Corporate Social Responsibility and the Marketing Department

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Corporate Social Responsibility and the Marketing
Department

• David Thorp
• Director of Research Information

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CIM and CSR

• National Marketing Standards
• CIM Professional Marketing Standards
• Code of Practice For Professional Marketers
• Defra/DTI-funded projects
• Steering and Advisory Group membership
• Sustainability Steering Group and work with NGOs
• Social Marketing Steering Group
• CIM Agenda paper on Triple Bottom Line

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The Triple Bottom Line
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We are the problem

• Over the years, Ive met many marketing people
  who would have me believe that marketing (as a
  professional discipline) is entirely value-free
  and entirely neutral I have difficulty with
  this, from a sustainability perspective, inasmuch
  as it may be true, on a case by case basis, but
  the cumulative impact of billions of corporate
  dollars spent marketing their products, year
  after year after year, stimulating, reinforcing
  and exacerbating peoples consumerist fantasies,
  is almost wholly pernicious especially when
  its directed at children.
• Jonathon Porritt
• Founder Director of Forum for the Future
• Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development
  Commission

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The Code of Professional Marketing Practice

• 3. A Professional Marketers Responsibilities
• A marketer accepts that first and foremost he or
  she is a member of wider society and should never
  through their acts or failures to act when action
  is required, carry out work that is counter to
  the interests of wider society or to individual
  members thereof. This is an overriding moral
  obligation carrying equal weight to any
  legislation or regulatory codes that may apply
• All members of this Institute have a
  responsibility for raising awareness amongst the
  wider community of the benefits marketing can
  deliver economically, environmentally and
  socially.

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• Only human beings have a moral responsibility
  for their actions

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The Utopian View of CSR

• the business community (has) a wider
  responsibility - moral and legal to use its
  influence to promote respect for human
  rightsViolations of human rights may contribute
  to civil instability and to uncertainty in the
  investment climate, but even where this is not
  the case, companies should not be silent
  witnesses.
• Amnesty International

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The Sceptic View of CSR

• Few trends would so thoroughly undermine the
  very foundations of free society as the
  acceptance by corporate officials of a social
  responsibility other than to make as much money
  for their stockholders as they possibly can.
• Milton Friedman (1970)

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The Realist View of CSR

• The management of an organisations total
  impact upon both its immediate stakeholders and
  upon the society in which it operates. CSR is not
  simply about whatever funds and expertise
  companies choose to invest in communities to help
  resolve social problemsit is about the integrity
  with which a company governs itself, fulfils its
  mission, lives by its values, engages with its
  stakeholders, measures its impacts and reports
  on its activities
• DTI Corporate Responsibility Group (2003)

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Key elements of DTI definition

• Total impact
• Immediate stakeholders
• Wider society
• Integrity
• Governance
• Mission
• Values
• Engagement

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External Drivers

• MORI (2006) 78 of members of the public
  questioned said they wanted to hear about
  companies responsibilities to their customers,
  employees, communities and the environment
• Levels of ethical consumerism growing steadily.
  Co-op Banks annual Ethical Consumerism report
  shows a growth from 9.3 billion in 1999 to 25.8
  billion in 2004
• Mintel predicts 2 billion spend on organic,
  fairtrade and locally-sourced products (an
  increase of 62 since 2002)
• Fairtrade market predicted to grow from 230
  million at end 2007 to 547 million by 2011

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• Googles activities in China have the potential
  to be a disaster for the company if people start
  to think that its real motto is Dont be evil
  except when theres serious money in it
• John Lanchester
• Guardian 26.01.06

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Guardian Thursday 26th January 2006
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What is CSR?

• A set of moral principles and ethics
• A set of commonly-held values
• A model for corporate governance
• An emergent commercial strategy
• A core business process
• A set of skills and competencies
• A series of identifiable characteristics

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The Importance of Stakeholders

• A stakeholder in an organisation is any group
  or individual who can affect or is affected by
  the achievement of the organisations objectives
• Freeman (1984)
• Strategic Management A Stakeholder Approach

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Common issues around stakeholders

• Different groups have different levels of power
• The existence of both common interests and
  conflicting interests
• The priorities of each group may be out of sync.
  with those of other stakeholder groups
• Identifying and defining the various groups

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Stakeholder Norms and Values
Mass Media
NGO
employees
customers
VALUES NORMS OF YOUR ORGANISATION
regulatory body
shareholders
environmental groups
suppliers
trade association
competitors
Primary stakeholders
Secondary stakeholders
Society at large
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Stakeholder priorities

• Profit
• Sales and Growth
• Cost reduction
• Quality and service
• Returns to investors
• Employee welfare and development
• Innovation
• Social objectives around TBL

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Sowhy be good?

• Increased sales and market share
• Strengthened brand positioning
• Enhanced corporate image and clout
• Increased ability to attract, motivate and retain
  employees
• Decreased operating costs
• Increased appeal to investors and financial
  analysts

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• Today CSRis a year round responsibility that
  companies accept for the environment around them,
  for the best working practices, for their
  engagement in their local communities and for
  their recognition that brand names depend not
  only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how
  cumulatively they interact with companies
  workforces, community and environment
• Gordon Brown (2003)

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Evolution of Competitive Advantage

• Consciousness Age
• Cultural capital
• relationships
• shared values
• shared vision
• social responsibility
• creativity
• customer collaboration
• Transformation/
• Evolution

• Information Age
• Structural capital
• knowledge
• learning
• systems
• processes
• innovation
• customer satisfaction
• Change

• Industrial Age
• Intellectual capital
• skilled labour
• productivity
• efficiency
• quality
• economies of scale
• mass marketing
• Growth

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• Contact me at
• davidthorp_at_cim.co.uk