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Using guilt to drive sales?

by Ryan Sorensen
11 replies
I once worked for a door to door "cause" marketing company selling coupon books with the wheelchair basketball team receiving 17% of the proceeds.

It was a terrible job (lasted only 3 weeks) but I learned a lesson from it.

People will buy products sometimes solely based on the cause or charity you're helping.

Is this only because of guilt or do you think people actually believe in the cause?
#cause marketing #charity #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author RichKent
    I can't stand it. Like when they try to sell you magazines to support a cause - or newspaper subscriptions. It's basically guilt marketing. I'd much rather sell and be sold based on benefits/value of a product or service.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexandre Valois
      Charity and Cause marketing is a very hard place to pitch from most of the time, and needs constant solicitation since it's based mostly on guilt to drive the sales. Unfortunate, but true.

      I much rather live by example by providing real value to drive the sale, and proudly share part of the profit from every sale with a system I support and believe in such as Kiva.

      It's out there if people are interested in knowing more about how I spend my money, but I'm not going to use it to drive a sale... unless I'm actually running a fundraiser, but then again... real value first.
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      • Profile picture of the author webvantage
        You can use cause marketing in IM with the help of social networking websites. It really helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author GoogleWarrior
    What's wrong with helping out the disabled in any way possible????
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    • Profile picture of the author Ryan Sorensen
      Google Warrior,

      It's definitely not an issue about helping the disabled. I thought it was great that money was going towards their charity.

      It's a matter of companies using guilt as a way to drive sales. Because ultimately very little money went to the charity even though they were using them as their main sales pitch.

      I remember talking to a guy about it and we both agreed that 17% wasn't enough for having used the wheelchair team as grounds for selling the product.
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  • Profile picture of the author gskesavan
    Never do that. It means you are diverting from the main motive totally. People would want to buy your product because it is really good and useful to them. This way they will buy it again from you when they want. They will even recommend others.

    Using guilt is equivalent to cheating. You're a businessman, not a trustee. You need to win hearts, not win sympathy. You should be impressive, not depressing to them.
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  • Profile picture of the author donhx
    Originally Posted by The Exciting Life View Post

    I once worked for a door to door "cause" marketing company selling coupon books with the wheelchair basketball team receiving 17% of the proceeds.

    It was a terrible job (lasted only 3 weeks) but I learned a lesson from it.

    People will buy products sometimes solely based on the cause or charity you're helping.

    Is this only because of guilt or do you think people actually believe in the cause?
    I'm not so sure about the role of capitalizing on wheelchair bound people (they MUST get genuine benefits), but that has little to do with guilt-- and a lot to do with pity.

    But the fact remains that many people are motivated to action by guilt. This may be a "dirty little secret" but it's true, and it has a place in the persuasion process. It's horses for courses, however, and guilt triggers must be used in a proper context.
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  • Profile picture of the author ankitsharma
    To some extent it is guilt marketing but not completely, It is always in back of there mind that they are doing it for a cause but its not that they would take a candy for the price of pie ,definitely product also matters.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    My mother-in-law uses guilt to get more calls and visits from her family. Why not use it in sales?

    Jewish Mother copywriters will be all the rage
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  • Profile picture of the author Nancy Radlinger
    Being a mother, I think all parents use guilt to get more visits and more calls - but don't always work and think the same would apply in life in general - especially with so many in the same "poor me" boat
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  • Profile picture of the author JeffLam
    That reminded me once when I had to raise funds for a competition on the street. I'm a little surprised how easy people part money on the streets when they hear that you're doing it for a cause. I received $10 bills, $50 bills rather easily.

    The thing is, they didn't even bother checking for any validation. I could have easily walked away with the money, theoretically.

    Contrast this to another competition where I had to sell coffee on the streets, at about $1.00 a cup, a discount from the usual price of $1.40. Way, waaayy much harder to get sales.

    The coffee gives them the benefit of a cuppa, at a much lower cost (discount) whereas the 'for a cause plea' had nothing 'tangible' except the 'feel good' factor I guess. Interesting, human behavior.
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