November 27, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
Sixty percent of Americans say they plan to buy at least one product this holiday season from a company that promises to give a percentage of the purchase price to charity, compared with 58 percent who said they would do so in 2002.
The poll — commissioned by Cone, a Boston-based company that matches social causes to corporate sponsors — found that 55 percent said they would buy from a retailer that supports a cause.
Companies that engage in this type of charitable support, often referred to as cause-related marketing, will see increased sales, predicted Mark A. Feldman, Cone’s executive vice president.
“Americans appreciate that they can easily give back through cause-related shopping,” he said. “In the seven years that we have been tracking this trend, we have seen an increasing number of companies providing their consumers with opportunities to impact causes.”
A recent study by IEG, a Chicago consulting and research company that tracks sponsorships and promotions, predicted that revenue from all cause marketing, including sponsorships, will increase 10.3 percent this year, to $921-million.
Participants in the Cone survey, when asked what charitable activities they planned to undertake this season, listed as their top response donating goods to charity. Seventy-seven percent said they would give away personal belongings this winter. Cause-related shopping ranked second, and shopping at retailers that support causes ranked third. Fourth on the list was making a cash gift, with slightly more than half of those surveyed saying they would write a check to charity this year. Volunteering ranked next at 42 percent, and 30 percent said they would attend a fund-raising event.
The telephone poll was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation. The results of the poll are available online at http://www.coneinc.com/Pages/research.html.
