If you’re a non-profit that relies on donations and fund-raising for support, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure (AKA “Komen”) organization should be your first case study.

First a little background.  Susan G. Komen was a woman that suffered and died from breast cancer.  Her sister founded the organization in the early 80s as a part of a promise to speed up the cancer treatment process.  Today it’s one of the most widely known charities in the United States, and I’m going to tell you why.

Komen is a branding powerhouse.  McDonalds and Coca-Cola spend millions of dollars every year on simply making sure you know their brand.  These two actually partner up as well.  Though you and I don’t notice it, branding has a powerful impact on us.  Komen has used two simple marketing strategies that have made it one of the largest charities on the planet.

Strategy 1: Dominate a symbol. You have got to have some kind of symbol behind your brand.  Twitter has the little bird, Nike has the swoosh, and Chevrolet has the bow-tie.  What does Komen have?  Not some silly logo or picture, no, they dominate a freaking color!  That is so far beyond logos it’s insane.  No matter what is going on, if Komen is there so is the pink.  We associate the two, which is exactly what they want.  By dominating a color, they are able to use strategy 2.

Strategy 2:  Get corporations in your pocket. Everyone and their mother partners with the United Way to raise money.  But the United Way branding isn’t distinctive enough to really get corporations in their pocket.  No one is going to jump through hoops just to get their logo on a product.  But you’d bet your butt that corporations are constantly pitching products to the Komen board to sell in pink.  You can get a thermos, laptop, or even just some cereal from the grocery store and find it covered in pink.  Komen uses these products to raise money, awareness, and branding, corporations use it to look good and stimulate sales.  As a testament to how good Komen is, NFL players wore pink equipment in October to promote them.

Of course this wouldn’t be good Weakonomics unless I talked down on it just a little bit.  Komen is a charity with a single cause, curing breast cancer.  It’s noble, and perhaps doable.  But assuming you did cure breast cancer, then what?  The charity dissolves and everyone gets fired?  I think not.  How often do you hear about charities in the news shutting down because they fixed the problem?  No way.  In theory that’s the goal.  But you’ve got a lot people working there that would lose their high profile positions if a cure were to happen.  I’m not saying this is the case, but one must acknowledge that an organization set up like this will employ people who would lose their jobs if the cause is solved.

Wrapping up, perhaps the most amazing thing about Komen is I’m actually devoting a post to a charity.  I hate donating, and I don’t like large charities.  I usually prefer not to promote charities on Weakonomics unless they benefit finance in some way.  I am just blown away at the business savvy exhibited by Komen.  Donate for the cause, but I bought some pink products last weekend because their marketing power is worth supporting.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics.

categories: business