Businesses are always looking for ways to increase their brand equity and value. One of the most effective ways to achieve this goal is by giving back to their host communities and contributing to causes that will put their brand in the spotlight and create top of mind awareness.
When a brand gives back to society, it is called “Corporate social responsibility”. It is a self-regulating business model that helps organizations to be socially accountable to themselves, their stakeholders, and the public.
Organizations that engage in Corporate Social Responsibility get the opportunity to impact society positively. This, in turn, yields several benefits for the brand that we will dig into shortly.
Why Your Brand Needs to Give Back
We live in a world, where brand perception contributes to the sales and bottom lines of organizations. To this end, corporate social responsibility is a twenty-first-century habit that brands use to create value for their products and services and as well build a loyal/committed clientele base.
Establishing CSR strategy as part of corporate actions will enable organizations to provide for the needy, drive and support a good cause. CSR activities range from social, economic to environmental initiatives capable of benefiting the business environment.
CSR is a modest business strategy that may be overlooked but has benefits that outweigh the standard return on investment. It requires an effort of giving back to the society, host communities and areas where businesses operate through charitable and generous/philanthropic gestures. It is a strategic process for organizations to boost marketing efforts and enhance their internal drive. You may be wondering what kind of CSR initiative might best fit your brand and help increase your brand’s equity. Keep reading to learn more.
Effective CSRs That Increase Brand Equity and Value
There are various kinds of CSRs that brands can engage in but they can all be grouped into three main types which are; Environmental CSRs, Ethical CSRs, and Philanthropic CSRs.
- Environmental Social Responsibility – Most organizations that focus their CSR efforts on the environment are those whose business model directly impacts the environment in terms of pollution, waste dumping, carbon emissions and excessive consumption of resources. This CSR is one that focuses on reducing the impact of environmentally harmful emissions on the environment which involves the re-evaluation of a business’s production processes in order to identify wasteful acts, cut them down or replace them with eco-friendly options.
- Ethical Social Responsibility – This CSR initiative focuses on ensuring that the organization has the best interest of all of its employees, customers, and stakeholders at heart. The business ensures that employees and stakeholders receive fair treatment in the workplace by encouraging fair working hours, paying high wages or salaries and offering employment to candidates who would have otherwise struggled to get work. Another form of ethical CSR is one where companies who source materials to create the products, they offer their consumers go the extra mile to ensure that the raw materials are of great quality. They also ensure that the businesses that they source these materials from are fair to their employees.
- Philanthropic Social Responsibility – This is the most popular type of CSR. Organizations that participate in this form of CSR actively better the society by donating funds to charitable causes, sponsoring events that impact the society positively, contributing to local projects, organizing free events, seminars, training that will benefit the society at large and much more. Examples of philanthropic social responsibility are Seplat Petroleum’s PEARLs quiz, Safe motherhood and Eye Can See CSR initiatives that have impacted citizens of Imo state.
How CSR Increases Brand Equity and Value
The benefits of participating in CSRs are numerous. They may not immediately reflect in your bottom line but they build your brands’ equity and value. It is, therefore, a necessity for brands. Below are some benefits of CSR to brands;
Better Brand Visibility – Organizations that are actively engaged in corporate social responsibility schemes like giving donations to natural disaster victims, providing health facilities, education funds and poverty alleviation initiatives gain the attention of the media and are very popular among youths. This increases the brands’ visibility as its activities will naturally drive free publicity for the brand as well as organic traffic to their web pages. When a brand is more visible in the media and on the web for its positive impact on society, it fosters brand recognition which in turn creates top of mind awareness for the brand.
Transforms your brand to a desirable employer – We are in the age of millennials, attracted to employers that invest in charitable cause and volunteering. Your corporate ability to support a good cause involving social, economic or environmental initiatives will attract more talents and experts to your brand in the long run. Establishing charitable initiatives and inculcating it to your mission and structure, will not only make employees satisfied but also enable customers to value your brand.
Increased Customer Loyalty– Customers love companies that give back. They prefer to patronize a brand that cares about bettering society than a brand that does not. You may not run fancy advertorials to attract customers, but your bottom line will continue increasing as your publicized CSR activities not only serve as indirect marketing for your business, it also endears your target audience to your brand. They will be proud to be your customers and even advocate for your brand without compulsion. No task unites a customer base than supporting a good cause.
Creates Positive Brand Reputation – CSR initiatives also build a strong reputation for brands. Brands can gain the trust of consumers, employees, stakeholders, and investors as well as attracts talent that will be willing to actively engage in the development of the society by growing the brand. Having an already established brand reputation will make it easy for other brands to partner with yours to execute CSR initiatives without fear or doubt.
Increased employee engagement – Employees are naturally willing to work with organizations that care about contributing to society. They will help publicize these initiatives and display it on various channels as a banner of pride in order to let people know that they are part of an organization that betters the lives of communities. When your employees go out of their way to publicize and engage with your brand, it reflects positively on your business and influences consumers, the media and the public to engage with your brand.
Offers internal satisfaction – When a firm incorporates and embraces charitable initiatives into its business model, employees will be motivated to support and give back to the needy. Volunteering has been scientifically proven as a process of reducing stress, combating depression and preventing heart disease. Through giving back, organizations will experience benefits that impact their overall brand image and perception. To this end, employees and customers will become loyal and committed to such organizations and invariably impact its profitability positively.
Increased Creativity – When a brand demonstrates love for humanity by being socially responsible to its stakeholders or charitable causes, its employees will be encouraged to support the brand by going the extra mile to perform their duties. They may even be stimulated to think of better ways to impact society in a way that will directly impact their brand.
In Conclusion
If your brand is not already engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility, it is missing out on all the benefits listed above and more. Planning and organizing CSR initiatives can be very hectic. However, there are brand reputation agencies that can handle this for you while you focus on other aspects of your business. Be sure to contact one when you are ready.
Brands like Microsoft, Google, Seplat Petroleum, TOMS and more have been participating in several CSR initiatives for years. Their activities have earned them worldwide recognition and have benefited their businesses’ bottom line. Your brand may not have a lot of money to engage in very huge CSR initiatives but you can partner with brands who have the financial capability or start small. You never know who is watching.