Retailers tap into shoppers' do-gooder spirit

"I've always said 'doing good is good business', and I recommend it to my clients," said Britt Beamer, chairman of marketing firm America's Research Group.

According to Beamer, the positive feedback generated by charitable outreach always offsets any dollar loss to the company.

"What's important is what it says about our brand," said Brad Stevens, Starbuck Corp.'s vice president of U.S. Marketing.

Starbuck's 'cheer passes'
The Seattle-based coffee giant recently kicked off an effort to hand out 10,000 cards called "cheer passes" daily, asking recipients to perform one act of kindness for someone else and pass the card along. The drive is not tied to any cause and the cards are not reedemable for merchandise, but recipients can track their card's progress online.

"It says that we at Starbucks are willing to use our resources to try and start this chain of good will," said Stevens.

Twenty years ago the majority of Americans said the measure of a reputable company was the number of years it had been in business, according to Beamer. Today only six percent of Americans judge a business by its longevity.

"I think consumers saw all these big companies go out of business — the Montgomery Wards of the world — and concluded that the measure of a quality company had to be something more," Beamer said.

Some businesses have begun promoting the way they treat their workers as the measure of their quality as a company.

In fact, the founders of startup clothing company Fair Indigo have based their entire business strategy on the idea that consumers will seek out merchandise made by people working for decent wages.

The Madison, Wisc.-based apparel maker recently launched its first line of "fair trade" clothing, meaning that all the clothes were made by workers in developing countries paid above minimum wage and not working in sweatshop conditions.

The term "fair trade" is typically applied to deals with farmers growing commodities like rice and sugar, but the founders of Fair Indigo are betting that the same consumers who drink fair trade coffee, if given the choice, will also opt for fair trade clothes.

"Clearly there are more people out there becoming more conscious of how their purchases affect society and the environment," said CEO Bill Bass, who co-founded the company after leaving his job as vice president of e-commerce at Lands' End.

Whereas in his previous job, Bass says he would push factory owners in Asia and Latin America to make clothes for less money, he is now insisting they take more money — and pass it along to the workers.

"It really freaks some of them out," Bass said. "They realize pretty quickly though that this will actually reduce their turnover and help them attract the best workers.

MORE FROM HOLIDAY RETAIL

Holiday retail Section Front

Deciding between a fake or real Christmas tree Retail sales drop surprisingly in November Electronics sellers, e-merchants thrive in Nov. GameStop feels Walmart video game price cuts Shopping center group trims sales forecast ‘Cyber Monday’ sales up 20 percent over '08 ‘12 Days of Christmas’ cost: $87,403 Retailers seem more prepared for tepid sales Survey: Black Friday spending up 0.5 percent Black Friday holiday shopping kicks off Holiday retail Section Front   Add Holiday retail headlines to your news reader: