JCP Cares

Campaign: JCP Cares
Company: jcpenney
Nonprofit Partner: USO, Share Our Strength, 4-H, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Teach for America, BCRF, The Salvation Army
Launch Date: July 1, 2012

Campaign Description:

Retailer jcpenney has launched a major new cause marketing charitable initiative. Via ‘jcp cares’, jcpenney will support a new cause each month by inviting customers to round up their purchases to the nearest whole dollar and donate the difference to the company’s featured charity partner. The effort kicked-off July 1 with jcpenney’s support of the USO. Along with round-up donations raised by customers throughout the month of July, jcpenney will be making a $1 million donation to the USO. jcpenney will also donate $1 – up to $50,000 – to the USO for each customer that checks in to a jcpenney store via foursquare from July 23-31. The retailer has listed each benefitting causes through the end of 2012, including education-focused charities in August and September and hunger-focused charities in November.

Our Take:

This is one of the larger cause marketing efforts to hit the market in recent months. The initiative will be supported by a robust, integrated marketing campaign which will include digital, social, mobile, in-store and direct mail and e-mail components including a presence in the Facebook social game, WeTopia starting in August. It appears that jcpenny is pulling out all the stops for this effort, activating all available assets. We appreciate how prominent the cause messaging is in this campaign and how the company has committed to donate to nonprofit partners in addition to customer contributions. We’re looking forward to watching its evolution over the coming months.