PACKAGING FOR A (GOOD) CAUSE

Cause marketing programs are taking on new significance in this economy, as brand owners strive to broadcast their corporate principles, create closer relationships with consumers and offer the idea of greater brand value. To stimulate consumer and shopper response to cause marketing efforts, brand owners like Campbell Soup Co. and Procter & Gamble are increasingly turning to package design. Campbell's made a stir this spring with a striking special-edition label for its tomato soup. The program, which ran from March 15 to June 21, gave consumers the opportunity to receive tomato seeds and also donate seeds to the company's nonprofit partner. Equally dramatic is the yellow-capped bottle created to promote Tide laundry detergent's Loads of Hope program, which dispatches a "mobile laundromat" fleet of vans to provide free laundry service to families and relief workers following major disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and the recent California wildfires.