Cause Marketing Vs. Sponsorship

by Devra Gartenstein
Sponsoring a local team makes your business part of your community.

Sponsoring a local team makes your business part of your community.

Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images

Cause marketing builds an extra level of brand loyalty by giving customers an extra reason to support your business. When you communicate to customers about the ways that your business contributes to the common good, you create a shared sense of purpose while branding your company as a conscious, forward-thinking enterprise. Sponsorship is a form of cause marketing that involves donating to an event or organization and receiving public recognition for your contribution, linking your business name to the name of the cause.


A business that launches a cause marketing campaign has some degree of control over the timing of the promotion. For example, a food business could market a plan to switch to organic ingredients to coincide with Earth Day. This business can promote its involvement with this cause as frequently and as widely as it chooses. In contrast, a business that sponsors an event or an enterprise such as a team has less control over the promotional efforts that link its name with its cause, because these acknowledgements usually originate with the organization rather than with the donating business.


According to the Cause Marketing Forum, 47 percent of consumers in 2012 purchased a product at least once a month because its brand was aligned with a worthwhile cause. While cause marketing efforts such as commercials that raise awareness about a company's environmental practices are aimed at encouraging customers to buy products right away, sponsorships may be geared more toward building long-term awareness of a company's brand. Both approaches ultimately help to increase sales, but the effect of sponsorship brand-building is harder to measure.


When your business launches a cause marketing campaign, you align yourself with an idea that is consistent with your overall mission. For example, a company that sells outdoor gear might get involved in a campaign to preserve wilderness areas. When you include sponsorship as an element in your cause marketing campaign, you align your business with a specific organization that shares your goals. Sponsorship has a more limited scope than general cause marketing, because it involves targeted contributions, usually earmarked for specific funds or happenings.


Unless your company is sponsoring a major global event such as the Olympics, sponsorship will usually reach a more limited audience than a general cause marketing campaign. For example, raising money to help children in need may appeal to anyone who cares about needy children, while corporate sponsorship of an elementary school baseball team will speak directly to parents at that particular elementary school. However, these elementary school parents will be particularly invested in the business that supports them specifically.

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