The power of pink
A solid brand, a disease that touches thousands of lives in New Zealand each year and global pulling power have combined to give the Pink Ribbon campaign massive visibility
Thursday, February 25 2010 || Marketing || BY Melanie Cooper
“The different cancers and diseases are competing with each other. It sounds awful but there are only so many support dollars out there and the [NZBCF] seems to do a good job of putting forward its case for funding and sponsor dollars,” says Pickering.
The success of the Pink Ribbon brand and its messages is bolstered by the fact women are natural talkers and networkers, including some of the official ambassadors like Kerre Woodham and Sara Tetro, says Shotter.
“We have a lot of women who are very generous with their time and their social networks — they take on the cause. We never turn down a speaking opportunity either.”
Marketing Association chief executive Sue McCarty says the authenticity of the brand and its values and the fact they consistently deliver on what they say they will is one of their strengths.
“They also appear to know their audience well and therefore create relevancy, which is critical, and they have managed to remain positive and inspiring despite the very personal and emotive cause they are there to support.”
Success has not driven complacency for the Pink Ribbon brand.
Both Shotter and marketing and communications manager Suzanne McNicol joined last year and have already brought changes to the campaign — and they say more are coming.
A new three-year strategic plan has set out five bold goals including doubling their funding and a shift in focus from awareness to action.
“Taking it from talking about breast cancer to actually doing something about it is the key — trying to get New Zealanders to care enough about breast cancer to act whether it is fundraising, being involved in one of our programmes or actually going to get a mammogram.”
This year a new sub-brand ‘Breast Cancer Action Month’ was introduced, tying together all calls for action including buying branded product, committing to fundraising and moving towards a healthier lifestyle.
New merchandise was also introduced compelling people to spend more through the Pink Ribbon appeal on a nail file, beads or a badge for men proclaiming that ‘real men wear pink’.
Shotter says even subtle changes to collateral — hotter pinks and linking devices like the action sub-brand — continue to boost the visibility.
Other tangible signs of the shift include the NZBCF’s financial and organisational support of programmes like the rehabilitative Pink Pilates, now in 26 centres, and Sweet Louise, which offers support for sufferers of metastatic breast cancer in Auckland and Wellington with a planned South Island launch next year.
Although the programmes aren’t confined to Pink Ribbon month, Shotter says they are about letting people see their money in action.
A pro-bono client for Colenso this year, the NZBCF also revealed an all-new Pink Ribbon creative campaign.
While the confronting ads — including a television commercial showing a growing cancer crowding out everything around it — drew mixed responses, Shotter says the feedback showed the ads, and therefore the messages, were getting through.
“In our print ads we were able to show the different faces of breast cancer. That old man is the face of breast cancer — he didn’t have it but his wife has died of it and he is left alone.”
And she acknowledges the power of personal stories. “Everybody has their own breast cancer story. I’ve got two eight-year-old daughters, and you just think ‘I don’t want this to be their disease’. I think that that feeling on the part of mothers, parents, older children, husbands, siblings is part of why this movement is so big.”
