Alex and Ani |The life is good kids foundation

Kim Button

august 29, 2016

Alex and Ani is a jewelry

company that designs,

manufacturers and sells jewelry

for women (necklaces, bracelets

and rings) as well as other

accessories with the female

consumer in mind (totes, clutches,

scarves, lotions and soaps). It’s core product is the bangle bracelet that features charms

that “represent everything from family connections and favorite sports teams to pretty

flowers and seasonal designs” (Viveiros, 2014). Based in Cranston, Rhode Island, the

company was founded in 2004 by Carolyn Rafaelian, the daughter of a jewelry factory

owner. The company operates more than 65 stores across the US and has sales in

excess of $500 million per year. The fast-growing company focuses on affordable

jewelry for a young, female audience.

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Alex and Ani is a self-proclaimed lifestyle company. It brands itself as a

passionate and holistic company that cares about humanity and sells jewelry that helps

fill its mission to care for the

wellbeing of those who buy its

products. Its company ethos

demonstrates its corporate

vision to do more than just

design pretty jewelry, it wants to

“connect humanity”. Alex and Ani share the company ethos on its website (see above).

The company claims that its products are “infused with positive energy”, the

energy referred to as “chi” and “prana” by the ancients or as “vital force” by modern

science (“Our story”, n.d.). Therefore, Alex and Ani have adopted positive energy as its

“core company belief” and embrace “a unique business model that incorporates

corporate consciousness in all directives” (“Our Story”, n.d.). This “corporate

consciousness” has led to Alex and Ani’s commitment to various causes through the

CSR arm of its company, CHARITY BY DESIGN.

CHARITY BY DESIGN was introduced in 2011. Its goal was to partner with

charities that “promote empowerment, sustainability, wellness, creativity and action”

(Sachon, 2016). For each charity, Alex and Ani designs a custom charm related to the

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charity and donates 20% of the sales of that charm to the charity. It made sense to start

with a charity close to home, so Alex and Ani’s first charm design was crafted for the

Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Rhode Island. Since then, the company has repeated this

effort for the Life is Good Kids Foundation, the Florida Hospital Foundation, UNICEF,

the East Bay Food Pantry, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Living Water International, the

Alzheimer’s Association, the American Stroke Association, the Children’s Miracle

Network, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the Breast Cancer Research

Foundation and many more. In fact, the program has contributed to 44 charities

worldwide since its inception and has raised $30 million dollars for said organizations

(Sachon, 2016).

One of CHARITY BY DESIGN’s causes is the Life is Good Kids Foundation.

This organization seeks to “support the men &

women who dedicate their careers to helping

children heal from the devastating impact of early

childhood trauma” (“What we do”, n.d.). According to

their website, Life is Good provides personal and

professional development resources to childcare professionals. It claims to have helped

over 5,000 professionals including “teachers, social workers, counselors, child life

specialists and other youth workers” (“What we do”, n.d.). Alex and Ani designed four

charm bangles for the cause: Simplify, Life is Good, Listen to Your Heart and Fear Less.

The Life is Good | Alex

and Ani campaign kicked off in

June of this year and will run

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until December. Alex and Ani will donate 20% of the purchase price from each charm

bangle sold to the Life is Good Kids Foundation, with a minimum donation of $25,000.

In addition to the goal of raising money for the foundation, Alex and Ani hope to align

their positivity-focused brand with a charity that also seeks positivity. According to a

press release from Life is Good, the charms denote characteristics like, “trust, love,

devotion, strength, joy, optimism, and bravery” (“Launch exclusive collection”, 2016).

Alex and Ani note that the Life is Good Kids Foundation is one that “helps childcare

professionals use the power of optimism to build healing, life-changing relationships

with the children in their care” (Maglione, 2016). Steve Gross, the Chief Playmaker of

the Life is Good Kids Foundation confirmed that Alex and Ani was a “like-minded”

partner (“Launch exclusive collection”, 2016).

By partnering with Life is Good, Alex and Ani hope to reach an audience with

whom its products will resonate. In terms of psychographics, both organizations hope

to appeal to nurturers, social activists, life-changers, givers, etc. There are a wide-

range of people who would consider themselves citizen philanthropists and would

support the Life is Good and Alex and Ani’s social agendas. The demographic,

however, is primarily female. The jeweler is female-centric, having products that appeal

primarily to millennial women (Bonifacino, 2013). Viveiros (2014) writes, “Are you a

woman? Do you have any women in your life? Do they have wrists? If you answered

yes to any of these questions, you’re in Alex and Ani’s target audience”. This target

aligns with the Life is Good Kids Foundation audience because, according to Fishi

(2013), “women constitute 81.6% of social workers, 69.9% of counselors, and 82.4% of

social and human service assistants”.

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While Alex and Ani are remaining authentic to their corporate vision of making

the world a “better place” (“CHARITY BY DESIGN”, n.d.), the campaigns they run are

contributing significantly to their bottom line. The Cause Marketing Forum (2014) notes,

“As the largest source of organic new customer acquisition for Alex and Ani, CHARITY

BY DESIGN supporters purchase, on average, three times the charitable product

amount.” Kotler, Hessekiel & Lee (2012) note that incremental sales from a campaign

can make a significant financial impact (p. 89).

Alex and Ani is still a

privately-held company

waiting for an IPO, so the

company does not always

reveal the amount generated

for their partners at the

conclusion of their

campaigns. Though

partnering with like-minded

organizations allows Alex and Ani to expand its audience and to draw customers from

other organizations’ pool of supporters, Alex and Ani does this a little differently than

most other organizations. Kotler, Hessekiel & Lee (2012) write that “corporations

generally prefer to align themselves with issues that have many supporters” (p. 84).

While some companies tend to throw all their eggs in one basket (i.e. Yoplait as the

national presenting sponsor of the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure), Alex and Ani

has a decidedly different approach. Its goal has been to support niche causes that

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allows it to cast many nets to groups with similar values rather than one large net to a

singular group. This image (right) is is a glimpse of just a few of their niche partners.

Zmuda (2010) says “hitting a myriad of causes” is a “spray-and-pray mentality” that

increases the possibility of “aligning with a bad actor”. Fortunately for Alex and Ani, so

far that has not been the case.

While Alex and Ani have

made significant financial

contributions to their partner

organizations, behavior change

has not been a targeted goal of

their efforts, and this is true for the

Life is Good | Alex and Ani

partnership. In some cases, Alex

and Ani associates have volunteered for a sponsored cause (especially causes that are

geographically close-to-home through its employee engagement program). Alex and

Ani does a great job of doing a launch event of each campaign. For instance, at the

inception of the Life is Good campaign, Alex and Ani hosted a “Charmed Night Out”

launch event with “live music by Ripe, plenty of sweet and savory treats, and special

appearances” (Paige, 2016). It also usually does a very short, low information blog post

related to its partner cause. For instance, the blog post it did on Life is Good mentioned

the organization, related it to positivity (i.e. life isn’t easy, but life is good, always look on

the bright side), and posted a 7-question survey so readers could uncover their “bright

side” story (Maglione, 2016). But the hands-on, push-for-change, boots-on-the-ground

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type work, for the most part, seems to end there. And though the Alex and Ani website

and stores feature the CHARITY BY DESIGN jewelry, there is little by way of

information about the cause or call-to-action directed at customers. Because of the

breadth of causes that Alex and Ani supports, the company may feel it is impossible to

narrowly focus on specific societal behavior change.

Alex and Ani is perfectly positioned to take their cause marketing to the next

level. Given the resources at its disposal, the brand positioning around causes and the

audience who appreciate the company’s commitment to social causes, the company

could not only support causes financially but could be a real instrument for social

change. Cynics might point to Alex and Ani’s lack of cause promotion for social change

in programs like the Life is Good Kids Foundation and conclude that Alex and Ani is

only lightly committed. After all, doubting Thomas’s may say Alex and Ani is not

heightening awareness or engagement around issues related to vulnerable children and

child-care workers. Mobilizing their employees to volunteer more for the causes which

the company supports and doing more cause promotion outside of donating 20% of the

sale of custom charms to partner organizations would project Alex and Ani as a

company that means what it says about having a passion for the “wellbeing of… our

communities” and “positively empower[ing] and connect[ing] humanity (“Our story”,

n.d.).

Under Carolyn Rafaelian’s leadership, Alex and Ani has become a significant

contributor to social causes. Having a corporate culture around positivity and caring,

the jewelry manufacturer has adopted causes it believes aligns well with its values. The

company makes custom charms and markets them under its CHARITY BY DESIGN

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banner and donates 20% of all profits from those sales to (mostly) niche causes.

Because The Life is Good Kids Foundation operates a program which focuses on

delivering optimistic programs of healing to children and child-care workers and had an

audience base with similar demographics and psychographics, Alex and Ani embraced

the foundation as one of its partner organizations this year. While the jeweler will no

doubt make its minimum contribution of $25,000 to the program by end of the promotion

in December, the infrastructure of the program leaves little room for real behavior

change to be a likely result. Given that the company has limited its contribution

primarily to jewelry-making for the cause, Alex and Ani could take their participation to

the next level and do more by way of cause promotion in stores and on their website for

Life is Good and other causes.

References

Bonifacino, R. (2013, November 7). How Alex and Ani struck gold with visual

marketing. Retrieved from: http://www.imediaconnection.com/articles/ported-

articles/red-dot-articles/2013/nov/how-alex-and-ani-struck-gold-with-visual-

marketing/

Cause Marketing Halo Awards archive. (2014). 2014 Halo Award Best Business Model

Integration. Retrieved from:

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http://www.causemarketingforum.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?

c=bkLUKcOTLkK4E&b=6431039&ct=13861493

Charity by design. (n.d.). Alex and Ani website. Retrieved from:

http://www.alexandani.com/collections/charity-by-design.html

Company ethos. (n.d.). Alex and Ani website. Retrieved from:

http://www.alexandani.com/our-story

Fischi, J. (2013, March 25). Almost 82 percent of social workers are female, and this is

hurting men. Retrieved from: https://mic.com/articles/30974/almost-82-percent-

of-social-workers-are-female-and-this-is-hurting-men#.Xtt0GHOOE

Kotler, P., Hessekeil, D., & Lee, N.R. (2012). Good works! Marketing and corporate

initiatives that build a better world…and the bottom line. Hoboken, NJ: John

Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Launch exclusive collection to support the Life is Good Kids Foundation. (2016, June

24). [Press release]. Retrieved from: http://content.lifeisgood.com/pr/press-

releases/life-good-alex-ani-charity-design-launch-exclusive-collection-support-

life-good-kids-foundation

Maglione, K. (2016, June 17). Look on the bright side- Life is good. [Web log post].

Retrieved from: https://www.alexandani.com/blog/summer-story-quiz-life-is-good-

kids-foundation/

Our story. (n.d.). Alex and Ani website. Retrieved from:

http://www.alexandani.com/our-story

Paige. (2016, June 6). Charmed night out with Life is Good and Alex + Ani. Boston

Patch. Retrieved from: http://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/charmed-night-

out-life-good-alex-ani

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Sachon, L. (2016, February 17). Alex and Ani celebrates $30 million in charity

donations. Retrieved from: http://www.jckonline.com/2016/02/17/alex-and-ani-

celebrates-30-million-charity-donations

Viveiros, N. (2014, May 6). Bangle blend: How Alex and Ani connect across multiple

platforms. Retrieved from: http://www.chiefmarketer.com/bangle-blend-alex-ani-

connect-across-multiple-platforms/

What we do. (n.d.). Life Is Good website. Retrieved from:

http://content.lifeisgood.com/kidsfoundation/what-we-do/

Zmuda, N. & Bryson, E. (2010, March 1). Cause effect: Brands rush to save world one

Advertising Age. Retrieved from: http://adage.com/article/news/effect-brands-

rush-save-world-deed-a-time/142338/

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