Launching an environmentally focused charitable program
The Grandpa Soap Company had a 135-year legacy as a natural soap brand, and the team wanted to create a charitable program that spoke to its authentic commitment to the environment. Grandpa’s had historically participated in a variety of giveback activities but these efforts were not consistent or strategically connected to what the brand stood for. The team wanted to create a long-term program that reflected their core identity, was memorable and met their modern customers’ values and expectations, and provided opportunities to engage retail partners in the cause.
Conducted a landscape assessment to understand charitable giving programs in the natural soap category and best-in-class charitable and cause marketing programs in non-compete categories
Created a program concept that linked to the brand’s positioning and customer values, and identified a list of non-profit partners for the team to evaluate
Facilitated an introduction to One Tree Planted, the chosen partner
Provided strategic guidance on how to launch the partnership through a multi-touchpoint marketing campaign
Results
- The team is proud of the partnership and feels it cohesively reflects both brand and customer values, with a national and global impact
- The partnership has been running for 3 years, resulting in over 30,000 trees planted, and the brand plans to continue the partnership for many more years
- Flexibility of partnership allowed Grandpa’s to plant trees in damaged areas near brokers and retail partners during the 2021 Colorado wildfire season and received positive feedback from key partners
- The team has activated the partnership through omni-channel campaign activations at multiple times throughout the year including Earth Day
“Core Impact acted as a partner to us to help develop a partnership with longevity that aligned with our values and our customers environmentally friendly expectations. The methodical process provoked us to think about how we want to run our business and helped us grow as an organization. The result is a program that connects our brand ethos with what our modern-day customer cares about...This is just the beginning of our legacy, and we’re excited to see how many trees we can plant to impact future generations.”
Molly Vollmer, Co-CEO Kirk’s Family of Natural Brands
