If you look at 2008 marketing and advertising trends, a lot of companies and organizations have invested a lot of money in associating them with some social causes. Especially if you look at the information industries like publishing houses, newspaper and others, they have always promoted some social causes. Why? Is it all about promoting the issue? Does it have anything to do with the branding of the company?

To put it simply, in such situations, the issue and the company are actually promoting each other – supporting each other’s causes – they are complimentary to each other.

Think about the Green movement where a lot of companies directly or indirectly tried to greenwash the target market. It is not that everyone had a bad intention. Some people really contributed to the movement. And those who greenwashed the target market also contributed to make the issue more popular. Every impression of the issue added to the brand equity of green movement and made it stronger. And now it is almost a cashcow. Companies are endorsing the cause to show off their social responsibility and thus added a human touch to their corporate brand.

In some cases, the companies are directly associating them with the movement and sometimes they are doing it indirectly. For example, did you notice the line “do not print this mail unless it is important – save paper – save tree” in email signatures? A have seen a few publishing houses are using this signature in their outgoing emails although they do not show it off in their online publications. To add to this, the line is not overtly promoted in the mail – it is left alone in the signature. The recipient would definitely think twice that this company is a good company as they are participating in such a worthy social issue.

To add to this, these social causes also add a character to the brand. For example think about an online marketer who also participates in some social cause of his or her locality. What does it tell you about the person?