Right now I’m on a plane from Australia’s Gold Coast to Melbourne.

And as always, being on a plane is a great time for reflection. Today it’s more than just reflection in some ways. I’m actually heading off for what we might call a ‘high-level’ meeting with one of Australia’s major retailers.

So I’ve done the background. And it’s interesting. This particular retailer gave just over $10 Million to charity last year. And that’s great! But here’s the challenge; not a single one of its customers knew about it!

Now don’t for one minute think that I believe they should shout about it in the press and so on. Far from it. But what I do know is that they’re not engaging and involving their customers in the process. And the moment they do that, everything changes.

That involvement and engaging is what adding B1G1 to the mix does. For example, when (as we hope) the retailer adopts B1G1, instead of its ads ‘yelling’ special prices, they’ll simply say things like, “when you buy this, a kid gets fed” or “when you buy this, you educate a child,” or “when you buy this, an old-aged person gets a bunch of flowers to brighten their day.”

And as a result, they’ll differentiate themselves in the market or, to put that more simply, they’ll sell more.  Not just today, but for as long as they keep engaging with their customers in a B1G1 way.

The end result? More customers, more customers coming back more frequently, more sales and therefore more money going to their chosen worthy causes. Simple.

And so much more effective than sponsoring a Christmas Concert (nice as that might be) or giving one massive donation. Linking each transaction to giving is the key. And then linking that to the B1G1 brand adds even more ‘oomph’ to the giving process.

It’s amazing how it works (as stories here in the newsletter and on the B1G1 site show). It’s an order of magnitude more impactful than statements like ’10 per cent of our profits go to charity’, isn’t it?

It’s all in the articulation.

Consider MacDonalds and their Happy Meals. I had no idea until 3 weeks ago that every time someone buys a Happy Meal, 5 cents goes towards Ronald MacDonald House (MacDonalds ‘give back’ to provide accommodation for children with challenging diseases and their families).

Just imagine what might happen if MacDonalds said it this way, “Every time you buy a Happy Meal, the family of a sick child gets to share more happiness together.”

You see, even though in this case it’s not as specific as we’d normally want it to be, the articulation is so much more powerful. And we’ve removed the ‘problem’ of the consumer thinking they’re paying for it with the 5 cents.

Hmmm, might be an idea to share that with MacDonalds next time I pop in for a Happy Meal