Defining Sustainability
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With the help of a recent Harvard Business Review study, we now have hard data to support the claim that sustainability is one of the key drivers of innovation in business that yields financial rewards without being a burden to the bottom line. The study found that, “in the future, only companies that make sustainability a goal will achieve a competitive edge,” and that, “by treating sustainability as a goal today, early movers will develop competencies that rivals will be hard-pressed to match.”1
While these studies demonstrate the need for sustainability in business, more fundamentally, what does sustainability itself mean? As I noted in earlier posts, since our field regularly intermingles terminology, how is sustainability different than CSR or other similar terms?
Defining Corporate Social Responsibility
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Shakespeare once said, “A rose by any other name is just as sweet.” Practitioners of corporate social responsibility seem to take this phrase to heart. Despite the progress in our field, we continue to give the term “CSR” new names that seem to all imply the same meaning, e.g. responsible business, corporate social performance, and corporate responsibility, to list a few.
Yes, all these terms are related to the same type of business practice and strategy and yes, call a rose anything else and still smells as sweet. However, we have the word “rose” and the term “CSR” and they both work, so why stray from them?
Despite the rhetorical sound of that question, there is an answer from a 2008 Oxford study:
Defining Cause Branding
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Do you remember when Google was a company and not a verb? This conflation of terms demonstrates how the American language is a fluid form of communication. Every year our society takes the products and tools around us and appropriates their names to form verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Today to “google” something is another form of saying: to use a search engine, browse the internet, or just to search in general.
This appropriation of company names and products is common in every field and cause-marketing is no exception. Although I am initially skeptical of any terms produced and promoted by individual companies, I have accepted that we have incorporated “cause-branding” into our vernacular, despite its similarity to other extant terms. Read more…
Defining Cause-Marketing
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As a philosopher Albert Einstein was incredibly interested in human potential. In his speech “The Common Language of Science” he argued that all humanity had to do to progress was simply determine a goal and our knowledge of science and ingenuity would allow us to achieve it. Despite having the means to accomplish any objective we set for ourselves, Einstein keenly observed a lack of a common goal (he gave the speech in 1941). He described this juxtaposition of the ability to achieve almost anything but lack of a unified direction as a, “perfection of means and confusion of goals.”
Fast-forward to today and our society is drastically changed, and I would argue it is improved. For evidence, one simply has to look the impressive quantity and value of socially and environmental business practices that is now a billion dollars industry. In fact, we are at a point in American culture -and in much of the world- where socially and environmentally awareness is becoming increasingly more common.
In my research into cause marketing, however, I found that despite a broad interest in improving society and the environment through business, the means or methods of our approach are becoming muddled. Read more…
The Democratization of Corporate Philanthropy
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This article originally appeared on the Forbes.com Corporate Social Responsibility Blog.
These days, there are few things getting more attention in the cause-marketing field than the trend of directing corporate philanthropy dollars by crowd sourcing. The retailer Kohl’s today joined the trend after it announced its Kohl’s Cares 10th Anniversary promotion. The program stands on the shoulders of the giant $20 million Pepsi Refresh Campaign. Refresh followed the first major initiative in this space, the million dollar American Express Members Project.
All of these campaigns share positive and negative traits that we’ll explore in greater detail below. But it is now undeniable that this trend has become a powerful tool in cause-marketing.
THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY
Corporate giving campaigns are known for their secrecy. In fact, that is one of the primary Read more…
In Defense of the Happy Meal
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This article originally appeared on the Forbes.com CSR blog. Click here to read the original.
This week, a consumer interest group announced its intention to bring the very important social issue of childhood obesity to court. The Center for Science in the Public Interest announced it will sue McDonald’s for the chain’s promotion of Happy Meals. CSPI says the toys that come with the meals encourage children and parents to make unhealthy choices.
“McDonald’s is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children,” CSPI litigation director Stephen Gardner said on the organization’s web site. “McDonald’s use of toys undercuts parental authority and exploits young children’s developmental immaturity—all this to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health. It’s a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction.”
Yikes.
Ignoring the hyperbole and emotional manipulation, Mr. Gardner and his organization Read more…
Review: Micro-volunteering
QUICK! What do you see?!? If you type fast, you too could be a volunteer for the Library of Congress.
When it’s my job to help people to learn how to give back more strategically, I should probably pair my actions to my words.
To be fair, I created a two giving strategies for my company. But sometimes, I just wish I could do something that doesn’t necessarily involve painting schools, tutoring kids, or – frankly – talking to people.
And then I heard about something that appeases my inner-ADD: Micro-Volunteering.
I attended Read more…
