Promoting Purpose Pays Off
Yesterday, BrandWeek reported on yet another survey that showed that consumers are continuing to warm up to the idea of supporting companies for their good corporate citizenship.
The survey measured consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices and ranked companies that are the most responsible. It found that despite the recession, 75% of consumers believe social responsibility is important, and 55% of consumers said they would choose a product that supports a particular cause against similar products that don’t.
“[Corporate social responsibility] can be the olive branch between struggling industries and consumers in cases where consumers are experiencing the highest expectations and the biggest let downs,” said Scott Osman, global director of Landor’s citizenship branding practice, adding that the industries with brands that have performed poorly, are the ones in which responsibility is valued most.
The survey results don’t surprise me, but I am shocked by Scott Osman’s clumsy “olive branch” analogy for corporate social responsibility practices.
CSR and cause marketing are not about companies offering after-the-fact peace treaties with the consumers they have been warring with for years.
That is a cynical and inauthentic use of cause marketing.
To be successful, a company must practice social responsibility because they want to inspire, enlist and engage audiences to join an important cause from the outset, not because they want to pacify and bait consumers into buying more products from a brand they’ve already been disappointed in.
Read the whole article here.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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