Search seems to get the largest share of online marketers’ marketing budgets, but the halo effect can be a means of acquiring and retaining a particular type of consumer. Online cause-related loyalty program iGive.com has grown its retailer roster to more than 600 from 200 three years ago, while its registered shoppers now top 250,000. “Some of our consumers are so dedicated they won’t shop at online stores that don’t help their favorite cause,” says CEO Rob Grosshandler.
A member of the Performics Inc. affiliate network, iGive.com allows registered consumers to direct a fixed percentage of their purchase at any online store registered with iGive -- generally an amount equaling 5% to 10% -- to the charity of their choice. iGive is paid for its services in matching customers to offers from retailers’ marketing budgets. Since it was founded in 1997, iGive has raised $1.7 million for some 27,000 charity causes selected by its registered consumers. “Traditional cause-rated marketing says, if you go to a store’s lingerie department, the store will give 5% for breast cancer awareness,” says Grosshandler. “We move the power to the consumer.”
By making the charity donation the consumer’s choice as opposed to the retailer’s choice, registered consumers are “more likely to shop, shop more often, buy more when they shop, and make returns less often,” Grosshandler says. While he didn’t disclose data on the program’s effect on incremental sales or performance at retailer participants against other online marketing initiatives, he points out that retailer participation has tripled on the last three years. “The retailers that start with us stay with us. That suggests they are doing this comparison for themselves,” he says.
Grosshandler adds that in terms of a quantitative measure of program success, retailers ask themselves how much business the program drives and if it could have been acquired for the same price through other channels. The softer metric is in how shoppers perceive the brands and retailers that participate in cause-related program. To the extent that charity causes are high on the radar screen of some shoppers – a group Grossshandler calls “other-directed, primarily women, middle income and better, with kids and pets" – this type of marketing effort resonates, he contends.
“There are iGive consumers, and non-iGive consumers,” he says. “Our marketing challenge is reaching them.” According to data from comScore Media Metrix, iGive.com has 94,000 unique visitors in March. Numbers from a year ago weren’t available.
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