Drastic action is imperative if Race for the Cure hopes to stave off a catastrophic implosion.
Now that Susan G. Komen has reversed its decision to stop funding breast cancer screenings for Planned Parenthood, it must take drastic, meaningful and very public measures to win back the hearts and minds of supports, consumers and corporate sponsors. One "mea culpa" apology will not be enough to shore up sponsors or win back consumers' loyalty.
As anyone working for Komen can attest, surviving a traumatic event doesn't mean you're healed. It's an even odds bet that Komen, will remain highly toxic to promotional partners and their target audiences for months and years to come if it doesn't make substantive change and voice it to the public immediately.
When using borrowed equity to sell products or services, marketers seek out the best fit for their brand and their consumers. Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was the Cinderella story of all charitable efforts, arguably the most popular nonprofit in history. Yoplait, General Mills, American Airlines, Evian and a host of other big players partnered with Komen to lift their brands among a coveted audience, Shopper Moms.
Those of us marketers around at the beginning remember the truly groundbreaking arrival of Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Komen, singlehandedly, changed how marketers felt about what was, historically, a verboten subject. Before Susan G. Komen, the vast majority of marketers thought pairing cancer with their products or services was brand suicide. Marketing agencies bold enough to suggest Komen tie-ins heard in more than one corporate conference room, "You want us to do WHAT? Tie candy in with BREAST CANCER? It'll ruin our BRAND!" Then came Race for the Cure. Pink ribbons began to show up everywhere, on everything. And Shopper Moms LOVED it. They were buying up Komen related products in droves, and corporate sponsors reaped the rich rewards. Shopper Moms were passionate in their support of women's health, and their actions taught many in marketing a crucial lesson. An association with Breast Cancer and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure didn't harm a brand, it could skyrocket it.
Sadly, today is a completely different day for Komen. Marketers need to be beyond certain that the pink ribbon and Susan G. Komen logo will make shoppers want to buy a box of corn flakes rather than avoid or (marketing gods forbid) intentionally boycott it. With all of passion on both sides of the issue, Komen has a long, uncharted and potentially perilous road ahead of it.
If you're a member of Yoplait's marketing department, for example, the logical step would be to sever the relationship with Susan G. Komen as it exists today in support of another worthy breast cancer charity. As a multi-million dollar brand trying to sell more yogurt, Yoplait simply can't risk shopper backlash. Susan G. Komen cannot, unfortunately, turn back the hands of time and erase their grievous error in judgment. However, doing nothing past issuing an apology will permanently damage what almost three decades of painstaking efforts have established.
Komen must shore up marketing and consumer support by ridding itself of those whose thinking got Komen into this mess in the first place. The current board, President, CEO, CMO and Director of Public Policy should resign, effectively immediately. By eliminating the leaders who approved the Planned Parenthood grant debacle, it will send a loud and clear message that the Komen women knew, loved and trusted is back in business. When outraged consumers no longer fault Komen for its incompetency, supporters will return and partnerships with Komen will be viable for corporate sponsors. If Komen continues with the old guard that got them in the mess in the first place, consumers and marketers will have no assurances that such an error in judgment won't happen again.
In addition to replacing the leadership at Komen, the organization should consider inviting a respected voice from the breast cancer-screening arena at Planned Parenthood to sit on the Race for the Cure board. Also, Komen would be smart to partner with the breast cancer screening area of Planned Parenthood on a share promotional effort. The two could execute a cooperative campaign with one of Komen's corporate sponsors. "Support Breast Cancer Screenings for Women in Need," benefiting Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screening initiatives, would help a) put the focus back where it belongs -- on breast cancer and women's health and b) show consumers and marketers that Komen is serious about change that's devoid of politics.
Even if Susan G. Komen implemented the suggestions herein, there would still be a massive amount of repair that must take place. Consumers' loyalty is a fascinating in regard to its potential benefits and liabilities. If you meet consumers' wants, needs and desires, they will stay true. If you forget who your audience is, even for a couple of days, it can take a brand like Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure generations to recover.
The mission of Komen is simply too important to women to wait that long.
Sarah O'Leary is a 25-year marketing veteran and author of Brandwashed: Why the Shopper Matters More Than What You're Selling".
Follow Sarah O'Leary on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SarahinMDR
Richard (RJ) Eskow: The Real Komen Lesson: Charities Can Be 'Too Big to Fail,' Too
One more comment: "Shopper Moms?" No doubt that is supposed to be some cute take on Soccer Moms, but it completely misses the mark. The breast cancer issue and the Race for the Cure were understood by ALL women, not just mothers.
Please continue to write to corporate partners and sponsors directly from the links on Komen's page:http://ww5.komen.org/CorporatePartners.aspx
All corporate names still remaining on their site will receive continued boycotting of their products and services by many female and male family members, our friends and anyone like minded until they have themselves removed from the Komen sponsor and partner lists.
Komen, certainly, will never be the same if it can even survive.
Welcome to the future which is already here.
Within 20 minutes of it hitting the wire, our US Information Group was picking up thousands of hits on Internet traffic referencing Komen. Within an hour 10s of thousands were coming out of the Facebook backbone.
For fun, ask Komen if a decision driver for the recant was the number of hits on their web page which lists their primary donors.
Boycott? My wife's a breast cancer survivor, that make me one, and our 86 friends at facebook. That makes her brother and my brother survivors, and their 200 friends on facebook. She's no boycott organizer. She made up a list of the Komen's primary partners and did a mass share.
Men do it differently. we sell our shares in a company. On a day when their stock gets kicked for whatever reason, we call the Investor Relations and tell them we won't own shares in a company who supports entities intent on denying life-saving evaluations.
It's not about what's good for business, it's about the morals represented in the public ideology of a Brand.
And the damage to Komen was final, 1 hour after their withdrawal hit the wires..
From now on, Companies will get one, and only once chance.
Anything less than a reversal of policy and immediate firing of the VP and the Board, is just perceived as foot-dragging.
Meanwhile, Best Buy had canceled thousands of Holiday orders, the week/few days before Christmas. They issued a press release with a flacid/vague excuse, represented no concern for screwing their customers, and there was no hint of apology. Downes noted this..
Retail sector folks know exactly what happened. If after Black Friday, electronics inventory shows they won't make it to Christmas with supply,. They're done. You can't (get the Suicide group off of the roof at Foxconn), build the product, ship it in time.
Then suddenly Downes' piece gets pickedup by dozens of aggregators in the media. Why? Because "news' aggregators watch/count the mobile/connecteds topics like Twitter and Facebook. Then grab the biggest counts.
My point to Ms Oleary is that the old days of multi-national Brands screwing customers (or whatever)and making a tepid first reponse, are gone.
The mainstream media seas were quiet for 10 days, BBY didn't realize that mlliions of "shares" re: BBY were fomenting in the mobile/connected oceans. Their weak first response had only inflamed the situation.
By the time BBY re-surfaced, angry at Downes, and an "you-want-an-apology?-Fine-we-apologize" attitude, the event was already lost.
And the IR Dept had been buried under pessed shareholders. Who voted with massive selling right before earnings report.
Komen lobbied against the public option, against cancer research (environment and breast cancer connection), against stem cell research, against Medicaid funding cancer treatment for uninsured women, not to mention wasted a million on dollar on making sure other charities can't use the word "cure". Whatever their "secret real mission" is, it is not helping women, or really find a cure.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/01/1060885/-Behind-the-Pink-Curtain-Komens-Political-Agenda
http://butterbeliever.com/2011/10/22/i-will-not-be-pinkwashed-why-i-do-not-support-susan-g-komen-for-the-cure/
They spend millions on lobbying but not for helping women, but to achieve their political agenda.
They lobbied against Medicare paying for cancer treatment of uninsured women, against the public option, against stem cell research, against research into environment and breast cancer.. and probably a lot more..
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/01/1060885/-Behind-the-Pink-Curtain-Komens-Political-Agenda
I can't see the whole board, etc. resigning.
Their egos won't let them.
Komen may still be a charity, but it will never regain its respect and support like before.
Simply put, they blew it.
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Of course I could be wrong about them resigning, etc.
But I would be VERY surprised.