Turning Purchases into Meals

Ramadan 2025 CSR campaign, P&G Morocco. Purchases across participating brands became donated iftar meals.

At a glance

  • Role: Brand Operations Manager and owner of Modern Retail Marketing Operations, P&G Morocco
  • Scope: concept to execution, then the warehouse at the end
  • Result: tens of thousands of dollars donated and more than 1,800 meals

Alongside the school campaign, I ran a second initiative in parallel: Ncharkou Lftour, “Let’s share iftar.” The idea was simple. Shoppers bought participating brands, and P&G turned their purchases into meals for people in need, just as the pledge on the displays promised: a donated iftar meal with every purchase of a participating product.

I carried it from the first concept to the last display back in the warehouse. Eleven brands took part, so I worked with each of their Brand Managers, plus most of the company: Sales, Legal, PR, Finance, Purchasing, Store Development, the warehouse team, our agencies, the partner associations and senior leadership.

Each of those teams had its own deadlines and its own reasons. Sales worked to a commercial calendar, brand teams protected their positioning, and Legal, Finance and Purchasing guarded their processes. So the real work was getting all of them to say yes to the same plan in a timely manner. Along the way, I learned how much the same request changes depending on who hears it.

Once the plan was set, the work moved into stores across Morocco’s modern retail channels. Displays, wobblers and posters had to stand in the right places from day one, so I tracked every installation through trackers, direct follow-ups and confirmations. When a retailer cancelled several locations at the last minute, I escalated by urgency and found replacements.

In the end, purchases across eleven brands added up to tens of thousands of dollars in donations, more than $25,000 in all, and those donations provided over 1,800 meals. Those numbers changed how I saw my own work. While I was doing it, the trackers, approvals, retailer calls and production deadlines felt like administration. Afterward, I saw them as the reason more than 1,800 meals reached people who needed them. Company leadership recognized the execution at a company-wide meeting, and the colleagues I worked with on this project became my partners on later ones.

Looking at it through PR, I see why the campaign worked: it made a claim a shopper could check. A cause-linked campaign in Ramadan faces a fair question: is the brand giving, or selling? Three choices answered it before anyone asked. The pledge was specific, and it appeared where the purchase happened. Partner associations delivered the contribution in the name of the sponsoring brands. And the result came with a number. Together, those choices moved the story from what the brand says about itself to what people can verify.

The same design connects to two global goals. It serves Zero Hunger (SDG 2), because purchases turned directly into meals. It also reflects Partnerships (SDG 17), because a company, retailers, agencies and associations each brought a different capability.

Two lessons stayed with me. First, leading across functions depends less on authority than on reducing friction: I ask what each person needs, spot obstacles early and take responsibility when something goes wrong. Second, good communication is more than a message. It gets people to act.

Looking back as a communication student

Today I would add a question I never asked at the time: did shoppers believe the pledge, and did that belief change what they put in their basket? And would they have bought anyway? I had no way to find out then. I would want one now.

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