I’ve often wondered why it is that companies of every size and shape, across industries and geographies, take pride in differentiating their brands through supporting research on AIDS, breast cancer, and ALS, as well as charitable contributions to children’s hospitals, vaccination initiatives, and fighting malaria or tuberculosis. Yet one struggles to find any good examples of pharmaceutical brands — the largest generator of wealth within the healthcare sector — creating cause-based engagement with their customers. And no, spending media dollars on ‘education’ before launching a drug around a disease condition does not qualify as cause-based engagement.

There are many ways to support a cause. These approaches include donating a percentage of sales to a named recipient, allowing customers to donate to a charity of their choice, creating a marketing campaign around the product with a pledge to support a cause, or by creating a philanthropy that directly manages cause-driven programs.

The real barrier of participating in cause-based engagement and brand differentiation, I believe, is a deep-rooted fear in the industry of being disliked. And when brands, just like people, are fearful of rejection, they become defensive.

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