Shop for a Cause: Macy's & March of Dimes
2011 marked Macy’s 6th annual Shop for a Cause, a Macy’s signature “give back” event wherein local and national charitable organizations may fundraise by selling an unlimited number of shopping passes and keeping 100% of the proceeds. Macy’s sells passes in all stores and donates 100% of the sales from the passes to a designated national charity. Recently, however, the event had started to experience diminishing returns. Determined to revitalize the Shop for a Cause and meet objectives, Macy’s overhauled the entire program. Building off the success of their other cause marketing campaigns and utilizing feedback collected from stores, customers and charities, Macy’s made the following changes to the program’s structure and in-store activation:
• Moved Shop for a Cause from October, where it had overlapped with the selling of the holiday rewards program Thanks for Sharing, to August
• Secured a stronger offer, the best offer of the weekend [25% OFF with few exclusions] resulting in increased excitement from customers and participating local charities
• Reduced in-store selling period of the shopping passes from six weeks to one week thereby eliminating store fatigue
• Positioned March of Dimes as the exclusive national beneficiary of all in-store shopping pass sales
• Provided stores with goals for both shopping pass sales, as well as local charity recruitment
For its part, March of Dimes educated, motivated and inspired Macy’s selling associates by making presentations during over 2,000 Store visits, providing educational materials, designing and funding internal signage to be displayed in employee lounge areas, and funding incentives for associates.
Macy’s and March of Dimes collaborated to execute external marketing (i.e. e-blasts, e- newsletters, social media, coordinated media outreach, etc.) targeting March of Dimes constituents and supporters, as well as the general public.
Macy’s leveraged all of its internal and external marketing assets – radio, TV, newspaper, in-store signs, point-of-sale messaging, macys.com and social media, as well as paid online digital display on fundraising and educational websites – to promote Shop for a Cause and encourage local charities to sign up and participate.
