I saw a TV ad for Red Motorola phone with the company making a donation to an Aids programme in Africa with each phone sold. This dual-pronged approach kills two birds with one stone - drive sales and associate themselves to a worthy cause. Motorola is certainly not the first company to employ this tactic. I've attended conferences where if I filled up the survey forms, a certain donation would be made by the organising company and I'm sure you've seen supermarket items that are similarly tagged.
My problem with this type of philanthropy exercise? It shows lack of commitment from the respective companies. If you want to do charity work, why put the onus on your customers? Why bear the burden of your corporate cause onto the consumers? If consumers didn't buy the red phone, Motorola wouldn't donate money to the cause? If I didn't fill up that feedback form, you wouldn't make that donation? Gimme a break.
I am a shameless purist - if you want to do charity, do it, but don't make others be responsible for the success or failure of that effort.
6 comments:
I agree. I think we should buy from a company becuase we both like thier products and agree with thier message/agenda/actions. Not becuase they are roping us into being thier customers by having us force them to be momentarily charitable.
On the other hand, there has been a list compiled of all the corporations that support Planned Parenthood so that you can boycott them and advocate your own pro-life agenda, if you have one. But it is nearly impossible to live by becuase there are so many corporations on the list. Boycott Nabisco? Too bad, Keebler and the store brand are also on the list. No Nilla Wafers for you!
Totally agree with your point on the list of corporations. I'd buy what I need from whoever, but under no delusion that I am "helping a cause", if you know what I mean.
I think it is insulting that these corps think consumers will buy more of their products/services *especially* if there's a halo effect attached to them - because ultimately, ringing up sales is their main objective.
then how about hajah fatimah mosque selling its beryani at 10 bucks or arnolds fried chicken, also, selling vouchers of a spring chicken at 10 bucks a piece.. in the name of charity?
im torn between a being a 'giving' human, and a suspicious 'kedekot'..?
The mosque's effort is clearly a donation drive and we all know whatever they raise will go towards a good cause (or so I hope, since mosques here could do more with transparency, but that's a post for another time).
I'm specifically talking about companies (and arnold's qualify here) that attach a cause to help them drive sale.
This is an interesting topic, and one which I'd like to ask a question on. That question is, do you dislike the idea of a specific product (or service) having their sales driven through the charity ("we'll donate x% of the sales price/profit for every unit sold") or do you dislike the company driving sales in general through the charity ("we'll donate x% of company profits"). The latter, of course, is more common, with some famous examples (eg: Ben & Jerry's). One of my thoughts, as I struggle to get my business up and running, is that Muslim businesses should pay zakat just like people. (Corporations especially. We treat them legally as an artificial person. So this "person" should also follow Islamic law as much as it can.) In that regard, I'd like to have my business pay "zakat" (perhaps 2.5% of the corporate profits). If I do do this - and publicize it as well - will people take the publicizing negatively? I think most people look at this type of PR positively, but you seem to be suggesting that it may be a negative thing in consumers' eyes. What do you think?
Salam JD! Thanks for dropping by.
I am put off by companies who try to drive sale of their products/services by attaching it to a charity cause. But I am not put off by companies who donate a portion of their profits to charity.
One case in point is Creative Technologies and Sim Wong Hoo. They don't tag their products to any donation drive but they donate to various charities regularly. The lynch pin for me, is they donated even when the company was not doing well. So guess, which mp3 player is in my handbag? :)
Also, on paying zakat, I don't know if publicising it would help your business. I'm akin to thinking why would I tell people I pay my zakat? Or anyone else? How about thinking of "adopting" a charity and doing regular activities with them and publicising those?
I'm happy to take this discussion further. I work in communications :) so this type of things interest me. If you want, you can email me at dramamama70 at gmail dot com.
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