Cause-related marketing

At Alliance Boots, we recognise our responsibilities as a corporate citizen to deliver what we promise and to maintain the trust of our customers and stakeholders. For us, the key to successful cause-related marketing is to find causes that make a difference in improving people’s quality of life and that are strategically relevant to us. Our chosen partners benefit from our financial resources, the willingness and enthusiasm of our people and our ability to reach supporters through our customer base. At the same time, we gain the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the communities we serve and to reinforce popular trust in our brands.

BBC Children in Need fundraising activities

This was the fifth year that Boots UK supported The BBC Children in Need Appeal. Over this five year period Boots UK has raised over £2.9 million for the charity. In 2008/09, Boots UK raised £530,000 for the BBC Children in Need Appeal from both the sale of specially designed Pudsey Bear products sold in Boots UK stores and a variety of employee organised fundraising activities. These activities took place across our UK based businesses and included an inter-office bike race, office olympics, a mascot race and a Pudsey Raffle live draw.

Healthcare focused charitable giving

Our Italian pharmaceutical wholesale business is committed to developing charity partnerships to promote community healthcare. During 2008/09 we supported the following charitable activities: the Associazione Malati del Tigullio (Tigullio Area Sufferers Association), where we finance a scholarship for a physician and a nurse to support research and development activities; the research and innovation projects of the Cardiology Department of Lavagna Hospital; The Associazione per la Lotta al Neuroblastoma Onlus (Onlus Association against Neuroblastoma), where our business contributes towards the Association’s support of children affected by neuroblastoma, who are hospitalised at the Gaslini hospital; and the Associazione Mus-e Italia Onlus (Onlus Mus-e Italy Association), where we are contributing to a three year project to support children coping with difficult family situations or having problems integrating with the community.