Corporate Social Responsibility

Companies like Nike and Ben & Jerry’s have demonstrated the power of brand activism in marketing. With consumer expectations shifting in a tumultuous political environment, what happens when a brand decides to take a neutral approach? Online home furnishing company Wayfair is right now finding out the hard way.

If “purpose” is to last as one of PR’s top buzzwords, brands need to step up their game. Already in the past few weeks we’ve seen Nike forced to adjust its purpose concerning treatment of pregnant spokespeople. Now Google, which espouses free speech, among other lofty values, is warning staff there will be repercussions should they protest as Google employees during this weekend’s Pride festivities in San Francisco. Apparently for Google, free speech has its limits.

Taking a stand or promoting a cause is important for brands, which want to identify with their target audience and its beliefs. Unfortunately, some brands view events such as Pride month or International Women’s Day purely as profit-making opportunities. Here are three tips brands need to embrace so they can be seen as promoting activism not slacktivism.

Operating with purpose must be the lens through which every business decision is made, argues WE’s global CEO and founder Melissa Waggener Zorkin. While sticking to your values isn’t easy, the consequences of ignoring today’s societal issues are much greater. She offers highlights from recent research about purpose that aim to help communicators and leaders.

The opioid epidemic has touched one in three Americans, a new survey from NPR and Ipsos shows. In addition, pharma’s narrative about its role in the epidemic has failed to resonate with a significant majority of the American public. What steps should industry communicators take to rehabilitate pharma’s reputation with the public? Crisis communications provides a possible option.

Each year PR News’ CSR and Nonprofits awards lunch is a pastiche of PR tips and tactics and emotion. The 2019 edition, held Friday, was jammed with takeaways and examples of PR using its vast tool kit to do good. We offer a few memories of the awards luncheon, which was held at Washington, D.C.’s historic National Press Club.

Each year, PR News recognizes the leaders and campaigns creating the most social good at our CSR & Nonprofit awards luncheon. The 2019 event, hosted at the the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., saw… Continued

There’s more research showing CSR is no longer a nice-to-have, writes Judith Rowland of FleishmanHillard. Consumers expect brands to take stands on social issues or risk losing their business. And brands must walk the walk. The research found that 47 percent of engaged customers are less or not at all likely to purchase from companies whose business practices are inconsistent with their CSR promises.

With PR News’ CSR and Nonprofit Awards luncheon coming March 15, we look at two brands taking stands, though they do so with different philosophies and strategies.

Brands must devote some of their business to the common good in an era when a majority of consumers demand ethical practices and value-based company missions. It’s in a communicator’s best interest to promote and champion the causes their company is a part of, building loyalty with audiences and improving trust among consumers. Here are four ways to build a successful social good program at your organization.