. We could go to Starbucks which is only a block away but I like the coffee cart guy. He knows my usual order, large coffee with hot chocolate mix (a poor mans coffee mocha) and he practically bubbles with good cheer. After he makes my chococoffee, he glances down at my furry companion and spouts “hello doggie doggie”. Its a quaint little routine and yet illustrative of Marketing for Good on a micro-scale. The coffee cart guy engages Pinky (my dog) and I with his good cheer creating a perfectly pleasant one minute experience. It is a little more than expected and his good cheer is contagious, something the other folks I run into later in the day usually appreciate.

Starbucks also has a “Pay it Forward” program running now called Cheer Pass. Here’s what Starbucks says about it on CheerPass.com: “Want to put a smile on someone’s face? Download your unique Cheer Pass now and start spreading the cheer. Do something nice and pass along your Cheer Pass to your friend, family member, colleague…or anyone you deem to be cheer-worthy.” I like this idea and so it seems do a lot of other people based on the number of stories posted on the site. It seems to touch just the right chord, encouraging niceness without being preachy. Because of Starbucks track record of doing Marketing for Good (Ethos Water is a great example), the Cheer Pass idea should avoid criticism from the cynics who struggle with the idea that successful companies can also have a social conscience.

In a season when crass commercialism runs rampant, a simple “give a little, get a little” message goes a long way in my book. Cheers to Starbucks and my coffee cart guy. Pass it on.

Larry Bird turned 50 yesterday. He is one of my heroes. Not because his Celtics won 3 NBA titles including one over my Lakers. Not because he was a three time NBA MVP, Rookie of the Year, Gold Medal Olympian and a Hall of Famer on his first year of eligibility. Larry Bird is one of my heroes because of the extraordinary things he did off the court. One of my favorite Bird stories is that he only went to post-game press conferences when the Celtics lost (which wasn’t all that often during Bird’s tenure). When they won, he liked to let the other players bask in the limelight. Imagine one of the best players who ever played the game avoiding the opportunity to take credit for his contributions.

When Larry Bird came out of retirement to coach the Indiana Pacers, the New York press ridiculed Bird, speculating that he would be a disaster as a coach. Not I. I knew better. As a player, he constantly lead by example. He worked harder than just about any player and never stopped trying to get better. In addition to his offensive prowess, he was incredible on defense, stealing the ball 1,556 from players who undoubtedly thought they were quicker, smarter and certainly better looking than Bird. His teammates looked to Bird not only to hit the clutch shot but also to encourage nothing but 100% effort. Ask Parish. Ask McHale. They will tell you he made them better players. As a coach, he brought his incredible work ethic with him and inspired a group of decent players to excel beyond any analyst’s expectations. When one of his players showed up late at the airport, he simply told the pilot to leave anyway. Legend has it, that player was never late to anything again. If you are thinking that inside every great player is a great coach, think again. One need look no further than Isiah Thomas to know that skill on the court does not necessarily translate into talent on the sidelines or in the back-office. Isiah is an unmitigated disaster both as a GM and a coach (it is no wonder that Bird’s first act as GM of the Pacers was to fire Isiah!) Pardon my digression but Isiah Thomas is the antithesis of Larry Bird. I’ll save that rant for another blog.

So what does Larry Bird have to do with Marketing for Good? Well, quite a bit actually. Larry Bird engaged his teammates and even on occasion taunted his opponents. He once told one of his opponents the exact spot where he would hit the game winning shot and proceeded to do exactly that! Larry Bird never stopped trying to improve his game. Constantly enhancing your product is a fundamental principle of Marketing for Good. Larry Bird truly understood the game of basketball. Even though many of his opponents were quicker, he seemed to have preternatural ability to anticipate which way they were going to move enabling him to steal, block or take a charge. Marketing for Good is typically built on a keen understanding of the competition and zigging when others zag, creating the opportunity to enlighten. While Bird’s play wasn’t all that entertaining for opposing teams and their fans, perhaps only Jerry West was more clutch when the game was on the line and only Magic Johnson could execute the “no look” pass more elegantly. Marketing for Good embraces entertainment, especially that of the humorous nature. And finally, Larry Bird was inspirational to fellow players and fans across the country. Larry came from a poor family with an alcoholic father who committed suicide when Larry was about to enter college. Bird told Sports Illustrated that growing up poor, “motivates [him] to this day”. Larry has inspired many a young athlete and a few of the older variety, like me.

Happy Birthday, Larry Bird!

Food marketers are under siege. Some activists are pushing for a total ban on marketing to kids. Some cities like mine (NYC) are legislating what fats restaurants can and can’t use. Frankly, I’m against both of these initiatives and have already expressed my thoughts on the trans fat ban. As far as marketing to kids goes, banning it will not solve many of the issues critics would like to address and, in fact, could exacerbate the problems. For example, enlightened food marketers will undoubtedly bring to market more and more healthy products for kids. If you ban marketing to kids, these new products won’t stand a chance of getting kids interested in them. Marketing for Good is about gaining competitive advantage by creating products that are better than existing products. For example, food marketers than make products that are nutritious and delicious, without encouraging weight gain, will only be able to leverage these advantages if they have a full range of marketing channels at their disposal.

Short of making more nutritious products, food marketers can dabble in Marketing for Good with programs like General Mills’ “Spoonful of Stories.” Now in its fifth year, this program puts 5 million kids books in packages of Cheerios, and is linked with both the National Children’s Book Week (Nov. 13-19) and the non-profit foundation First Book. According to PromoXtra newsletter, “General Mills will donate a year’s worth of books to 50 reading programs across the U.S., 12 books per child in each program. A mail-in form on Cheerios boxes lets consumers donate money to pay for more books that will go to local programs, in donors’ own communities.” Sure they hope to sell more cereal. That’s fine by me. My kids ate Cheerios for breakfast for their first six years. Kudos to General Mills for this sizable commitment to children’s literacy. Am I sugar coating a serious issue here?

I recently met with the folks at Gilda’s Club Worldwide (www.GildasClub.org) which is a fantastic organization dedicated to meeting the “emotional and social needs of those living with cancer,” their families and friends. As one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live, Gilda Radner (see Wikipedia for extended biography) generated millions of laughs through her inspired characters like Roseanne Roseannadana, Emily Latella and Babwa Wawa (Barbara Walters). I’m old enough to have watched just about every one of those original episodes live (1975-1980) and I can assure you it was some of the funniest television ever produced with Gilda’s roles often being the funniest of the funniest. Tragically, Gilda died from cancer nine years after she left the show. during her cancer treatment, she realized there were limited opportunities and places for people living with cancer to meet and share their experiences, to have a place to laugh, cry, confront fears, share triumphs, and to learn and grow — whatever the outcome. Because over 10 million Americans are living with cancer, involving millions more family members and friends, the need for the social and emotional support that Gilda’s Club provides continues to grow. When you add in the fact the that one in four adults living with cancer has a child under 18 living with them, the extended out-reach Gilda’s Club offers is simply extraordinary. Seems to me that there are amazing opportunities for a few enlightened marketers to step up and do some Marketing for Good by working with Gilda’s Club. If you have some suggestions, let me know.

I attended a fund-raiser (they called it a “family funraiser”) yesterday for a wonderful organization called Children for Children. CFC is dedicated to inspiring and nurturing volunteerism in kids, instilling the habit of helping others into kids at an early age. If you happen to have a kid and live in Manhattan they also have an online directory of volunteer opportunities called Kids for Community that is very helpful. The event was at the Blue Smoke, a Danny Meyer restaurant which was especially appropriate since this place hosts a kids jazz program on the weekends (I haven’t it been there for that but I hear the kid performers are very talented-also, as a big fan of “barbecue” or what you northerners called “pulled pork” I can highly recommend their BBQ and hush puppies). At the event, over a hundred kids made scarves, holiday cards, dropped off books and quite painlessly became steeped in the notion of volunteerism. These kids were truly engaged and will likely be so for life.
During the event, I talked to a friend who is very involved in non-profits especially on the fund raising end. She told me the astonishing fact that there are about 27,000 non-profits in New York City alone. I struggled to wrap my mind around that fact but one thing was certain to me–those organizations that understood marketing were likely to be the ones that thrived. Those that didn’t would clearly suffer the consequences. It also occurred to me that there was a huge opportunity for New York-based companies to adopt one or more of these non-profits and engage in some Marketing for Good by providing deeply needed marketing support.

I will provide examples in future posts but feel free to let me know if you spot some Marketing for Good in action. I’m especially interested in success stories in which both the non-profit and the company benefited.