A recent survey from M/A/R/C Research and The Integer Group discovered that women are very particular about the brands that they buy at the grocery store.
And it has absolutely nothing to do with whether those products are superior in Web Watch’s opinion (the infamous “Heinz vs Hunts ketchup debate” lingers on, folks) or not.
What the survey uncovered was that 43% of women prefer to purchase brands that are associated with charitable giving.
It should come as no surprise to those brands that their philanthropic ways have reaped benefits in the supermarket — Web Watch readers should be a little analytical about this: businesses don’t freely associate themselves with a charity because it makes the business feel good about themselves… they associate with a charity in order to generate more revenue from the recognition they receive in the marketplace for their “do good” stance.
And these brands DO a lot of “do good” with their donations based on retail purchases.
The top 5 brands that women buy based on their charitable affiliation are:
- Yoplait
- *Anything that’s affiliated with breast cancer awareness
- *Anything that’s affiliated with the Susan G Komen Foundation
- General Mills
- Any yogurt brand in general
As you can see, 3 out of the top 5 responses are generic, not tied to a specific brand or company. Which means that it appears all a company has to do is slap a charitable logo onto their product and they should see an increase in sales. Web Watch wrote about this a few years ago when discussing how some companies are using PINK RIBBONS AS JUST ANOTHER MARKETING PLOY.
All this new research does is solidify that philosophy in the corporate boardroom decision making process – to give or not to give. We’ll reiterate that we believe giving is ALWAYS the wise choice. But you shouldn’t be basing your business marketing solely around that.
For the record, Heinz all the way.