When a company does something good and no one notices, what is the impact? Companies create philanthropic or charitable initiatives as part of their CSR programs for many reasons. Because there is the notion that CSR campaigns are created to cover up bad behavior, some corporations shy away from publicizing these efforts to stakeholders. They worry that if they do, they are signaling that there is a reason behind the strategy and will come under attack.
In failing to leverage CSR activities, corporations do themselves, their stakeholders and the greater community a disservice. They should publicly take ownership of their good deeds with strategic communications campaigns and cause marketing, not only to highlight their contributions, but also to encourage similar behavior among their peers. The purpose and importance of these campaigns do more than curry favor. They can motivate action.
How to Begin
As PR pros, the responsibility of crafting a stakeholder communications strategy often falls to us. Before you can identify the best strategies, however, your team must take a realistic look at why the campaign was created.
These factors will help you determine how aggressive your communications strategy should be: Is the campaign unique?How large is the scope of the initiative? How will you judge success? Are there metrics that can be reported late as part of an ongoing narrative?
The following will help determine what kind of visibility your organization should have: Who are the available spokespeople within the organization? What negative impressions are associated with your brand? Who else is in the space? Consider outside validators. Which validators might improve your negative market opinion? Is there an external recipient of your activities? If so, how is it viewed, who are its spokespeople, what is their level of commitment to spotlight your effort?
There is no right or wrong answer; the objective is to walk into a strategic brainstorming session with as many facts as possible. Collecting some of this information may require a meeting with organizational leadership and can sometimes become an awkward conversation. Stand firm. Identifying the opportunities and challenges of a robust PR campaign before it launches can save you time and heartburn later.
As CSR programs are implemented, much effort is made to engage employees. Executives, however, struggle with the appropriate level of external promotion to stakeholders. It’s a delicate dance.
At a minimum, an external page of your website should articulate your CSR efforts. These need not be extensive. Wells Fargo has a single webpage identifying opportunities for employees and providing public information [https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/csr/]. Anheuser-Busch has a multilayered CSR campaign focused not just on responsible drinking but on water conservation and providing clean drinking water to people affected by natural disasters. Its Twitter and Facebook pages regularly incorporate storytelling around these activities.
If you are launching a cause marketing campaign, you should consider a microsite. This allows visitors to learn about the program from your main website but does not overwhelm them with detail. Yoplait launched such a site to implement “Friends in the Fight,” where consumers enter points from items to help determine the charities that will receive donations from Yoplait [https://friendsinthefight.yoplait.com/#our-story]. Target maintains a less interactive but equally effective microsite for its corporate efforts, which range from education to safety and preparedness [https://corporate.target.com/corporate-responsibility].
CSR-related initiatives cannot entirely recreate a brand, but they can go a long way to help shape or reframe the narrative associated with it. PR should avoid shying away from leveraging these programs, but instead think strategically about the most effective messages and messengers. To ignore the positive impact such a promotion can provide is to undercut your own success, leaving a valuable tool behind.
CONTACT: @MSchwartz3