How to ‘date’ an NGO: L’Occitane talks making the most of your NGO partnership
“94% of consumers know and say that businesses need to do more than just selling products, they in fact need to give back. But, the flipside of that is also that 88% of consumer are telling us that it needs to be a really authentic message.”
This, according to L’Occitane Australia marketing director, Pam Wilson, is at the core of how marketers must approach cause-based marketing to really make the most out of the commercial reward for doing good.
Pam Wilson, marketing director, L’Occitane
In a session presented with Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife CEO, Ian Darbyshire at Mumbrella360 on Wednesday, Wilson instilled it was critical that staff on the floor of L’Occitane stores could understand and talk to customers about the brand’s four global conscious commitments, which include reducing waste, empowering women, caring for sight and respecting biodiversity.
The session saw Wilson and Darbyshire talk on the partnership the French beauty brand formed with the charity in order to realise its ‘respecting biodiversity’ commitment, contributing to the restoration of natural habitats, native vegetation and support wildlife rehabilitation efforts across Australia, through the Ecosystem Restoration Fund funded by L’Occitane stakeholders in January 2020, in the wake in the devastation of Black Summer.
“What this initiative really did was help bring to life a bigger message and a bigger cause for us,” said Wilson. “It really helped us recruit new consumers to the brand from having a different way to talk to them.”
The brand brought the Ecosystem Restoration Fund to life across its stores, in all of its campaigns up until Christmas, across direct mail, email and social media, to ensure they were showing consumers what they were doing to give back.
For Darbyshire, the real challenge is for brands working with charities to use marketing budgets effectively to a real and impactful differences.
Ian Darbyshire, CEO, Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife
“Choose the cause that you want to work with – choose one that fits with your business. Make sure your customers know about the work you’re doing. Share the story behind your decision. Your story is what will connect you and your customers to your cause.”
As an advocate for biodiversity, Darbyshire suggests that brands looking to make a tangible difference in this area invest in programs like tree planting, or co-funding land purchases for national parkland.
While L’Occitane saw great success in its Ecosystem Restoration Fund campaign, with Wilson noting that cause-related social media posts consistently score more engagement than regular content, she admits that the brand hasn’t always gotten everything perfect in their charity partnerships.
First, Wilson reflects that this was never integrated as a part of L’Occitane’s consumer facing marketing strategy, so while conscious commitments are a big aspect of the brand’s internal culture, they are not necessarily understood to align with the L’Occitane brand in market.
She also highlights that focusing more on local issues and charities could have more impact for local audiences, and developing consistent charity partners over a longer term would help the brand to continue to build its story.
For those looking to take on their own charity partnership, Wilson gave 5 key steps for ‘dating’ an NGO:
- Let people know you’re available.
- Know what you want from your partnership and be clear and direct in your expectations.
- Be yourself – be authentic to the brand.
- Make an effort and work at it.
- Be accountable – create reporting guidelines between partners and build internal accountability into target and bonus structures to incentivise internal buy in.
And for those looking to take this relationship to the next level, Darbyshire provides the following points:
- Perception – don’t treat your partner like a charity.
- Quantify your impact – offer a proof point for investment.
- Long term commitment – try not to be bound by financial cycles.
- Brutal honesty – real impact has a very real cost.
- Passion can’t be transparently faked – choose your partner wisely.
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topics
Foundation for National Parks and Wild Life
Ian Darbyshire
L’Occitane
Pam Wilson
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