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According to Harvard Business Review bloggers William Rosen and Laurence Minsky,

“A powerful confluence of challenging economic conditions and emerging digital platforms is driving a substantial shift in the marketing world. While the economic environment is forcing marketing decision makers to focus more on ROI, digital platforms from social media to mobile are enabling more personalized and trackable marketing communications.

To adapt to the changing landscape, what’s needed is a shift from building brands to "activating" them — from simply projecting what a brand is to optimizing what a brand does in order to move people closer to transaction. This is the Activation Imperative."

best practice: - n: the recognized methods of correctly running businesses or providing services

The key to establishing best practices in a cause marketing partnership is to infuse the concept of BALANCE. We've heard terms like "win-win" used over and over in our industry. While that concept is a vital component of successful cause marketing, the type of BALANCE I'm suggesting is this: 

Build strong relationships 
Activation is key
Leverage assets
Acknowledge efforts
Norms and measurement
Communicate
Evolve

In our first two posts on this issue, I covered the importance of Building strong partnerships. Activation and Leveraging Assets for Cause Partnership success. This post will illustrate best practices related to Acknowledgement and Norms and measurement. 

best practice: — n: the recognized methods of correctly running businesses or providing services

The key to establishing best practices in a cause marketing partnership is to infuse the concept of BALANCE.  We've heard terms like "win-win" used over and over in our industry. While that concept is a vital component of successful cause marketing, the type of BALANCE I'm suggesting is this: