Andresen.ffirs 3/7/06 5:01 PM Page iii Robin Hood Marketing Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes Andresen.ftoc 3/7/06 5:02 PM Page vi Andresen.ffirs 3/7/06 5:01 PM Page i Robin Hood Marketing Andresen.ffirs 3/7/06 5:01 PM Page ii Katya Andresen Foreword by Kate Roberts Andresen.ffirs 3/7/06 5:01 PM Page iii Robin Hood Marketing Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes Andresen.ffirs 3/7/06 5:01 PM Page iv Copyright © 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 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Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey- Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax 317-572-4002. Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Andresen, Katya, date. Robin Hood marketing: stealing corporate savvy to sell just causes/Katya Andresen; foreword by Kate Roberts. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-7879-8148-8 (cloth) ISBN-10: 0-7879-8148-6 (cloth) 1. Social marketing. I. Title. HF5414.A529 2006 658.8'02—dc22 2006004535 Printed in the United States of America FIRST EDITION HB Printing 10987654321 Andresen.ftoc 3/7/06 5:02 PM Page v CONTENTS Foreword vii by Kate Roberts Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Lost in Sherwood Forest 1 Facing the Fact That Marketing Is a Must 1. The Heart of Robin Hood Marketing 10 Focus on Getting People to Do Something Specific 2. Robin Hood Reconnaissance 36 Appeal to Your Audiences’ Values, Not Your Own 3. The Village Square 66 React to the Forces at Work in the Marketplace 4. All for One and One for All—We Wish 84 Stake a Strong Competitive Position 5. Building a Merry Band 104 Partner Around Mutual Benefits 6. The Heart of the Good Archer’s Arrow 130 Put the Case First and the Cause Second 7. Sharpening the Arrow’s Point 162 The Four Things Your Message Must Do 8. Aiming for Hearts and Minds 184 Take Your Message to Where Your Audiences Are 9. Robin Hood Media Savvy 216 Approach the Media as a Target Market 10. Letting Your Arrow Fly 240 Execute Campaigns and Assess Their Worth v Andresen.ftoc 3/7/06 5:02 PM Page vi vi CONTENTS Notes 265 The Author 271 Andresen.flast 3/7/06 5:29 PM Page vii FOREWORD “It’s about changing the world . wearing shoes!” When Katya Andresen asked me one day at lunch to write the Foreword to Robin Hood Marketing, it took only three spoonfuls of angel hair pasta to agree. Finally, here is a book that all potential “do-gooders” need to read before trying to accomplish good on their own, for their cause, or even for their employer (depending which side of the fence they are on). The principles in these pages make perfect sense to me, as I’ve experienced them firsthand. I want to tell you my story, because it’s further proof of just how powerful it is to engage the private sector and take on its marketing sensibility. Almost a decade ago, I was a busy executive for an international advertising agency in Romania, marketing soft drinks, cigarettes, and cell phones. I would spend my days plotting the next clever maneuver to get kids to drink more, smoke more, and essentially buy more products that they did not really need. I was a trend- setting machine. But while I was good at what I did, I wasn’t sure that I was doing good. That thought started to bother me. Then a completely different client came through my door. Michael Holscher, the dynamic country director of Population Ser- vices International (PSI) in Romania, asked me to help the orga- nization launch a safe-sex campaign called “Do what you want but know what you do.” He wanted to protect young people from HIV/AIDS, a problem that had not really hit Romania yet. I jumped at the chance to make it happen, even though it was a pro bono project in my profit-focused world. Here was a chance to throw some creativity into something entirely different, with richer rewards at stake, and it felt like being a kid in a candy store. vii Andresen.flast 3/7/06 5:29 PM Page viii viii FOREWORD Our challenge was to break through the marketing clutter that was already infiltrating the Romanian market. So I asked, What do kids like? Well, they like music, television, sports, fashion—and they like each other! We did nothing different than Coca-Cola would have done: We seized on those likes and developed a brand and positioning, formed key strategic partnerships, established dis- tribution channels for the health products, tapped into the media, and then added sizzle. The sizzle came in the form of celebrity that courted kids. The most popular music band in Romania at the time, Holograf, offered to write a song about safe sex. This launched the campaign, and the song became a number-one hit. In the band’s CDs, we enclosed a condom and other information on how to stay free of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. But we also knew that the only truly safe method is abstinence, and we wanted to make that the next big trend. We approached the national TV station to develop a documentary series called In Bed with You, which featured various celebrities talking about their experiences and how they wish they had waited. We ran generic TV spots using real kids to talk about the issues they face, along with a series of theme parties. We also pursued kids right into the places they hung out, such as the Black Sea, where we sent “Love Police Cadets” to “arrest” kids if they were not using condoms or abstaining from sex. The approach was no different from my daytime work with clients, and that got me thinking. Why couldn’t I involve all of my other corporate paying clients in this kind of lifesaving work? Why stop at using private-sector approaches? Why not enlist the private sector as partners? Surely this was a win-win. PSI needed funding and the infrastructure of the private sector to reach more kids, and the media and corporations wanted to show customers that they cared. Eventually, some of those clients became sponsors, and PSI was able to expand the campaign and its impact. Soon after, I took a trip to South Africa to reflect and rest. There I saw with sad clarity that not every country was as fortunate as Andresen.flast 3/7/06 5:29 PM Page ix Foreword ix Romania, where the destructive HIV pandemic was not yet fully unleashed. In South Africa, I found out that one of every four fourteen-year-old schoolgirls was already infected with HIV. These girls would not live past their twentieth year, and the next genera- tion was at risk. Through sheer poverty, many were driven to take on a “sugar daddy,” “teacher,” or “rich uncle” to put food on the table or pass their exams in exchange for sex. I could not believe what I saw in this beautiful country: a funeral on every corner. In the townships, every other corrugated iron hut had someone living in it with AIDS. But the stigma of the disease was still so acute that rarely would family members admit to the problem. To do so would mean they would be ostracized from the village. I looked down at my Gucci shoes and decided I wanted to do something more.