Breast Cancer Strikes Chord With Corporations

Avon, the giant cosmetics company, sells ceramic mugs with pink ribbons painted on them. The October edition of Ladies Home Journal comes wrapped in plastic, with a pink ribbon printed on it. New Balance, the athletic footwear maker, stitches pink ribbons into some styles of women’s shoes.

A growing roster of companies that target women have latched on to breast cancer as the cause of the moment, symbolized by a pink ribbon. Corporate involvement crescendos in October--breast cancer awareness month.

Working with half a dozen nonprofit organizations, marketers have sponsored fund-raising dinners, races, contests and other events. Ford Motor Co. made a huge splash Wednesday night, paying millions to become the sole sponsor of “Murphy Brown” on CBS to deliver a breast cancer awareness message--and pitch cars. The episode was about breast cancer.

On Sunday, several dozen corporations and a star-studded cast of honorary chairpeople--including Madonna and Cher--are sponsoring the “Race for the Cure” at the Rose Bowl to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the biggest breast cancer charity.

Through their promotions, marketers have raised tens of millions of dollars for the cause--while banking goodwill with consumers.

According to surveys, a large number of consumers are willing to switch to brands that support worthy causes. Women between the ages of 18 and 49 are among those most likely to be swayed by a corporation’s involvement in a cause, according to a survey conducted by the Roper Poll and Cone Communications in Boston.

Why breast cancer has emerged as a favorite among corporations has to do with the emotions surrounding the disease and the skills of the charities that raise money for it. Breast cancer isn’t the biggest killer of women--heart disease has that distinction. But it resonates with women because it taps into feelings about femininity and because its causes are not well understood.

“It has become one of the mainstream issues today, in terms of social causes,” said Boston consultant Carol Cone. “Women are concerned about themselves, mothers, aunts, their sisters and so on. It is very much on people’s minds.”

The organizations that raise funds for breast cancer have sharp skills. Lee Jeans, a unit of VF Corp., said it decided to work with the Susan G. Komen Foundation because it promised to lend grass-roots support to a Lee promotion.

Volunteers throughout the country helped promote Lee Jeans National Denim Day in their cities--an event in which 7,000 corporations allowed employees who donated $5 to the Komen Foundation to wear jeans to work. Beyond that, a contingent from Komen, wearing jeans and wrapped in pink ribbons, stood outside the “Today Show” window to hype Denim Day on national TV.

“They are a joy to work with,” said Kathy Collins, director of consumer research for Lee Jeans. “They are very good about making sure our efforts are well-known.”

Lee adopted the cause two years ago as it began to look for ways to reach women between the ages of 19 and 25--a younger target for the company, whose customers are mostly over 35. In focus groups with younger women, three issues came out on top: breast cancer, AIDS and education. Breast cancer touched marketing executives at Lee.

“We went to lunch one day and realized that every one of us had been impacted by it--either immediate family members, a friend or a mother-in-law,” said Collins. “This cause just came through really strong.”

Translating support for the cause into sales has been trickier for Lee. Last year, after its first National Denim Day, about half the participants surveyed correctly identified Lee as the sponsor. A large number of respondents named Lee’s archrival, Levi Strauss & Co.

“I am not sure that it did anything more than make us feel really good,” Collins said. She said receipts from this year’s National Denim Day, held Oct. 10, should top $2 million.

Getting noticed isn’t easy, as sponsorship of breast cancer causes grows. When Avon decided to lend its support four years ago, only 15 corporations were involved in the cause. Today there are more than 85, said Joanne Mazurki, director of Avon’s breast cancer programs. The company donates money received for the sale of $4 mugs to local education and detection programs.

“The playing field was nowhere near as crowded as it is now,” said Mazurki. Pleased that Avon got in on the ground floor, she said that “we’d have to really question ourselves” if Avon were considering the decision today. “It would take a lot more resources to break through all the noise today than four years ago.”

Identifying sponsors can get murky when promotions look alike. This fall, two companies--Tropicana, a unit of Seagram Co., and Conde Nast’s Self magazine--are selling special music CDs as fund-raisers, each benefiting different breast cancer organizations. Besides Avon, cosmetic firms Revlon and Estee Lauder raise funds for breast cancer research. With its annual Fire and Ice Ball and fund-raising runs, Revlon has donated more than $12 million to the Revlon-UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program.

When it comes to autos, the field is especially crowded, with Ford, BMW North America and General Motors Corp. all participating. While Ford and BMW support the Komen Foundation, GM has affiliated with two other organizations, the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, a group known as Nabco that is dedicated to education about the disease, and the Nina Hyde Center for breast cancer research at Georgetown University.

Amy Langer, executive director of Nabco, said the wide range of organizations gives corporations options. Since it’s customary to grant exclusivity to national sponsors, a company that wants to support the cause can shop around.

And the breast cancer organizations are smart about slicing up their fund-raising programs to accommodate potential supporters. Ford is the official sponsor of Komen’s “Race for the Cure,” held in 77 cities this fall. BMW, meanwhile, sponsors the “Drive for the Cure,” in which the company donates money when people test-drive BMWs.

Ford raised its profile with sponsorship of the “Murphy Brown” segment. Besides sponsoring the program, it donated time to Komen Foundation for messages about breast cancer and picked up the tab for producing those spots. In turn, Ford hopes to attract some of the glow it received when it was the sole sponsor of the network television premiere of “Schindler’s List” earlier this year.

No one expects women to rush out and buy Ford minivans or cars, though. Few of the companies sponsoring the cause could link their involvement to sales.

Self magazine, which developed the pink ribbon with advertiser Estee Lauder in 1992, said its promotions around breast cancer have attracted new advertisers this fall.

“But,” stressed publisher Beth Fuchs Brenner, advertising “is not our primary reason for doing it.”