Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a hotter topic than ever for marketers. Its rise on the corporate agenda has been prolific as demonstrated in the consumer space by the media’s constant hawking of the ethical policies of retail and supermarket superpowers.
But away from the glare of the media spotlight, how are B2B brands ensuring they do their bit for society? You might think that because business brands tend not to have such a wide-reaching audience they can get away with doing less. But this isn’t the case. In fact, for many B2B brands, a CSR policy is part of a key survival strategy, not least because their own business customers are under obligation to ensure they ethically source services and products. As Joanna Daniels, deputy director of Business in the Community’s marketplace programme, says, If two companies offer similar services but only one can demonstrate it’s having a positive effect on society, that company will have the overall advantage.
So what should a good CSR strategy include? According to Dorothy Mackenzie, chairman of brand agency Dragon, there is no right answer. Rather, companies must identify what their own impact on society is and tailor a programme from there. Companies must understand what their impacts are on society, the environment, and individuals and avoid creating unnecessary and unintentional damage, she explains.
A CSR strategy is not, on the other hand, a straightforward green strategy. This isn’t to say environmental initiatives cannot form part of a CSR strategy, but most experts would agree it is not an essential component to include. In fact, they say that this belief is a stumbling block for many companies, which are overly concerned with being ‘seen to be green’.
So where should you start? A good place would be to read up on the international standards already in place to encourage responsible business practice. These range from the UN Global Compact to the ISI 14001 standard. Business in the Community, a charity that helps businesses with how to get the most out of CSR strategies, also publishes an annual Corporate Responsibility Index.
These standards provide a useful starting point for businesses to map their own CSR performance against recognised systems, which can provide an indication of how a company is performing, points out Allison Murray, corporate responsibility manager at T-Mobile. This benchmarking allows businesses to identify the areas where there are gaps and also where they are performing well and then define a CSR programme accordingly.
The next step should be to identify what your corporate mission actually is. For example, an office consumables company might want its customers to know that it produces sustainable products. Or a transport logistics company might want to be seen to be cutting carbon emissions.
It’s worth noting that large and small business brands can benefit from each other. Canon, for example, developed part of its CSR strategy around the message that its office products are environmentally friendly a strategy that in turn benefits the SME community it serves, which is itself striving to cut levels of carbon waste.
We’re finding that smaller organisations are especially keen to have an environmentally friendly message that can also help them to be leaner as an organisation which is a fact that we can base some of our marketing strategy on, says Adam Poole, head of channel marketing at Canon UK.
Corporate mission identified, it’s important to integrate that mission into an overall business plan, rather than treat it as an ‘add-on’. There are many organisations with CSR policies, but that doesn’t mean they are any more responsible in how they conduct business. All it means is they have an extra series of rules, and some people follow them and some don’t, warns Peter Hamill, senior consultant at Roffey Park.
In order to combat this, every member of the business must be aware of, and encouraged to engage with, a CSR strategy. Stakeholder and employee engagement is key it’s important to communicate to them and give them the opportunity to get involved, says Tom Rotheram, head of corporate responsibility at Radley Yeldar.
Isabel Kelly, foundation director for EMEA at Salesforce.com agrees employee engagement can also be crucial in keeping your staff at Salesforce.com, employees are given six days a year to devote to community projects.
For the marketing department, helping to implement a CSR strategy means taking the company’s corporate mission whether it be to ‘go green’, or ‘inject funding into the local community’ and turning it into tangible benefit for the brand through its products. Paint company Dulux did this when it launched an Ecosure brand mark with the tagline ‘A step towards greener’. A range of eco-friendly paints has been launched under the new brand name and targeted at the trade sector, partly in response to regulatory demands, partly because of a corporate desire to tackle climate change issues, and partly because of an increasing demand for more sustainable products from its audience. Says Dulux brand manager David Shepherd, The logo and design convey genuine green credentials, ensuring we are not associated with ‘greenwash’. (It’s been) very well received by target customers.
It’s not just the end users that are demanding to see evidence of corporate responsibility either. These days, many organisations must also satisfy their supply chains on the same score if they want to stay in business. Look at Shell, says Rotheram. Its business relies on governments giving it access to oil and gas resources. If Shell doesn’t make governments happy, it won’t get those resources, so its not in business.
According to Business in the Community, support for CSR is growing amongst B2B practitioners it has seen a rise in the number of professional services and big city firms asking how they can go about implementing a policy. Today’s economic and environmental climate suggests that in the long term no company can ignore CSR. If any B2B company out there is thinking that implementing a CSR policy will be a burden, a bureaucracy, that it’s going to take up too much time, that they can’t afford it or that they can’t be bothered, they should look at it from another angle and think about the positive impact it can have on the bottom line, concludes Bandell.
Related articles
The business of responsibility – 27-11-06
Or use our enhanced search functionality to find other related articles
