Consumer Behaviour Case Study

Bono's 'Red Brand': Targeting 'Conscience Consumers'

OR

Abstract:
For many years, governments and many non-governmental organisations have been providing financial assistance for the eradication of AIDS epidemic in Africa. However, initiatives to fight AIDS in Africa have always suffered from inadequacy of funds. On January 26th 2006, Bono, the lead singer of the Rock Band U2, announced a new brand called 'Red' to rope in the private sector for the first time in the fight against AIDS in Africa. American Express, Gap Inc, Converse and Giorgio Armani are the four private companies, which have already pledged contributions derived from the sale of their Red branded products to help Africa's AIDS victims.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To help understand how public-private-partnerships can be modeled to support a social cause
• To highlight how the private companies involved in this initiative are going to be benefited
• To offer scope to discuss the viability of the initiative, which although being humanitarian in nature has a profit motive at its core.

Keywords : Public-Private Partnership Case Study, Corporate social responsibility, Giorgio Armani, Gap Inc, Brand image, American Express, Business ethics, Converse, Marketing strategy, Advertising, Word-of-mouth advertising, Brand building

Contents:

• Bono and the Red Brand
• "Conscience Consumers and "Corporate Social Responsibility"