Attention, Sports Authority shoppers: Don’t mind those kindergartners doing jumping jacks in front of the treadmill display. They’re on a field trip.
In water sports, Batchelor asks the kids if they’ve ever been on a boat or gone water-skiing. He tells them it’s important to wear a flotation device at all times in these situations, then bends down to strap a child into a bright orange life vest.
They move on to backpacks. Batchelor asks, “How many of you own a backpack?” Most of the children raise their hands. He tells them their packs should contain no more than 10 percent of their body weight. In the camping department Batchelor discovers that few of the kids own a fishing rod, sleeping bag, or tent but assures them, “We’ve got all the stuff for a good camping experience!”
In 1993 Singer left a six-figure job with Frankel, a leading brand-strategy firm. A two-decade veteran of the marketing industry, she had consulted for McDonald’s, Quaker Oats, ConAgra, Alberto Culver, and FTD, among others. But what she wanted to do now was develop a product or service that would “help corporations find a way to give back to their communities.”
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Setting up shop at a desk in the hallway off the kitchen of her Lakeview home and calling herself the Chicago Promotion Group, Singer spent four years working on freelance marketing projects, many of which were based on the cause-marketing principles she’d specialized in at Frankel. Cause marketing, also known as cause-related marketing, is a “strategic positioning and marketing tool that links a company or brand to a relevant social cause or issue, for mutual benefit,” according to the Cause Marketing Forum, an industry resource Web site.
“In the Lawndale instance, the Be a Smart Shopper! program is a nice opportunity that some of the children may not otherwise get,” he says. That Dominick’s–along with a Walgreens, a Cineplex Odeon, and a smattering of smaller retailers–is in the Lawndale Plaza shopping center, at Roosevelt and Kedzie, which opened in March 1999 as part of a tax increment financing initiative.
Singer’s success with Be a Smart Shopper! paved the way for Things You Auto Know, where children were walked through Saturn dealerships for the purpose of teaching safe driving principles; the Medical Mystery Tour, in which doctors at the University of Chicago hospital imparted basic health info; and Million Dollar Kids, which shuttled students to banks and brokerage firms to learn math and money management.
