WhatsApp and millenials - 'Cause'-marketing and its effect

Social relevance and cause championship are the new buzzwords for brands, especially of greater importance  while trying to win over millennials.

Championing social causes has become a compulsory part of marketing to keep brands relevant and even ahead of the competition. Owning a 'social space' is as important as owning a 'mind-space' for a holistic marketing plan.

Millenials are quick to recognize this aspect about brands and are more likely to accept, own and flaunt brands which put them at the forefront of social causes.

Obviously, brands that have millenials as their major and strongest customers as well as critics, are doing everything to remain ahead of the curved and be the favourites of their TG.

WhatsApp, now owned by Facebook, recently revamped their emoji offerings for chat, with a host of new options, taking a lead on the matter of equality in races and sexual orientation. Recently it added options to choose from a fixed set of colours of skin for certain emojis, hence taking a race neutral stand, substituting the 'white-only' option they had earlier. This was hailed as a remarkable step and was much talked about. The move, which may have appeared as a small step initially, invoked a wider debate and sensitized the issue of colour and segregation based on it. Millenials loved the move and appreciated WhatsApp for its bold initiative.


 Soon after, WhatsApp has gone ahead and added emojis with same sex couples, with and without children. This is another bold move especially at a time when the matter of LGBT rights has gained much attention. WhatsApp's recognition of this community's rights in a billion people's group by placing these new emojis along with the earlier ones, asserts it's support for the community.

Millenials have embraced this move with great spirits and have shown their love for WhatsApp on various online portals. WhatsApp, with this small but bold step has managed to be ahead of the curve in terms of association with the social cause of fighting for equality irrespective of race, colour and sexual orientation.

Millenials love to flaunt their association but it is rarely mindless. The method behind this madness is a mix of contrasts - self-indulgence balanced with joy of 'giving back', brand loyalty meshed with curiosity for newer brands, ambitious yet conscience-driven goals and most of all, openness to new ideas while having beliefs and opinions of self.

Brands generally need to solve these complex contrasting equations in order to strike a chord with millenials, but social cause championing is one of the reliable methods to break clutter and be their BFF. WhatsApp has achieved it wonderfully with its subtle yet strong move to assert it's support for equality.