You Don’t Have to Like It to Understand It: Komen Responds to KFC Deal Criticism
Posted: 5/4/2010 5:11:00 PM by
Diane Knoepke | with 0 comments
In my last post, I asked three questions:
- What does “keeping it real” mean?
- When do the ends justify the means? When do they not?
- If it’s measurably successful, does that give back some of the credibility?
While I was ostensibly talking about product integration on TV, I was also thinking about Komen’s deal with KFC. There was (and is) considerable industry chatter going around about the deal, much of it highly critical. Having worked with Komen (full disclosure: Komen has hired IEG on several occasions, most recently in 2008) and knowing several of their staff members, I expected they would have worked through these answers prior to signing a deal in the lightning-rod, favorite-target QSR category. And yet I hadn’t seen or heard anything definitive to bear that thinking out.
Until today. If you have not had the opportunity to read Margo Lucero’s “Reflections on Buckets for the Cure” post on the Cause Marketing Forum’s site, I highly encourage you to do so. You may not like it or agree with it, and I can respect that. As I said last week, fit is in the gut of the beholder.
After you read their rationale, however, you should at least understand that they had a mission-driven and pragmatic process for designing such a partnership. And then ask yourself: can you make such a case for each of your corporate partnerships?
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Filed under: guidelines, non-traditional categories, restaurant, cause marketing