May 28, 2008 - Major companies including Haagen Dazs, Sears, and Proctor & Gamble continue to expand their cause marketing efforts, suggesting that the programs are paying off as well or better than other promotional efforts, Advertising Age reports.

In particular, companies have begun embracing causes that relate directly to their business interests. Haagen Dazs, for example, has hitched its cause-marketing wagon to the plight of the now-endangered honey bee. Why? Seventy-three of the ice cream maker's flavors include ingredients that rely on bee pollination.

"From a brand perspective, it was important to take on a cause that was integrally linked to who we are," according to Haagen Dazs brand director Katty Pien. "We didn't want to be another brand profiting from the latest cause of the day."

Housewares giant Sears, which has championed a number of causes over the years, recently launched its Heroes at Home program to help military families remodel their homes. Thanks in part to a high-profile media deal with ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," the program has generated upward of $4 million in its first year.

Even McDonald's 25-year-old Ronald McDonald House Charities - arguably the granddaddy of cause marketing campaigns - ties into the company's current branding efforts. "We look for our partnership to better tell our story about how we really care about kids," says Heather Oldani, director of communications at McDonald's USA.

In general, the returns on cause marketing efforts are notoriously hard to quantify because such programs are usually long-running and often depend on untrackable media such as PTA flyers to spread the word. (On the other hand, some analysts point out, cause-related campaigns typically require less of an investment - increasing the likelihood that the programs will pay off.)

Yet despite the lack of hard numbers, industry analysts suspect that cause marketing efforts may yield a higher ROI than conventional campaigns because consumers tend to develop a long-term emotional connection with the brand.

Jim Stengel, global marketing officer at Proctor and Gamble, agrees. "When you do it in the right way, with the right tone and the right authenticity, consumers reward us for it," he says.