I chose to participate in this year’s Yard Sale for the Cure. A great concept. Get rid of your old junk and raise money for Breast Cancer. A “win win” as far as I can tell.
But this is not so for the organization behind the Yard Sale for the Cure. Who is the non-profit behind the Yard Sale for the Cure? I challenge you to figure it out. Go to the web page, look at the printed materials, turn the baseball cap they send you inside out and upside down. You’ll see Remax, the corporate sponsor. But, you won’t find the name of the non-profit.
Yard Sale for the Cure is very well branded. Bravo to Grip Limited for providing powerful graphics and a comprehensive kit for participants to advertise their participation in this worthy event. Once you sign in on-line, you’re mailed a sign for your lawn, a sign for your door, a baseball hat and all kinds of other goodies. Once you put the sign on your lawn that brands your home (and subsequently YOU) as affiliated with the cause, you feel good about yourself. Now my whole neighbourhood knows that I’m the kind of person who would have a Yard Sale for the Cure.
But, none of those positive associations benefit CBCF. Yard Sale for the Cure is a tactic masquerading as a brand. It is the actual brand that loses out.
There’s a very credible organization behind the Yard Sale for the Cure. The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. CBCF is national in scope and provides funding for research, education and advocacy. Imagine that I put a sign on my lawn that marked me as a CBCF supporter (via the Yard Sale for the Cure). Then the CIBC Run for the Cure rolls around (did you know that CBCF is behind this worthy event too?) I would be that much more likely to participate. I’d be more likely to do everything CBCF because they gave me that “feel good” feeling.
The lesson? Sub brands work in the product world. We don’t need to know that Swiffer is a P&G product. But, in the competitive non-profit world, brands matter. Rethink Breast Cancer gets the marketing game. Their creative director comes from Zig. Rethink’s upcoming event is sub branded Naughty Nautical, but Rethink Breast Cancer remains front and center. They never give their name to a sponsor or fall off the radar.
Could you imagine Swiffer having a Clean Contest and forget to put it’s name on the promotions? Unthinkable. I think it’s time CBCF re-think it’s branding strategy.
