Two Things You Need to Know about This Post
1. The era of the oversized check is over.
2. If you follow the five Best Practices of Cause Marketing, you can change the world.

A More Detailed Exploration
Cause marketing has become one of the hottest topics of the year. Major corporations and local businesses alike are finding out that it’s good business to help promote causes. But how can you go about doing it without looking like an opportunist?

Corporate philanthropy and social responsibility are nothing new. It has always been in a company’s best interest to help improve its community and conduct its operations in a way that benefits its stakeholders.

Somewhere along the way, we forgot these simple truths. Somehow, we began to believe all that mattered was taking pictures of oversized checks and going back to business-as-usual.

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#1 Thing You Need to Know about this Post:
Pedigree has spent a lot of resources to create awareness about the Pedigree Adoption Drive and will need to use its online resources to prove it was a wise decision, not prideful folly.

A More Detailed Exploration
The Super Bowl is a spectacular affair with entertainment for almost everyone, whether or not you care about the game on the field.  People were overflowing with anticipation, celebration, indifference, derision, and disappointment throughout the evening. And that was just for the commercials (see the Twitter stream).

Out of all the spots that were aired, I noticed two that were primarily cause marketing initiatives: the NFL and Pedigree. While the NFL has a long history of promoting its community support (e.g. United Way commercials) and gets its air time as part of the broadcast agreement, Pedigree had to pay full retail price. more

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#1 Thing You Need to Know about this Post:
The only sustainable way for you to create wealth for yourself is by improving the lives of others. Starbucks understands this and so can you. 

A More Detailed Exploration
In case you just missed it in the opening sentence, I have an earth-shattering announcement to make:

The only sustainable way for you to create wealth for yourself is by improving the lives of others.

Despite what you might have heard from others, the only true path to long-term wealth creation comes from the careful balance of private gain and social good. Think about it. You create wealth when a lot of people think what you offer to the world is important enough to them that they pay you money and then keep paying you money over long periods of time. more

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