The Incredible Healing Power Of Shoes
How can you encourage your customers to spend more with you and get them to love you more at the same time?
The answer is to join in the MyShoes Campaign to Fight Multiple Sclerosis. As well as achieve the above miracle it can also help boost the morale of your workforce and build team spirit. And of course, you will be playing a major role in combating the most common disabling neurological condition affecting young adults.
The goals of the MyShoes Campaign are to raise awareness of the challenges of MS and raise funds for the two main UK charities aiding those affected, the MS Society and the MS Trust. Shoe designers, makers and retailers participate by hosting information material about MS in their stores and by contributing a small amount from the sale of a nominated MyShoes style, which they chose from their current range.
Shoes were chosen to highlight MS for a number of reasons. Firstly, the target group that is most interested in shoe fashions - twenty and thirty something females - happens to be the same group of people most likely to be diagnosed with MS. Secondly, walking is one of the most easily seen things adversely affected by MS.
And thirdly, just as shoes come in a myriad of colours, styles and fashions so do the symptoms of MS. No two people with MS are likely to have the same experience. Everybody gets their own individually bespoke tailored MS experience. So, it was thought, that the MS charities would make a perfect fit for the footwear industry.
The MyShoes Campaign is an example of what have become known as Cause Related Marketing programmes. The idea was pioneered in the United States by American Express when in 1983 it started donating one cent to a fund to restore the Statue of Liberty every time someone used its charge card. The Amex experience showed that these kinds of campaigns produce a synergy benefiting both the causes and the donors beyond what could be reasonably expected.
Not only did Amex find that popularity of its card rose but so too did its rate of use. And as well as make Amex customers feel better about their relationship with the bank, it also had a very positive impact on staff morale. People like to work for a company that does more than just make money.
Since, Cause Related Marketing has been adopted by a variety of organisations across the world. In the United Kingdom adopters have ranged from small family run businesses to the largest corporations such as BT, Ford, Lever Fabergé, Marks and Spencer and Tesco.
Some campaigns have become famous in their own right. Breakthrough for Breast Cancer's distinctive pink packaging immediately tells consumers who they are backing when they purchase a product from the many vendors backing its campaign. The MyShoes Campaign aims to gain a similar status in peoples' minds. The shoe is a very potent image and very suitable to represent MS. The association between shoes and MS will bring great synergy for both the shoe industry and the MS charities.
In 2000, Business In The Community, an organisation dedicated to improving the impact of business on society, surveyed over 2000 consumers with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the relationship between Cause Related Marketing, brand affinity, brand equity, brand loyalty and actual consumer purchasing behaviour.
The survey showed that when customers were aware of a company's Cause Related Marketing activity, the brand consistently scored higher on statements about trust, innovation, endorsement and bonding. And this finding was repeated no matter what the industry, the cause or the type of programme.
Almost 9 out of 10 consumers questioned were aware of Cause Related Marketing programmes and at least two thirds of people had actually participated in one. 77% of consumers who had participated in a programme said it had positively changed their behaviour or perceptions towards the company or brand involved. 67% of consumers thought that more companies should be involved in Cause Related Marketing programmes.
More recent evidence suggests that the trend is accelerating. In 2003 Business In The Community repeated its study and found that 98% of consumers had become aware of at least one Cause Related Marketing programme and that 83% of consumers had participated in at least one. 48% of consumers said they had actually changed their behaviour because of such a programme, having either switched brands, increased usage or tried or enquired about new products.
Around 85,000 people in the UK have MS. And it affects women more than men to a ratio of two to one. Almost everybody is likely to know one or more people with MS even though they may not know they have MS. If closest relatives are taken into account - parents, children, siblings, spouses - almost half a million people are affected by MS in the United Kingdom alone. And as no cure has been found, it is something they are likely to have to live with for the rest of their lives.
MS is the result of damage to myelin - a protective sheath surrounding nerve fibres of the central nervous system. When myelin is damaged, this interferes with messages between the brain and other parts of the body.
For some people, MS is characterised by periods of relapse and remission while for others it has a progressive pattern. For everyone, it makes life unpredictable.
Companies associated with the design, manufacture and sale of shoes can help in a number of ways. The principal way is to nominate a shoe design from their forthcoming season and make a donation to the MyShoes Campaign, nominally set at £5, for every pair sold. MyShoes will then also provide the donor with leaflets and point of sale material backing up the campaign.
The Money raised by the MyShoes Campaign goes to the two major charities dedicated to helping those with MS in the United Kingdom. The MS Society, founded in 1953, funds research, runs respite care centers, provides grants, education and training and provides publications on MS. It also runs a specialist freephone helpline. The MS Trust, founded in 1993, offers education programmes for MS health professionals, the support of MS nurses and a research programme.
Actions
If you feel you can do something to help the MyShoes Campaign to Fight MS you can contact Marla Madison, the campaign's director, on 077 93 96 95 75 or by email at marla@myshoes.org.uk.
Links
For more information about the MyShoes Campaign to Fight MS see www.myshoes.org.uk.
For more information about MS see www.mssociety.org.uk or www.mstrust.org.uk.
For a short but informative article about how heat affects MS see http://www.mscenter.org/pages/pated_effects.htm.
For more information about Cause Related Marketing see www.crm.org.uk.
