Cause-Marketing Reality Check: New Study Finds Women Are Strongest Believers in the Power of Supporting Causes

Eight in 10 American women believe supporting causes creates a sense of purpose and meaning in life. American women are strong believers in the power of individuals to make a difference by supporting causes, while their male counterparts are most likely to view supporting causes as a fad, according to new data recently released by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Georgetown University's Center for Social Impact Communication. When it comes to social media, women are mosre likely than men to recognize the role that sites like Facebook can play in facilitating cause involvement. Two-thirds of women (65%) believe that social networking sites can increase visibility for causes, and six in ten (60%) believe they allow people to support causes more easily. It comes as no surprise, then, that women are more likely to support causes through promotional social media activities (e.g. joining a cause group on Facebook, posting a logo to a coail profile, contributing to a blog) than men (17% vs. 12%, respectively). Women also turn to social media as a source of cause information more often than men - though for both, this lags far behind traditional TV and print media sources and personal relationships.

The findings are part of the larger Dynamics of Cause Engagement study, conducted among American adults age 18 and older in late 2010, which explored trends in cause involvement and the roles of a variety of activities in fostering engagement with social issues.

Witty headlines: black and white and dead all over (because of SEO)

I always enjoy reading a good headline, they always make me chuckle. However, with the dawning of SEO, witty headlines are causing to be a problem.

Crafty headlines are just not SEO-friendly. A much better headline would include the keywords and wouldn't have much room for puns or plays on words.

The Atlantic has weight in on this notion with its recent article "Google Doesn't Laugh Saving Witty Headlines in the Age of SEO."

Matthew Crowly, a copy editor for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has won awards for his on-so-clever headlines. "I understand the shift toward search optimization" he told The Atlantic. "But I think we're losing something when we take the wordplay and surprise out of headline writing."
In many ways, SEO is killing the art of the clever headline in journalism, and it doesn't seem like a trend that will reverse as long as such a huge chunk of Web traffic comes from search engines.

Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post addressed this same issue last summer, and he didn't offer optimism either.

With New Design, McDonald's Aims to Be the New Starbucks

The fast-food chain is undertaking gradual transformation to be less clownish, more coffee shop.

By 2015 McDonald's isn't going to look like the McDonald's you're use to. It'll look like Starbucks, or at least the $1 billion plan. In a front-page story on Monday's USA Today, the 56-year-old fast food chain's stores are undergoing the most massive renovations in their history.

The revamped McDonald's looks like something like this: wooden tables, faux leather chairs, muted colors, and nothing like the famously bright red-and-yellow arches, and the stores' durable but not very comfortable fiberglass tables and steel chairs. Even the restaurants' exteriors are getting earthier tones.

It seems that McDonald's is taking cues from its fast-rising competitor Starbucks, which now ranks No. 3 behind McDonald's and Subway in U.S. sales for chain restaurants.

Starbucks' popularity is partially due to the fact that customers feel comfortable there. They can bring their laptops, sign onto free Wi-Fi and spend an afternoon there, something that just seems weird at McDonald's. Most people go their to get their meal quickly, and without leaving their car.

But the new stores might change that. According to USA Today, the restaurant is redesigning some 800 locations this year and plans to redesign a majority of the franchise's 14,000 stores by 2015. In the process, they might just reinvent the idea of fast food.

Royal Marketing

Unless you've been living under a rock the last few months - you know that Kate Middleton and Prince William were married last Friday, April 29th. It will probably be the most talked about event of 2011. While us commoners have been interested in what Kate's dress would look like, what the wedding would in tale or where the couple would go on their honeymoon, some companies have been trying to raise revenue around the big day.

Food companies, such as Papa John's commissioned food artists to create the likeness of the prince and his bride's on a pizza that "tastes as good as it looks." This pizza can be purchased any where 'across the pond.' Dunkin' Doughnuts created a Royal Wedding Doughnut just for the occasion. It's a heart shaped glazed, jelly-filled masterpiece created with Will and Kate's favorite flavors in mind.

Companies have been jumped into TV ads too gearing up for the big day. T-Mobile made a wedding day spoof ad that caught fire copying the 2009 video known as JK Wedding Entrance Dance. The ad chose royal lookalikes to dancing down the aisle. Check it out here.

In the UK Kodak's ad agency created a series of print ads. They are a bit gimmicky, but most are puns. The other two are "For richer and not poorer" and "Prints charming."

Personally, I think it's odd that Britain has put the royal family's face on anything and everything for the entirely of it's existence, but this marketing tactic is just funny I think. I'm not sure if it even worked.

What royal wedding marketing tactics have you seen?

10 Items Well Known Just Because of their Brand Name

It's the pinnacle of branding. Your brand's name replaces the actual name of the product. It's crazy cool if you can get your brand to this level.

Dumptster: The actual name is front loader waste container or mobile garbage bin. The name dumpster was first used in 1936, by the Dempster Brothers, who patented this style of trash container one year later.

ChapStick: It's called lip balm. You probably knew that, but did you know it was invented in the 1880s by a doctor and pharmacologist in Virginia? Dr. Charles Browne Fleet sold the rights to the lip balm for $5. Today, Pfizer owns the brand.

Hula Hoop: Humans have probably been using some form of the toy hoop-as it's known generically-for centuries, maybe millennia. But, the Hula Hoop came about in the 1950s, when Wham-O toy company introduced the plastic hoop we known today and trademarked the term Hula Hoop. You know, for kids.

Band Aid: The adhesive bandage was invented in 1920 by Earle Dickinson, an employee of Johnson and Johnson. He created it because his wife frequently cut and burned herself while cooking. What a progressive guy.

Kleenex: Facial tissue is the generic name, and legend has it that the product was created by Kimberly-Clarke Corp. for use in gas masks during World War I. Kimberly-Clarke invented the facial tissue as it's known today in 1924. Gesundheit.

Onesies: It's called an infant body suit-sounds so '80s - but the brand Onesies, owner by Gerber Childrenswear, has become the common name for it. Aww...

Post-It: The corporation 3M invented the Post-It note in 1968, but the product's generic name is sticky note, repositional note. How's that for jargon?

Wite-Out: The generic name is correction fluid, and it was invented in the 1960s by insurance company clerk George Kloosterhouse, who enlisted the help of his friend Edwin Johanknecht. They trademarked the term Wite-Out in 1974

Styrofoam: This might have the most convoluted generic name - extruded polystyrene foam. In 1941, researchers at Dow Chemical "rediscovered" a method used by Swedish inventor to create foam polystyrene. Dow Chemical owns the trademark today.

Frisbee: That flying object that you're dodging at the beach is actually called flying disc. Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company - which you may remember from such popular toys as the Hula Hoop. Until 1958, Frisbie Baking Co. of Bridgeport, Conn., made pies, among other products. The pie tins - once relieved of crust and filling - proved aerodynamic, and New England college students began tossing and catching them. Many colleges have claimed to be home of "he who was first to fling."

Want to see more products known by their brand names? BuzzFeed has named 32.