| Exercising Self-Interest | | | | More charitable donations--1 percent |
| It's gotten mighty hard to nail down just exactly | | | | Don't know--9 percent |
| what people mean these days when they speak of | | | | What contributions do consumers expect from |
| corporate social responsibility. | | | | companies? Again, the truncated list included: |
| Does it mean extracting sea turtles out of fishing | | | | Non-financial contributions--29 percent |
| nets or not eating monoculture salmon? Does it mean | | | | No expectations--13 percent |
| not out-sourcing jobs to cheaper foreign lands even | | | | Treating employees well--11 percent |
| if it raises the standard of living in those places? | | | | Fixing problems created by company--11 percent |
| What if the outsourced jobs go to foreign union | | | | Doing a good job--11 percent |
| members? Is it better to build a new LEED certified | | | | Environmentally-friendly practices--10 percent |
| building or to make due with the old building that's | | | | Financial contributions--10 percent |
| sturdy if not entirely energy efficient? Is it more | | | | What to make of these low numbers when it comes |
| socially responsible for a company to donate to an | | | | to corporate charitable donations? The authors of |
| AIDS orphan cause in Africa than to a ballet company | | | | the study's executive summary surmise that: |
| in Africa? What if the ballet company employs AIDS | | | | "...the consistent findings across both the 2006 and |
| victims? | | | | 2007 CSR surveys, when it comes to defining the |
| I'm not an ethicist and some of these questions are | | | | meaning and expectations surrounding CSR, suggest |
| ethical questions. But for the rest of us how are we | | | | that companies' charitable and philanthropic giving is |
| supposed to navigate the thicket of sometimes | | | | no longer enough to impress consumers. Perhaps it is |
| competing and oftentimes perplexing conundrums | | | | now viewed as a standard expectation that |
| framed as issues of corporate social responsibility? | | | | consumers have -- a bare minimum requirement -- to |
| This was all so much easier when "the business of | | | | even be considered as a socially responsible |
| America [was still] business," to paraphrase the | | | | company." |
| famously-taciturn former U.S. President Calvin | | | | They're suggesting that there's a kind of market |
| Coolidge. | | | | price for corporate social responsibility and that |
| I am, however, a marketer. And in marketing one | | | | consumers have already factored into that price |
| way to know where you stand with stakeholders | | | | corporate generosity to charity. |
| who are important to you is to ask them. It won't | | | | According to the Fleishman-Hillard study, what is likely |
| necessarily yield perfect moral clarity, but it can | | | | to move the needle for consumers when it comes to |
| suggest pathways. | | | | corporate social responsibility? As it turns out, it's self |
| Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations firm and division of | | | | interest. |
| Omnicom, in conjunction with the National Consumers | | | | When asked what is most important to consumers |
| League has now conducted three studies on the | | | | with regard to corporate social responsibility the top |
| subject of corporate social responsibility; in 2005, | | | | vote getter with 29 percent was 'treats/pays |
| 2006 and 2007. | | | | employee well.' If England is a nation of shopkeepers |
| I read the executive summary for the 2007 study | | | | then the U.S. is a nation of employees. And the |
| and if you can get past the laughably inaccurate | | | | survey's respondees are internalizing the question and |
| renderings of the bar charts and the occasional | | | | answering it as employees. |
| editorializing in the summary... which has been no small | | | | And yet, unemployment is 4.5 percent right now in |
| hurdle for me... there may be something here for | | | | the United States... quite low... which has driven real |
| cause marketers. | | | | wages up. So while the newspaper headlines here are |
| What does "corporate social responsibility" mean? | | | | filled with stories of jobs being exported to India and |
| Fleishman-Hillard asked consumers just that as an | | | | China, the fact is that the American worker is in |
| open-ended, unprompted question. A truncated list of | | | | pretty good shape overall; the glass is half-full. But |
| responses from the 2007 survey released in May | | | | the perception is that the American worker is |
| included the following: | | | | endangered... that the glass is half-empty. The |
| Commitment to communities--23 percent | | | | Fleishman-Hillard study bears that out. |
| Commitment to employees--17 percent | | | | Changing that perception is in no small way a public |
| Responsibility to the environment--11 percent | | | | relations challenge. |
| Provide quality products--10 percent | | | | |