I’m a big believer that through business and brands we have the ability to create positive social impact. It is the reason why I’m such an advocate for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in all forms. Especially when it comes to efforts that have been transformative, not just improvements to standard industry practice. CSR has evolved to become a significant ingredient and investment for business health and growth. It is why I’ve come to expect even more of CSR communication, and why business and society should as well. Too many CSR communication efforts today strive for the minimum, creating “just enough” of a reaction to get noticed by shareholders, employees, and the pubic. But what good are such investments if they fail to raise support for the social issues advocated? Or fail to connect CSR issues beyond niche interest?
Tag Archives: marketing
CSR Communication Goal Should be Impact, not Information
Keep the spotlight on the the true hero – 3 tips for telling your sustainability story.
It’s tempting enough for brands to want to talk about themselves – even truer when they are doing something good.
In today’s radically transparent social business marketplace, the reputation of a company extends way beyond its marketing to include its supply chain, manufacturing processes, employee treatment and customer engagement.
Likewise, full circle sustainability requires that companies overhaul how they source their ingredients, manufacture and distribute their products, and manage the waste they generate. Both of these realities place higher demands on time-poor executives and entrepreneurs, yet too many fail to recoup the costs of such efforts because they don’t share their sustainability story effectively.
In fact, almost all companies are guilty of three key mistakes that mean these investments of time, money and energy never build their brand or bottom line.
Posted in Business and Sustainability, Green Communications, Marketing and Communications, The Hub Also tagged brand, Coca-Cola, csr, Employee Engagement, Social Media, storytelling, supply chain, sustainability, transparency, Unilever, zara Comments closed
Novo Nordisk leads again: Has the annual sustainability report become obsolete?
As stakeholders, we have been conditioned to expect corporate transparency to come in annual packages – annual reports, sustainability reports, and even a slow trickle of integrated reports that are now starting to gain traction.
There seems to be something magical about that 12-month timeframe which appears to satisfy our thirst for sustainability information. Or does it?
By the time we read sustainability reports, all the news is old, sometimes very old. The data is history and the stories are of a time long gone. If we’re lucky, a sustainability report contains commitments for the future, which remain relevant after publication, but practically everything else has passed its sell-by date. One the one hand, we want sustainability reporting to be a basis for dialogue and engagement. On the other hand, why engage around something that’s history and not here-and-now?
Posted in Business and Sustainability, CSR Reporting, Interviews, Leadership, Sustainability Reporting, The Hub Also tagged adidas, canadian tire corporation, communication, csr report, dow chemical, intel, investor relations, ngo, novo nordisk, Social Media, stakeholder engagement, sustainability report, timberland, transparency, Unilever, verizon Comments closed
Green Consumers Want Companies to Help them BE GREEN
After 20 years of surveying consumers on their attitudes about brands and their expectations of how companies should behave, our team at Cone Communications has managed to compile some interesting insights. Our latest research, the 2013 Green Gap Trend Tracker, now gets us a step closer to understanding the consumer mindset when it comes to purchasing, using and disposing of “green” products.
Posted in Business and Sustainability, Capitalism 2.0, Green Consumer, Green Marketing Also tagged composting, eco-labeling, environment, ethics, green consumption, green marketing, green products, recycling, sustainability, trust Comments closed
Is the sustainability “beauty contest” only skin deep? Is it time for greater transparency?
We are at least 10 years into the corporate sustainability journey now, so what really significant changes have we achieved?
Perhaps the business world has focused on the wrong tasks? Could it be that, despite all the carbon neutrality claims, hundreds of Global Reporting Initiative [GRI] A+ reports and sustainability teams of ten or more people, companies have still not radically redesigned their core products and business models?
I believe that there has been far too much focus on companies wanting to look good, and not nearly enough attention paid to actually performing well.
Posted in Business and Sustainability, Leadership, Thought Leader Also tagged csr, csr reporting, doshorts, full product transparency, GRI, Interface, ratings, sustainability, Unilever Comments closed
