As the mass consumer market splinters into smaller and smaller niches, a concept known as "cause-driven" marketing is becoming more important, especially in trendy San Francisco where it seems that everyone has a special "cause." 

These can range from the environment - buy a bottle of Sequoia Grove wine and the owners will donate money to various green causes - to AIDS research, such as Tanqueray's annual fund-raising California bicycle ride.

Being the kind of guy I am, I wondered if there might not be a certain amount of  cynicism involved. Was business getting behind a particular cause because they really cared or was it just a ploy to sell more gin or Chardormay. I put that question to Vivien Gay, a co-founder and partner in a two-year-old San Francisco marketing company called The Isosceles Group. Isosceles was the first full service agency in the US to help companies position products for the gay and lesbian market and has had particular success with wine. 

"Absolutely not cynical," she said in answer to my question. "It just wouldn't work if it didn't have integrity." Gay cited one of the most successful campaigns run by her company, the Clos Du Bois "Names Project" that supports AIDS benefit causes. "The people involved at Clos Du Bois really care and they have instilled that passion in the industry, especial[y in restaurants."

Clos Du Bois donates $6 per case when a restaurant buys the winery's Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvingnon or Chardonnay. "That kind of cause-related marketing is really under utilised by large companies and agencies," said Gay.

On the other hand, it has worked very well with wine and spirits companies, especially in the gay and lesbian community.  pioneering work was done by spirits companies, notably Absolut, Skyy and Stolichnaya vodka and Tanqueray.

All have advertised heavily in gay and lesbian publications. It took wine a little time to catch on and wine still lags spirits in cause related market but according to Gay, there is a growing awareness in the wine industry that the gay and lesbian consumer is worth a special effort. Why? 

• 21% have household income over $100,000, about three times the national average, and another 28% have over $50,000.
• 88% will go out of there way to purchase products advertised in gay publications.
• 84% order drinks by brand names.
• 50% hold management positions.   

Abundance Winery, a California North Coast negociant operation has one of the most innovative cause marketing projects. on each bottle of Abundance Central Coast Chardonay and California Sangiovese is a peel-off certificate that consumers can fill out and send to the cause of their choice. It can be the local school, homeless shelters, even struggling theater or music groups. The organisation then sends the certificates to the winery and gets a dollar back for every certificate. A kind of "your cause is my cause" marketing that has worked very well for the small winery.

Other causes are more specific, such as Sequoia Grove's programme of contributing a dollar to the National Parks Conservation Association for every cork sent back to the winery. Viansa Winery in Sonoma County worked with a hunters-conservation group called Ducks Unlimited to create a wetland on a flood plain at the winery which has turned into a major tourist stop. And some of those tourists buy wine.

Cause-related marketing is similar in some respects to the kind of niche marketing that, for example, Cognac producers have used for years to attract Afro-American consumers, with the big difference being that when Remy-Martin pitches an ad campaign at black media, the company's only "cause" is to sell more cognac, not save whales or redwood trees.

Of course, Clos Du Bois, for example, is also trying to sell more wine, you can be sure of that, but along the way some money is going for a "cause" - AIDS research - that might not have gone there without Clos Du Bois. And I suppose that best answers my question about the motives of those involved in cause-driven marketing. Every little bit helps, right?

Larry Walker 

Larry Walker is a freelance drinks writer  based in California