- From Black Lives Matter to the Australian Bush fires. Here is the Latest Dirty Marketing Tactic used by Businesses and Brands to profit from Tragedies and Causes.

“Hey look *INSERTS COMPANY NAME HERE* Have Done it again!
They Are Donating All of their Profits to help *INSERT CURRENT TRENDING CAUSE*
I get to spend my Money Buying from my Favourite Brand and I'm also helping the cause In believe in!”

Sound familiar?

On the surface it does seem like a note worthy cause. The Company or Brand is willing to donate all of their hard earned money from their sales from a particular period to get behind cause. But what is actually going on here?

Let talk about Profit
The wording used here is key.
Profit for a business comes after all business expenses have been paid.

This is a veiled way of saying:
"Hey guys! Buy our products! All the money we raise goes to the cause you care about!"
We just have to cover the cost of things on our end like:"

The cost manufacturing of the product being sold 
The cost shipping of the said product to company
The cost of advertising
The cost of paying staff
The cost of rent
The cost of shipping the product once sold to customer. (Don't be fooled buy free shipping! It's covered in there too)
Restocking the items we sold during this sale

"After all these costs are covered, we are donating what ever money is remaining straight to that cause!" 

Profit can literally be distributed to any cost the business has to cover.

After your "Donation" Has been filtered through this "system", 
You don't need to be a math wizard to know there is only a small percentage remaining in the way of actual Profit.

Wait a Minute.. If they have literally covered the costs of their products and expenses what has this brand given or donated?

A little bit of your money is potentially donated (**cue tiny applause**)
but what has the company or brand themselves actually given?

I guess you could argue their time and effort?

Once the "donations" have been made, packing and shipping orders or the grueling task of sending an email off to reorder stock is a lot of work, you could give them that. 
The Company or Brand could argue something along the lines of  "We have a Big Platform, we are doing this raise Awareness to the cause".
Rock on! Thanks for the awareness!
But It's a little unnecessary as these topics are global news and trending on all social media platforms. Your awareness is a mere drop in the bucket.

In this scenario one could argue the company has actually taken away more then they have actually given, wouldn't you agree?

But wait! Why would a company bother?
The main thing all brands and companies are constantly fighting for is Your Attention!
Big Brands can spend millions of dollars a year on advertising, to get their ads and products in-front of their target consumers.
They also have teams of people working around the clock, thinking of new and Exciting ways and Tactics to keep these advertising budgets as low as possible, yet also reach the Highest amount of people.

What better way for some Extra brand Attention than promoting that fact you are giving or donating To the Hot Cause Burning in every bodies mind?

It's a long game
Scope out to after the donations from new customers and existing customers are made,
What has the company gained?
The company Builds trust and relatability with the new buyers and existing 
customer which is HUGE for a brand. This Keeps the consumers coming back for more purchases in future.
You are more likely buy from someone you trust rather someone you don't wouldn't you?
The company also has your Contact information and data.
Now they can and will target you with online advertising and emails from now until the end of time.

Companies and Brands that are actually helping
Don't Lose faith in the Human Race just yet, there are companies and Brands Helping these causes through direct donations or running promotions with our other key word for the day...

The key word here is Revenue.
Revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods or services related to the company's primary operations.

This means they are not taking a slice of the pie to cover Hidden Costs.
Yes they are running the same campaign as the other brand
asking for your money in exchange for products,
But they are actually Taking an actual Financial Hit, giving up something and actually donating .These are the Good guys.This is Nobel.

Want to know where your money has Actually gone?
We Would!
Call these companies out.
Ask them exactly how much they are donating after these "donation" campaign are all said and done with.
Ask to see the difference between there profit and there revenue.
Ask for receipts, Ask for invoices
Take in to consideration the size of company or Brand and use your own judgement whether that is an acceptable figure that they donating.
See for yourself how much they have actually helped the cause.
These numbers Don't lie.

To conclude,

If we were trusting someone who said they were "Donating" our Money to a cause we would want 100% transparency of where our money was being distributed.
Especially if the money in its entirety was not going directly to the Advertised Cause. 
Companies Finding loopholes in subtle wording to give off the perception that they are Charitable and Giving, attempting to gain higher ground by Virtue signaling  are arguably the lowest of low.
Praying on people's Heightened Emotions and Good Nature is Opportunistic and Un-Australian.

If you as an individual want to help or Donate to any Cause.
Do some quick research, find a organisation who is helping the cause directly and donate your money to them.
Be Aware of the actual meaning of the words Profit & Revenue.
This post is to help those who didn't know, be slightly more Aware before flushing their hard earned money away.
Don't give in to these Companies with an End Game in mind!


TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read)?

✅ GOOD = COMPANIES & BRANDS DONATING PROCEEDS / REVENUE - Are actually giving and donating to causes.

❌ BAD = COMPANIES & BRANDS DONATING PROFIT -Donating what Little Money is Remaining AFTER all expenses, costs, wages are paid and taxes are accounted for.

Drop a Comment Below, we would love to hear your thoughts