This winter, Mazda introduced a Drive4Good campaign. Like Subaru's "Share the Love" event, Mazda is allowing buyers of new Mazdas to select a charity from a list of four national organizations (Saint Jude Children's Hospital, The American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, the Mazda Foundation, and selected local organizations.
(Aside: Mazda is missing the animal lover target market with their nationwide list since they haven't selected an animal-related organization, and three of the four organizations are not on the PCRM Humane Seal list of charities that refrain from engaging in or funding animal testing. In fact, this list makes me personally less likely to be interested in Mazda cars.)
A unique aspect of the Drive4Good campaign is that for each test drive taken during November 25, 2013 through January 2, 2014, Mazda pledges an hour of volunteer time by dealers or employees.
To engage consumers, Mazda is promoting the #MazdaDrive4Good hashtag for social media sites. So far, almost $60,000 has been donated and almost 40,000 volunteer hours pledged for 2014. It will be interesting to how having a quota of volunteer hours determined by consumer test drives will change the implications of volunteering. If employees feel pressured to volunteer because of a sales promotion, it will likely create negative feelings and reduced meaningfulness. However, if the volunteer hours were going to be completed anyway, the employees would not feel any additional pressure, though the pledge itself might be hollow. So far, I can't find information on the administration of the program, but I will keep my eye out in 2014 for news.
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