Social partnership marketing 'solves trust issues'

Mark Fawcett, chief executive officer of the National Schools Partnership, believes that social partnership marketing is the solution to consumers' falling trust in brands as the recession deepens.

This consumer faith crisis, triggered by loss of confidence in the financial sector, has strengthened distrust in brands across other sectors, such as energy supply, where brands are perceived to be passing on costs to consumers through unprecedented tariff rises.

It's clear that brands, particularly in these sectors, need a recovery strategy in place before plummeting trust causes irreparable damage.

So, the big challenge - over the next 18 months at least - will be how to reach consumers and transform negative perceptions into positive ones.

A savvy marketer will recognise that when trust has gone it cannot be rebuilt easily.

Which begs the question of how to approach an increasingly cynical and credit-crunch weary consumer in a way that won't be rejected out of hand?
Does the answer lie in familiar marketing channels such as traditional above-the-line campaigns, sales promotion, direct marketing or public relations?
While all the above have their place, today's marketing-literate consumer is capable of spotting a heavy handed 'campaign' at a thousand yards, especially one that overtly sets out to achieve a double whammy of repairing trust fences and building brand value at the same time.

The good news is that there is now an alternative: 'social partnership marketing' - a blend of social marketing and cause-related marketing.

While the latter disciplines have not always been seen as a profit opportunity, social partnership marketing offers a way for business to make an important contribution to a social cause while improving consumer relationships and profits.

Social partnership marketing allows brands to either create or link with activity that is key to welfare and development within the community, therefore delivering an improved brand image and sales.

A good marketing channel for this activity is in partnership with the UK's 30,000 schools, which offer a chance to address 10 million pupils and 15 million parents plus one million people employed as teachers and support staff.

There are some good examples that epitomise the activity, such as the 'Let's Grow' project carried out by Morrisons supermarket.

The activity was triggered by research carried out by the retailer that highlighted that a huge number of schoolchildren had never grown anything in a garden, plant pot or allotment.

It also showed that eight per cent of children thought bananas grow in British gardens while one in 10 had no idea that potatoes and carrots can be grown in a garden, at home or at school.

More importantly, it showed that 75 per cent of children were not eating their recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.

'Let's Grow' was launched with thousands of packets of seeds being sent to participating schools to enable teachers to encourage pupils to have fun with food and start planting.

Enough free seeds were distributed to grow around 1.5 million salad leaf plants for six million salad bowls.

The campaign supported the government's 'Healthy Schools', 'Eco Schools' and 'Learning Outside the Classroom' initiatives and was fronted by garden designer and television presenter, Diarmuid Gavin.

Parents, friends and families were able to get behind the scheme by collecting 'Let's Grow' reward vouchers from their local Morrisons and schools could redeem these for free gardening equipment, including everything from seeds to spades, composting bins to planters and even a greenhouse.

The nationwide campaign involved18,000 plus schools and millions of 'Let's Grow' vouchers were collected by parents to give children the opportunity to grow their own food in their school grounds.

Through the scheme, children learned valuable skills by growing their own vegetables and fruit at school, and got the inspiration to follow a healthier lifestyle.

The campaign was fully supported by advertising, PR and teaching resources (written by qualified key-stage teachers) that helped to provide stimulating lessons for children in a wide variety of subjects.

The Morrisons campaign, which has now become a yearly fixture for the brand, illustrates that schools make great partners because they are forward looking, enthusiastic, innovative and welcome original links with businesses and non-commercial organisations.

Social partnership marketing offers a 'winning line' solution for both participants.

From their partnership with brands, schools can benefit from financial support, approved curriculum supporting materials, creative thinking and readymade focal points for tackling social issues such as obesity.

From the brand's viewpoint, the channel gives direct access to a vast number of parents who are happy to support the brand to achieve something worthwhile.

The 'Let's Grow' campaign illustrates the huge support and enthusiasm that parents and friends are willing to bring to a social partnership campaign that shows tangible benefits.

Footfall increased within the voucher-collection period, contributing to Morrisons achieving a bigger growth in market share than any of the other big five supermarkets in 2008.

Altogether, the brand increased its share in the grocery market by 9.7 per cent in the last quarter.

Although Morrisons 'Let's Grow' has been in existence for only one year, a survey of teachers has shown that it has been better received than Sainsbury's Active Kids campaign, which is no mean achievement given the time scales.

Right now brands should be thinking how they can solve their trust problem by reaching the community with projects such as this.

Working with the right marketing partners, who can create campaigns that deliver suitable and exciting benefits for schools, social causes and families, will reverse negative perceptions and increase sales.

However, before embarking on a project like 'Let's Grow' brands should understand the territory and be prepared to abide by some clear-cut 'school rules' to make sure they tread the right path.

For example, activities should provide a clear benefit to participating schools, which should always have the choice to opt in, or out, of any activities.

It is also vital that levels of branding should be appropriate to the activity and that schools are made aware of the social or commercial objectives of the activity - after all, with honesty comes trust.

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