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Read a Celebrity Buy Aid  proposal describing how product labels can help end global poverty



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 CELEBRITY BUY AID:

USING PRODUCT LABELS TO MOBILIZE PUBLIC ACTION ON POVERTY

By George Ortega


Click on this photo for an enlargement

Please note that use of the names and images of the celebrities in the product design examples depicted does not assert or imply any endorsement of Celebrity Buy Aid or of Profit-Donation Capitalism by the celebrities whose names and images are used, nor does it assert or imply any association between the author of the Profit-Donation Capitalism site and any of the celebrities. The product labels depicted are for example only.  They do not exist outside of these examples, and are not being produced or sold to consumers anywhere.

 

         I.        INTRODUCTION   

       
II.        RATIONALE AND BENEFITS OF THE CAMPAIGN

        III.       RATIONALE FOR THE PRODUCT LABELS APPROACH

        IV.       CAMPAIGN DESIGN

        IV.A     Rationale and Benefits of Disseminating Poverty Info. Via Product Labels

                   Estimate of the number of Products CBA can sell during it’s first year

                   Additional benefits of educating the public on poverty via product labels

        IV.B      Financial Framework and Details of Marketing the Food Products

                    Ownership

                    Start-up financing

                    Product selection

                    Product testing and market research

                    Product manufacturing and distribution

        IV.C      Significance and Organization of the Product Launch Event

        IV.D      Importance of the 0.7 Percent Pledge

                    Background on the 0.7 percent pledge

                    Effects of mobilization around 0.7

         IV.E      Benefits from the Promotion of the Campaign

         V.         PRODUCT MARKETING DETAILS AND PROFIT – SALES PROJECTIONS

         V.A       Example – Newman’s Own Salad Dressing

         V.B       Projection – CBA’s Salad Dressing

         V.C       Food Product Markets

V.D       Representative Products

V.E       Results

          VI.       THE CAMPAIGN BY STEPS

          VI.1      Determining CBA’s Financial Structure 

 VI.2      Recruiting the Celebrities

 VI.3      Notifying Poverty NGOs

 VI.4      Financing CBA

 VI.5      Product Selection

 VI.6      Poverty Messages Determination

 VI.7      Product Manufacturing and Distribution

 VI.8      Product Label Design

 VI.9      Product Recipes and Testing

 VI.10     Pre-Product Launch Publicity

 VI.11     Product Launch Event

 VI.12     Product Launch Follow-Up

           VII.       KEY CONCEPTS AND CAMPAIGN SUMMARY

 

I.  INTRODUCTION

Celebrity Buy Aid, (CBA): Using Product Labels to Mobilize Public Action on Poverty calls on the vast network of poverty non-governmental organizations, (NGOs) to work together under the direction of a central organizing NGO in a campaign to market a line of 20-30 supermarket products worldwide. Marketing the products can generate substantial revenue for the NGOs, however, the labels of the products achieve CBA’s main objective; educating and mobilizing citizen action on poverty and the 0.7% Pledge. Although an ambitious enterprise, CBA is actually far less difficult and risky than it might at first appear. 

By recruiting celebrities to lend their names and images to each of the 20-30 products, and by activating the campaign through a widely promoted product launch event, marketing the products can be conducted as an essentially risk-free venture from both financial and public relations standpoints. Based on two surveys, the worst case scenario for the campaign would result in the sale of hundreds of millions of individual products, the label on each of them educating the public about poverty and the 0.7% pledge, while earning some revenue for the NGOs. Profits from even a “failed” campaign would easily cover all incurred costs, including the manufacturing, distributing and promoting of the 20-30 products. The purpose of this proposal is to ask you to help create CBA by encouraging a poverty NGO to organize and implement the campaign. 

II.  RATIONALE AND BENEFITS OF THE CAMPAIGN 

It is widely acknowledged that public education and mobilization is the starting point and key to increasing the funding of NGOs working to end poverty, and to increasing the level of assistance to poor countries by governments of the world’s rich countries. On their own, direct mail, TV and radio, print media, rock concerts, and internet campaigns have thus far been woefully inadequate as strategies for sufficiently educating and mobilizing the public on poverty. An effective new strategy is desperately needed by poverty NGOs. The strategy this CBA proposal describes differs from less effective predecessors in several important ways, and features the following benefits: 

            A. It highlights a sharply focused message; Over the last 48 years, the world’s 22 richest countries, as classified by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, (OECD), have failed to fulfill their 1970 pledge to donate 0.7% of their GDP annually to poor countries. [1] To frame the pledge in easily understandable terms, if these countries were a person earning $50,000 per year, 0.7% of that income would amount to $350 annually. For the leaders of the richest countries to continue defaulting on their government's promise to provide the poorest countries, who lose 29,000 children daily to largely preventable, poverty-related causes, this very small percentage of their GDP is dishonorable, and unacceptable. 

B. It utilizes, as its information dissemination vehicle, a unique and bold approach; delivering its message into the households of hundreds of millions of people throughout the industrialized world via the labels on the supermarket products that shoppers purchase routinely. 

            C. Rather than costing NGOs precious resources, as with mass mailings, or generating no direct revenues, as with donated media, the “product labels” strategy educates and mobilizes the public in a cost-free way that concurrently generates both direct and indirect revenue for the NGOs. 

            D. It is vastly, and appropriately, more ambitious in its scope and promise than past campaigns. 

III.  RATIONALE FOR THE PRODUCT LABELS APPROACH 

The idea of using product labels as a cost-free, revenue-generating poverty information dissemination vehicle evolved from four distinct, but related, observations. 

            A. Supermarket products can be very easily and profitably marketed. It is well known that actor Paul Newman and author Alex Hotchner, two individuals with absolutely no food marketing experience, generated over $500 million in profits between 1982 and 2018 by marketing a line of over forty successful food products under the brand name “Newman’s Own.”[2] 

            B. Newman’s Own achieved its huge success while donating all $500 million in after-tax profits to thousands of charitable causes. 

C. When the author of this CBA proposal asked one hundred supermarket shoppers if they would choose food products whose profit would be used to help end world hunger over competing comparable brands, 92% of these shoppers answered “yes.” Newman’s Own replicated this survey, without specifying a charitable cause, and reported a 76% “yes” response.[3] These two surveys indicate that the strategy of selling supermarket products to inform the public about, and generate revenue for, ending poverty holds substantial promise. 

            D. As Newman’s Own proved, the key challenge to successfully promoting food products can be easily met at virtually no cost through a product launch event attracting wide international press coverage. 

IV.  CAMPAIGN DESIGN

To motivate the enthusiasm and confidence needed to encourage the creation of CBA requires that the staff members you assign to this project understand;   

A. The rationale and benefits of disseminating poverty information via product labels.

B. The conceptual and financial framework, and details, of marketing the food products.

C. The significance and organization of the CBA product launch event.

D. The importance of public knowledge of, and mobilization on, the 0.7% pledge.

E. Benefits of the international network of poverty NGOs’ promotion of the CBA Campaign.  

Because Newman’s Own has compellingly demonstrated the feasibility of marketing and promoting food products whose entire profit is donated to charitable causes, their business model and the details of their huge success are used throughout this proposal to describe the marketing and promotion features of CBA. Very fortunately, Paul Newman and his partner, Alex Hotchner, published a book in 2003 titled Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple wherein they describe their business model. It is strongly recommended that your project staff familiarize themselves with the facts and details of Newman’s Own presented in that book, as well as with the articles cited in this text. Please note that because Newman’s Own does not make its records public, this CBA proposal presents Newman’s Own data published in the book and articles appearing in the press. 

IV.(A)  Rationale and benefits of disseminating poverty information via product labels 

Rather than NGOs paying to bring their message to the public, or relying on donated media, CBA’s approach of marketing food products empowers NGOs to disseminate their message to a far wider international audience in a way that actually generates income.   

·   Estimate of the number of products CBA can sell during it’s first year 

During the first 29 months in business, Newman’s Own sold 18,705,555 bottles of salad dressing.[4]  Extrapolating from that figure an average annual sale of 7.7 million items, we can predict first year sales of over 7.7 million for each of the 20-30 CBA products marketed. Accordingly, if CBA decides to market 25 products, the campaign can expect to sell at least 193 million items each year. 

The following additional factors should substantially add to the above base prediction for items sold during the first and subsequent years:

1. The product launch event, promoted by not just one primary celebrity, as with Newman’s Own, but with approximately 25 celebrities, will result in much wider press converge, and proportionately stronger sales. 

2. Newman’s Own operated without a business plan and without paid advertising until 1997 when it hired Tom Indoe, a retired former executive with Del Monte and RJR Nabisco, as its first professional COO. During the subsequent six years, Newman’s Own’s line of salad dressings’ market share increased from 2.1% to 5%.[5]  By operating under a business plan, and devoting a portion of its budget to paid advertising from its onset, CBA can expect similarly larger market shares.

Additional benefits of educating the public on poverty via products and their labels

Along with presenting key facts on poverty to the international public, CBA products and their labels can educate and mobilize public action in many ways including the following: 

  • Events notification
  • “End Global Poverty” bumper stickers enclosed in product boxes
  • School projects
  • Ongoing changes to style and content of the messages
  • Progress reports on poverty reduction
  • 0.7% description and current status

IV.(B)  Financial framework and details of marketing the food products 

Ownership

This section describes options for who would actually market the CBA food products and own the companies. 

Option one would be to follow the example of Newman’s Own, and have each of the celebrities own their company. The celebrities would run their company like Paul Newman does, as an “S” corporation that must pay taxes and donate all of its profit before December 31 of each year. Under this option, the celebrities would each provide the $106,000 (2018 dollars) in startup costs per product. 

Under option two, a group of about 20-30 poverty NGOs would each own a food company, and use their tax-exempt status to earn higher revenues than possible through an S corporation. With this option, the celebrities would lend their name and image to the packaging, take part in the product selection process, and attend the product launch event. Along with the tax benefit, this option would provide the advantage of granting each NGO full control over how its earnings are used. This control would, naturally, enable each NGO to apply those earnings to its own programs. 

Option three would be best for NGOs with very limited finances. Under this option, a group of several NGOs would partner together so that the start-up financing would be affordable to each of them. They would, together, agree on how to divide costs, how profits would be distributed among the group, and how product label space would be apportioned. 

Under Option four, a single NGO would secure the entire financing for the 20-30 food products, and determine exactly how the product profits would be used. 

With all of these options, the campaign would be planned, coordinated and implemented by one central NGO. This organized collaboration would streamline, and save money on, such details as product selection, packaging and label design, and campaign promotion. 

Start-up financing

     In 1982, by forgoing expensive market research, conducting in-house product testing, outsourcing manufacturing and distribution, and using no paid advertising, Newman’s Own launched it’s salad dressing with an investment of $40,000.[6] Using the Newman’s Own model, in 2006 dollars, it costs about $106,000 to market a similar food product.[7] For 25 CBA products, that would represent an investment of $2.6 million. Depending on the CBA leadership’s ability to attract volunteers to help promote the campaign, additional costs should amount to no more than an additional $1 million.

Product selection

     Although Paul Newman personally choose which products to market, it is recommended that an industry professional be consulted to determine;

product quality vs. advertising and promotion influence on product success potential.

which product categories provide the greatest opportunity for new brands.

which products are most easily replicated in price and quality.

Product testing and market research

     Paul Newman, a home gourmet, avoided expensive product testing and market research costs by personally approving the taste and ingredients for each of his products, and by conducting his own in-house product vs. competition taste-testing.[8] Given his success with over forty products, and the results of two surveys indicating a 92% and a 76% public willingness to opt for “profits for cause” products over those of competitors, it is recommended that CBA conduct this phase of the campaign following the Newman’s Own example of minimal market research expenditures. 

Product manufacturing and distribution

     Outsourcing the manufacturing and distribution of the products, as is done by Newman’s Own, is also recommended for CBA products in order to minimize start-up costs. The only suggested shift from the Newman’s Own model would be to, after a period of two to three years, consider forgoing the loyalty Mr. Newman maintained toward his manufacturers, and establish manufacturing plants for CBA products as a way of maximizing profits. 

IV.(C)  Significance and organization of the product launch event 

 It is common knowledge in marketing that products judged by shoppers as inferior in quality to competing products routinely outsell their competitors because of effective advertising and promotion. Following Newman’s Own example, although CBA food products should be processed to insure the highest quality, an effective promotion campaign like the product launch event conducted for Newman’s Own’s salad dressing will ensure that CBA products compete aggressively with the products of food industry giants. 

For their product launch, Newman and Hotchner rented out a small bar in upper Manhattan for one evening, and staged a minor media event.[9]  They invited reporters and camera crews from all of the New York newspapers and from the Associated Press. The event immediately received wide national and international coverage, and within days Newman's Own was inundated with orders from supermarkets like Shopwell, A&P, Stop & Shop and others.[10] By staging a publicity event like the one Newman and Hotchner staged, CBA can bring their line of 20-30 food products into supermarkets throughout the world. 

Celebrity power is the key feature of this promotion.  Paul Newman attracted enough publicity from his small event to sell 7.7 million bottles of salad dressing during the subsequent twelve months. One can easily imagine how much more publicity and sales 20-30 celebrities would generate for CBA products from a larger event launching 20-30 food products. 

IV.(D)  Importance of the 0.7% pledge 

Background on the 0.7 percent pledge

In 1970, the world’s 22 richest countries, as classified by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), concluded that to end extreme poverty would require annual donations amounting to 0.7% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in Official Development Assistance (ODA), to the world’s poorest countries. 0.7 percent of the rich countries’ GDP represents a very small sum to these countries; if these 22 richest countries were an individual earning $50,000 annually, 0.7% of their income would amount to only $350. As of 2005, the world’s rich countries had been contributing, on average, 0.33 of their GDP, or less than one half of the pledged amount, and the U.S. has been the most delinquent with an annual contribution of only 0.22% of its GDP.[11] In 2017, the pledge was met by six countries - Britain, Denmark, The Netherlands, Luxemburg and Sweden.

The world’s richest countries have more than enough annual income to, without the slightest “felt” sacrifice, completely meet the 0.7% pledge. The 0.7% pledge has not been met during the last 37 years because citizens of those countries have not been mobilized to demand that their leaders fulfill the commitment. Such mobilization has not yet taken place because virtually the entire the public is unaware of the pledge, and its importance to ending extreme poverty.

Effects of mobilization around 0.7

As the public learns how insignificant a sum 0.7% of the rich countries’ GDP is, they will be shocked and outraged that their leaders have, for over three decades, been so negligent in fulfilling their government’s pledge. This reaction can be mobilized into a public outcry that the 22 richest countries speedily and completely honor the 0.7% pledge. 

As a strategy for ending extreme poverty, mobilizing the public to demand fulfillment of the 0.7% pledge offers a huge reward.  Were this pledge fully met, ODA from rich countries would increase from 0.33% of GDP, equaling $49 billion, to the full 0.7% of GDP amount equaling $105 billion.[12] 

IV.(E)  Benefits from the promotion of the CBA Campaign 

In recent years, the focus among some NGOs has shifted from soliciting contributions to mobilizing public pressure on governments of rich countries to allocate additional funding to the poorest countries. The international network of poverty NGOs could provide CBA products continuing and cost-free promotion at minimal cost through the solicitations NGOs routinely mail to prospective donors. NGOs could, for example, include in their mailings wallet cards listing CBA’s 20-30 food products as shopping reminders. As NGOs find a substantial correlation between CBA products promoting their organizations and increases in public contributions, these NGOs will actively promote CBA, and encourage the marketing of food products beyond the initial 25-30.  

V.  PRODUCT MARKETING DETAILS AND PROFIT – SALES PROJECTIONS 

Because each specific market is unique, different CBA food products would succeed to varying degrees against competitors. Using Newman’s Own’s first product, salad dressing, as an example reveals how strongly CBA products can be expected to sell.  

V.(A)  Example – Newman’s Own salad dressing 

In 1982, with a total investment of $40,000, Newman’s Own introduced its first product, salad dressing. Commanding less than 1% of a market worth $600 million, it earned $3,204,335 in gross sales during its first year.[13] By outsourcing manufacturing and distribution, and forgoing paid advertising, Newman’s Own’s dressing earned an after-tax profit of $397,000 during that year.[14] This profit, amounting to 12.5% of gross sales, is about five times the food industry profit standard of 3.4% of pre-tax sales.[15] 

V.(B)  Projection – CBA’s salad dressing

Using the Newman’s Own model, it would cost $106,000 in 2018 dollars to market a salad dressing. If this dressing commanded 0.5% of the current market worth $3 billion, it would earn $15 million in gross sales. Using the Newman’s Own manufacturing, distribution and promotion model, CBA’s product would earn a before-tax profit of $1,875,000 at 12.5% of gross sales, or a before-tax profit of $510,000 at the industry profit standard of 3.4% of gross sales during its first year.  

If each of  the 25 food CBA food products marketed earned a 0.5% share of product markets with annual sales of $15 million, their combined gross sales would amount to $375 million.   Before-tax earnings for the 25 products would amount to $45 million using a 12.5% of gross sales profit margin, and $12.7 million using a 3.4% of gross sales profit margin. These figures highlight that even with a marginal market share of 0.5%, (as contrasted with the 92% and 76% market share potentials suggested by the shopper surveys) the 25 CBA food products could be marketed at virtually no financial risk. 

V.C  Food Product Markets 

The following list of food products, taken from  Market Share Reporter,[16]  presents annual U.S. sales figures on various specific foods during the years 2003-04, and lends further insight into how much profit various CBA products could earn each year: 

Food Product Sales in Billions of Dollars Year Ending
Spaghetti/Marinara Sauces      1.34 2003
Milk    10.45 2004
Breakfast cereals  513.00
Fruit Beverages    21.39
Juices and Drinks, refrigerated      3.81
Lunch Meat      3.30
Breakfast Meat      2.96
Cookies      4.50
Yogurt      2.68
Seasonal Candy      6.30
Frozen Pizza      2.54
Frozen Dinners      1.13

 V.4  Representative Products

            Below are sample designs depicting the back label and front labels of a potential CBA product. These design samples suggest that CBA products are ideal vehicles for communicating important information about poverty, and how it can be ended. To view the labels at full size, please double click on the titles or the products.

Please note that use of the names and images of the celebrities in the product design examples depicted below does not assert or imply any endorsement of Celebrity Buy Aid or of Profit-Donation Capitalism by the celebrities whose names and images are used, nor does it assert or imply any association between the author of the Profit-Donation Capitalism site and any of the celebrities.  The product labels depicted are for example only.  They do not exist outside of these examples, and are not being produced or sold to consumers anywhere.

Please click on the titles to view the designs in full size.

 Product back label with poverty information    Bono’s Frozen Fish and Chips Dinner      

       

  Click on this photo for an enlargement

 Oprah’s Raisin Oatmeal Cookies               Sandra Bullock’s Frozen Kentucky Fried Chicken

       

 

 Angelina Jolie’s Toasty O’s Cereal            Brad Pitt’s Frozen Pizza

                   

 

 Madonna’s Frozen Lasagna                                      Cameron Diaz’s Frozen French Fries

          

 Note: While the celebrities and foods chosen for these examples were determined according to criteria presented in the table below, a more comprehensive analysis of market factors should be used to select the actual CBA endorsers and products. 

Celebrity Ranking on Forbes’ Top 100 Celebrities[17] Ranking on Forbes’ 10 Most Generous Celebrities[18] Work with the ONE Campaign[19] Favorite Food
Bono   1 Founder Fish and Chips
Oprah 3 10   Oat Meal Cookies
Angelina Jolie 35 6 Endorser Cheerios
Sandra Bullock   2   Kentucky Fried Chicken
Madonna     Endorser Pasta with Meat Sauce
Brad Pitt 20   Endorser Pizza
Cameron Diaz 70   Endorser French Fries

Following is a representative list of potentially superior choices for CBA products in that they are packaged in boxes that provide ample space for displaying detailed information about poverty: 

Food Product Size Food Product Size
Non-Fat Dry Milk 10-20 oz Shake and Bake 5.5 oz
Breakfast Cereal 1-1.5 lb Cookie Mix 14-20 oz
Pasta (Manicotti, Ziti, etc.) 1-3 lb Taco Kit 10-14oz
Rice (Regular and Instant) 8-48 oz Instant Oat Meal/Farina/Grits 10-16oz
Milk Qt and Gal Dog Biscuits 24 oz
Bread Mix 1 lb Cat Food (Dry) 18 oz
Mashed Potatoes 7-28 oz Beer Carton (12-24 pack) 12 fl oz
Macaroni & Cheese Dinner 6-12 oz Sugar 1 lb
Cereal for Babies 8 oz Matzos 10 oz
       
Hamburger/Chicken Helper 6-8 oz Frozen Pie 32 oz
Cookies and Crackers 12-24 oz Frozen Cake 19 oz
Pancake Mix 40 oz Frozen Pizza 1.5-2 lb
Cereal Bars 10 oz Frozen Garlic Toast 9-12 oz
Fruit Drinks (10 pack) 64 fl oz Frozen Chicken Breasts 12 oz
Raisins and Prunes 12 oz Frozen Fish Sticks 12 oz
Melba Toast 5 oz Frozen Beef Patties 32 oz – 3 lb
Cake Mix 2 lb Frozen Waffles 20 oz
Juice and Drink Carton 64 oz Frozen French Toast 13 oz
Chicken/Beef Broth 32 oz Frozen Dinner 9-16 oz
Soda  Carton (12 pack) 12 fl oz Frozen Salisbury Steak 32 oz
Toaster Pastry 14-22 oz Frozen Lasagna 2-6 lb

 V.5  Results 

To appreciate the powerful promise CBA holds in mobilizing citizen action on global poverty, one can imagine the press and TV coverage that would follow CBA’s ambitious “celebrity-powered” food product marketing campaign. As CBA product labels educate shoppers about poverty and the 0.7% pledge, citizens could be mobilized around a strongly focused message that political leaders would be hard-pressed to deny or oppose.  

VI.  THE CAMPAIGN BY STEPS 

            The CBA campaign’s organizational structure is not complex. CBA can be conducted through a series of steps that are routinely implemented within both product marketing and social cause promotion fields. To appreciate the simplicity and promise of the product marketing component, one can consider the following: Using a $40,000 investment, actor Paul Newman and his neighbor, author A.E. Hotchner, two individuals with absolutely no food marketing experience, created Newman’s Own with a line of over 40 products, and created the division “Newman’s Own Organics,” that now markets over 70 products. 

The first step in creating CBA is for you to disseminate this proposal to your NGO’s staff. If you decide to formally advance CBA, your next step would be to have someone, preferably your executive director, disseminate this proposal to individuals and NGOs you believe are capable of organizing the campaign. It would be in your interest to follow though and stay apprised of what group ultimately decides to lead the campaign so that your organization is appropriately promoted through CBA product labels and your organization receives an appropriate portion of CBA profits. 

VI.1  Determining CBA’s financial structure 

Once an organization, or group of individuals, has decided to lead CBA, its first step should be to determine the financial structure of the campaign, as described in section IV.2. - The financial framework

VI.2  Recruiting the celebrities 

After developing the working plan for CBA, the leadership should begin recruiting the 20-30 celebrities. At this point, only their tentative, conditional, participation is required. Celebrities can firm up their commitment when they know which product each will be endorsing, which other celebrities will be participating, and other details of the campaign. Celebrity recruitment is an important initial step that will facilitate subsequent phases of the campaign, such as financing, manufacturing, and promotion. 

VI.3  Notifying poverty NGOs 

The CBA leadership should then contact the network of poverty NGOs, and begin establishing a coalition of NGOs to provide ancillary support to the campaign. This coalition will be especially helpful in promoting CBA prior to and following the product launch.

VI.4  Financing CBA

With the backing of the over 20 celebrities who will publicly represent CBA, the CBA leadership would then secure financing for the campaign. As noted in the IV.2 section - Start-up financing, by using the Newman’s Own model, marketing the 25 food products will cost no more than $3 million, with up to an additional $1 million required for organizational costs. 

VI.5  Product selection 

The CBA leadership’s next step is to recruit a food industry professional to help determine which food products can be manufactured and marketed most successfully. When potential CBA products have been narrowed down to about 75, the celebrities can choose, and/or be assigned,  which CBA product will display their name and image.   

VI.6  Poverty messages determination 

While product selection is underway, the CBA leadership, working with the coalition of NGOs who have been recruited to support the campaign, would decide on the nature of the poverty information to be displayed on product labels.   

VI.7  Product manufacturing and distribution 

The next step is for the CBA campaign to, with advice from the food industry professional, contract with the manufacturing plants that will make the products and the food brokerage firm that will handle product sales and distribution.    

VI.8  Product label design 

Artists would then be recruited to design the “Celebrity Buy Aid” brand labels, and the packaging for each product, featuring the celebrities’ names and likenesses, and the poverty information. The campaign’s brand name, “Celebrity Buy Aid” will, of course, appear on all product labels. 

VI.9  Product recipes and testing 

The CBA leadership would then assemble the gourmets who would, working with personnel from the manufacturing plant(s), create the recipes. The leadership would next bring together a group of culinary experts like chefs and food critics to approve the taste and ingredients for each product. As this group creates the final recipe for each product, the CBA leadership would, following the Newman’s Own model, assemble an in-house taste testing group comprised of ordinary shoppers that will compare the CBA products with the products they will compete against on supermarket shelves. Efforts should be made to create CBA products that are judged as better tasting than at least two-thirds of the competition. 

VI.10  Pre-product launch publicity 

Next, the CBA leadership would develop and implement a pre-product launch publicity campaign for CBA. Assisted by the network of poverty NGOs, this phase will kick-start the international public’s expectation of buying CBA food products as a cost-free way to help end global poverty. This phase would be conducted through press releases, web promotion, and celebrity interviews.   

VI.11  Product launch event 

Planning the product launch event should begin immediately after recruiting the celebrities.  Celebrities’ calendars are often booked months in advance, and the sooner a date for the CBA product launch event is set, the easier it will be to ensure maximum celebrity attendance. The event would be staged as a single press conference.

VI.12  Product launch follow up 

Soon after the CBA product launch event is staged, the campaign’s level of success will begin to become clearly evident vis-à-vis product sales. Several weeks following the event, the CBA leadership would issue press releases and stage a second formal press conference. By reporting the sales success of CBA products, and confirming for the public, the poverty NGOs, and the celebrities how shoppers throughout the world are helping to end extreme poverty though buying CBA products, post-campaign publicity can fuel CBA product sales. 

During this phase, it is important to inform the public that the principle aim of CBA has been to raise public awareness of how little it would cost the world’s richest countries to end extreme poverty through fully meeting the 0.7% pledge. It is important to highlight that while CBA products offer shoppers a cost-free way to help end poverty, CBA product profits would fall far short of the billions of dollars each year that is required to end extreme poverty. 

Several months after the product launch, the CBA leadership can consider the prospect of launching additional CBA products endorsed by the same, or other, celebrities. 

VII. KEY CONCEPTS AND CAMPAIGN SUMMARY 

In 1970, the world community concluded that ending extreme poverty required an annual donation by the 22 richest countries equaling 0.7% of their GDP, and set a target date of 1975 for this goal.[20] Although these rich countries have more than ample funds to end extreme poverty, the political leaders of the richest countries continue to default on their government’s promise, and currently appropriate less than half of the 0.7% commitment each year. 

These political leaders will not meet their country’s 0.7% pledge, or institute urgently needed trade reform and debt relief, until the voting public strongly demands this action. Citizens cannot demand greater action from their government on extreme poverty while they harbor several powerful myths, including the following two fundamental economic myths, regarding the issue:

A.  Ending extreme poverty is far too expensive.

B.  The U.S. and other rich countries have been extraordinarily generous in their assistance to poor countries over the last three decades.[21]

The 0.7% pledge is an especially effective public mobilization strategy in that it refutes the above myths through a single message. As the public also becomes aware that 29,000 children die each day from poverty, and understands how little it would cost the 22 richest countries to save those lives, citizens can be expected to increasingly demand that their political leaders finally honor their government’s 0.7% pledge.

CBA recognizes product labels as a poverty information delivery vehicle that is not only cost-free to poverty NGOs, but can generate substantial revenues for funding the war on poverty. The CBA campaign is modeled after Paul Newman’s hugely successful company, Newman’s Own, that marketed its first product in 1982 with an investment of $40,000, and has, to date, donated all $500+ million of its after-tax profit to thousands of charities. CBA understands the tremendous boost that celebrity endorsements can provide CBA food products, and recommends that the campaign recruit 20-30 celebrities to each represent a CBA product.

 Two surveys strongly suggest that if shoppers are offered food products whose profit is used to help end poverty, a great many would opt to buy these products. CBA can be conducted as an essentially risk-free campaign from both financial and public relations standpoints. As per the Newman’s Own model, the CBA product launch event, attended by the 20-30 celebrities, will attract massive international press coverage that will ensure robust sales for the entire line of CBA products. It is estimated that no more than five million dollars will be needed to market and promote the line of 20-30 CBA food products, and that this sum can be recouped from sales within six months of the product launch event.[22]


References:


[1] UN General Assembly Resolution 2626 (XXV), October 24, 1970, para. 43
 
[3] “The Soul Brand,” Reveries (March 1999); http://www.reveries.com/reverb/cause_marketing/indoe/index.html, next to last para.
 
[4] Paul L. Newman and Alex E. Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple (Doubleday Publishing, New York, 2003), p. 204.
 
[5] Jon Gertner, “Newman’s Own: Two Friends and a Canoe Paddle,” New York Times, November 16, 2003, sec. 3., p. 4.
 
[6] Newman and Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation, pp. 47-49.
 
[7] Based on The Consumer Price Index (See https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm).
 
[8] Newman and Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation, p. 33
 
[9] Ibid., p. 53.
 
[10] Ibid., p. 59.
 
[11]Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Aid flows top USD 100 billion in 2005,” Development Co-operation Directorate (DAC), (See http://www.oecd.org/document/40/0,2340,en_2649_33721_36418344_1_1_1_1,00.html).
 
[12] Extrapolation from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
 
[13] Newman and Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation, p. 97.
 
[14] Ibid. (Note: This figure may be low; on p. 204, first year profit is reported as $920,000).
 
[15] “Newman’s Own, Inc.” International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 37. St. James Press, 2001.  Reproduced in Business and Company Resource Center. Farmington Hills; Mich.,: Gale Group. 2006.
 
[16] Market Share Reporter: An Annual Compilation of Reported Market Share Data on Companies, Products, and Services (Detroit: Gale Research Inc. Annual, 2006).
 
[17] “The Celebrity 100,” Forbes, Jun 16, 2006; ed. Lea Goldman and Kiri Blakeley  http://www.forbes.com/2006/06/12/06celebrities_money-power-celebrities-list_land.html 
 
[18] Mmoma Ejiofor, “Generous Celebs,”  Forbes, May 05, 2006; http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2006/05/04/celebrity_charity_giving_cx_me_0505feat_ls.html
 
[20] UN General Assembly Resolution 2626 (XXV), October 24, 1970, para. 43

[21] “Americans on Foreign Aid and World Hunger,” World Public Opinion .Org,  (February 02, 2001), (See http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btdevelopmentaidra/135.php?nid=&id=&pnt=135&lb=btda)
 

[22] Newman and Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation, p. 49.