Cause-Based Marketing: Crafting a Brand with Purpose

Hey everyone,

Welcome back from another bite to chew on. 

Today we want to set aside DTC’s obsessive focus on performance marketing and look at the other side of the coin. 

Brand. 

Brand marketing is a lot fuzzier than direct response. It can be hard to define and even harder to track. 

Which is why it’s sometimes forgotten in the land of daily conversion metric dashboards and click-based attribution.

But brand building can be one of the most important investments you make in your business. 

If you do it right, your brand can instill trust, drive awareness, and differentiate you from the crowd on an ongoing and compounding basis. 

And that makes everything in your life as a DTC founder or a marketer easier - awareness, mindshare, interest, trust, word of mouth, etc. - things ultimately lead to more sales and profit. 

Easier said than done, right? 

Let’s run through some foundational concepts and strategies for building a brand your customers will love.

Tool of the week

Everyone has a cause they’d like to support. It feels good to do good. 

Plus it can have HUGE benefits for your business if done right. 

The problem is stuff gets complicated when it comes to charity. 

3 things can make executing cause-based marketing especially difficult: 

1. Understanding the impact your efforts are having on your revenue.

2. Spinning up and administering charitable donations can mean custom processes and development.

3. There are all sorts of legal hoops you need to jump through to make sure everything is above board. 

If you’re a brand on a mission to make a difference, but don’t have the time to create a bespoke charitable program - 

Then you should check out this platform we found called Change. 

They make adding a donation layer to your store a breeze. 

With their new Shopify app, you can help your customers support one of the 1.3 million registered US charities with checkout donations or in-cart round-ups. 

Change also makes it so you don’t have to worry about compliance. They’re turnkey from top to bottom so they’ll walk you through all the legal stuff you need to know. 
Best of all? You’ll get to measure the direct lift it can add to your business. 

We’re talking → 

✅+19% increase in CVR 

✅+20% increase in AOV

✅+42% increase in LTV 

These are real results for Shopify brands who recently added donations to their buy flow with Change 🤯

Right now they are offering a 30-day free trial and a limited-time offer of 50% off your first year. And with BFCM (+ Giving Tuesday!) fast approaching, there’s never been a better time for your brand to try out a donation campaign. 

Want to learn how purposeful giving can elevate your brand? Download Change’s guide to compassionate commerce. 

Or if you’re looking to get started right away you can download their free Shopify app → here.

The Halo Effect 👼

People are not completely rational. 

In fact, someone will often make a decision based on ~vibes~ and then work to rationalize that decision with data or logic. 

So even if the product you’re offering is 10X better than all of the alternatives out there - if your customers don’t feel it (as well as “know it”), then you’re going to have a hard time. 

An example of this is the Halo Effect.  

It’s a tendency to take a positive impression of someone or something (appearance) and then have that impression impact other, unrelated areas (intelligence, trustworthiness).

The Halo Effect is why people care about what attractive celebrities have to say about politics, even though the celebs may have no credibility or expertise in that field. 

Of course, this applies to brands too. And it’s not just about looks - 

A cool website, distinctive logo, and cutting-edge design can definitely help. 

But there are other ways to build your brand halos. 

Example → A 10-figure exit built by customer service

Zappos is an online shoe reseller that made its name through unreasonably great customer service. 

They were early in the e-commerce game, being one of the first movers in online footwear. But they didn’t have cutting-edge technology or an exclusive product catalog. 

What they did have was an insane commitment to satisfying customer demands. 

Zappos agents famously didn’t try to sell. They did not use scripts or have KPIs around ticket time. 

Their ONLY function was to help people and make them happy.

That’s why there are stories about customers calling Zappos CS to help get directions in a foreign city or to order pizza. 

Their brand halo became that world-class level of customer service and satisfaction and not the actual product they were selling (shoes). 

The halo of effect of their world-class customer service transferred to their actual offering.

Why? Because it convinced people to trust and return to them again and again, driving huge word of mouth and growth. 

This brand halo was so distinct and so sticky, that Zappos was able to fend off an attack by Amazon. 

Eventually, Jeff Bezos caved and bought them for $1.2 billion.

Now, this is an extreme example, of course, but it shows how powerful a distinct brand halo can be. 

You may not be looking for a 10-figure exit (or maybe you are?), but here are some ways you can build halos for your own brand…

They fall under two broad categories: 

• Mission-based branding

• Cause-based branding

Mission-Based Marketing ⛰️

Mission-based halos are all about the “why” behind your brand. 

 What inspired you to make this product? What are you trying to inspire in your customers?

Embedding a mission in your messaging and content - be it a founding story or a key motivation that drives the company forward - can be a great way to humanize your business. 

Another way to think about this is having a unique point of view. 

Can you create a perception that your company has a new or distinct “why” that underpins everything you do?

At Obvi, our mission is simple - to help people feel fitter, younger, and healthier by making that journey exciting and fun. 

We infuse that mission into every corner of our brand. 

• It inspires our packaging and graphic design. 

• It is the drive to find new, delicious flavors.

• It is the purpose behind our thriving Facebook community.

• It is what separates us from many other supplement brands.

When we launched, our industry was crowded with established, enterprise brands. But their collagen offerings were dull and flavorless. 

They were boring. A chore to add to your routine. 

Another hurdle to feeling younger and healthier. 

Our unique POV was our core differentiator. Leaning into it separated us from the crowd.

A mission-based brand halo boils down to:

“This is what we’re trying to do, and why we’re trying to do it”

(Something beyond “making money”, of course.)

Example → Liquid Death makes bottled water metal 

Liquid Death’s mission is to make an everyday, commoditized product (bottled water) into something super cool (METAL).

Through this masterclass of brand, they’ve reached legions of people who wouldn’t have thought twice about what kind of water they bought before. 

Result? A $1.4 billion valuation. 

Here are some ways to share a unique point of view or inspiring mission → 

Founder-led 

Speak directly to your customers about why you are doing what you’re doing, what keeps you up at night, and what gets you up in the morning. 

Share why you think your products can make their lives better and what you’re doing to make yourself, the business, or your offerings better.

Take them behind the scenes to show both your struggles and your successes. 

Genesis Narrative

Does your company have a distinct story behind why it was founded or how you discovered your mission?

Did you have to overcome huge hurdles to make it to market? 

People remember stories - especially if they have an element of rags to riches, overcoming adversity, or David vs Goliath. 

Push the Boundaries

Is your mission about making something completely different, completely new, or completely counter to the way things were done before?

Can you position your brand as a rebel, pioneer, or innovator? Are you changing the way people think about a product category or something in their lives?

Becoming known for building “the new thing” can help instill excitement, curiosity, and credibility in your target audience. 

It can also position you as cutting-edge or cool relative to your competitors. 

***Keep in mind*** 

These strategies are not mutually exclusive. 

It’s possible to leverage a pioneering brand, built on a compelling genesis narrative, that is shared via compelling founder-led content. 

Cause-Based Marketing

“Not everything is about you.”

Cause-based brand halos flip the script. 

They shift the focus from that internal mission to being about something bigger and more important than yourself.  

This kind of branding boils down to -  

“Are you making the world a better place?”

For this to resonate, it has to:

• Be a known issue with general support and awareness

• Have a clear connection to your brand or product

• Match the persona/psychographics of your target demo

Meaning - don’t just hop on some random bandwagon cause and claim to support it. 

That can seem exploitative and inauthentic. 

And if it’s something your customers aren’t terribly concerned about, then your efforts won’t make an impact.

A good way to avoid this is to ask them about what they care about. Or even let them choose the cause themselves.

Whatever the case, aim to be both authentic and strategically cohesive in picking your cause... 

With that in mind, here are some key methods to give your brand a halo - 

Product design

Most people think of donations and charities when it comes to supporting a cause, but you can do this through product design or your manufacturing process.

Making something from recycled materials or paying more to support local suppliers are good examples of integrating a cause directly into your offering. 

Product in Kind

“Buy one, give one” was a tactic popularized by Toms Shoes back in the mid-2000’s that helped them build a significant following. Another DTC shoe company, Allbirds, donates slightly used shoes all around the world. 

If your product can help people in need, donating it directly through a reuse program or tying it explicitly to sales can work well.  

Percentage of sales or profit

This one is classic and simple. Promise to donate some of your sales or profits to the cause of choice. 

This tactic used to ring kind of hollow because how do customers know that you’re actually donating anything?

Luckily there are digital tools and third parties these days that can collect and distribute donations. They make things simpler and act as confirmation that the participant brand is both legitimate and credible. 

Enable or match donations

Another tactic is to encourage your customers to directly contribute to the cause through you. 

This can be done by making the process as quick and simple as possible, but also by providing something in return. 

This could be a benefit they can redeem at your store or by you matching the donation amount.

Give through loyalty

If you’re a brand that offers a loyalty program, you can arrange for customers to donate their accrued loyalty/rewards points to a cause instead of cash or other items

Rather than redeeming their points for a branded tote bag or product discount, customers can exchange their points for donations, driving real change.

Whatever tactic you choose, the big thing to remember here is to have some skin in the game. 

If people think you are only mentioning a cause so you can seem virtuous, but your support doesn’t seem genuine... 

Then it will backfire.

Case Study → Patagonia - a purpose-driven brand

A great example of combining mission-based and cause-based halos is outdoor apparel brand Patagonia. 

• They share the compelling story of their founder Yvon Chouinard and how the company started more than 50 years ago. 

• Their site’s values page talks about their commitment to environmentalism. 

• They detail why their dedication to high-quality clothes helps sustainability. 

• They try to limit their environmental footprint through sustainable manufacturing practices. 

• They partner with grassroots conservation organizations. 

• Their company promise is that they are “in business to save the planet.”

• Their ironclad guarantee states that any customer who is not satisfied can return their product for a refund, replacement, or repair. In fact, they say they would prefer you get repairs over buying something new. 

Patagonia lives its mission and cause. It is the foundation of the entire brand and practically all of their marketing efforts. 

Sum it up 😇

Everyone in DTC spends so much time thinking about what they’re selling, how to make it, how to ship it, and how to get people to buy it. 

And we should! This is still important.

But many of us need to spend more time thinking about the brand we’re building as well. 

Consumers don’t just make decisions with their heads. They make them with their hearts. 

Think about examples like us (Obvi), Zappos, Liquid Death, Toms, and Patagonia.

Giving your brand a unique point of view or a cause to believe in means your customers have another reason to remember you, trust you, buy from you, and recommend you to others.  

Direct response is easy to measure and the most direct path to revenue and growth. 

But over time, the brand that you build will be what sustains you. 💪

Before you go…

Next Monday (Sept. 9th) we are joining forces with Drew Marconi of Intelligems and Dylan Ander of Heatmap to help you polish up your Shopify store before BFCM hits.

It’s the biggest shopping weekend of the year, so you want to be sure you’re primed and optimized to turn every click into a conversion.

You’ll also get the chance to share your store with Ash, Drew, and Dylan for some live, expert feedback on what they’d do to take your CRO to the next level.

Sign up for free here. 

All the best,

Ron and Ash