Burgess COMMENTARY

Dear Colleagues

This piece raises many questions. I would like to believe the research because I would like consumers to be interested in CSR.

I was a corporate CFO a long time ago, and have a great respect for numbers, but I know enough about statistics to know that the reliability of statistics is incredibly variable. I don't think either 46% or 60% are believable numbers. Perhaps, there is a trend to more people being interested in CSR, but that is not what the piece is about.

In any event, there is another problem. A better question would be related not to consumers being interested in CSR, but investors and C-level executives being interested in CSR. The unstated message is that 'if customers are interested in CSR, then the company should do CSR because there will be more sales, and therefore more profits, and therefore more happy investors and C-level executives. In my view Social Capital is not about this business model at all ... Social Capital and Impact Investing is done because the economic activities being funded actually have positive impact on the community, the society, the environment, etc. Whether or not there is money profit is a secondary consideration.

I argue that money profit accounting should be reformed to include both the money profit dimension and also the social valuadd dimension. A blended form of performance reporting would help investors judge the progress and performance resulting from Social Capital and Impact Investing.

Stay tuned

Peter Burgess TrueValueMetrics

New Research Suggests Marketers Underestimate Consumer Interest in CSR Image credit: Putting Purpose Into Marketing | Edelman/WFA Related: communicationsMarketing/Communications/MediaAd CampaignsCommunicating SustainabilityConsumer Perception/BehaviorEmployee EngagementStakeholder Engagement New research released last week by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Edelman shows global marketers overwhelmingly agree that 'purpose' will be increasingly important to building brands in the future. Putting Purpose Into Marketing also reveals that consumers and marketers are sometimes divided when it comes to their perceptions of 'purpose' and how it acts as a driver of purchase decisions. While both tend to agree that 'purpose' is defined as 'protecting and improving the environment,' 'positively impacting local communities' and 'having ethical business practices,' marketers underplayed emerging consumer concerns and failed to identify the markets where consumers are most driven by brand purpose. Presented as part of the Global Marketer Conference in Brussels last week, the study identifies the extent to which marketers believe that consumer decision-making is prompted by a brand's corporate social responsibility efforts, as well as gaps and business opportunities. The aim was to reveal the flip side of the coin explored by Edelman's goodpurpose survey, which explores consumer attitudes around social purpose, their commitment to specific societal issues and their expectations of brands. Marketers strongly acknowledge the growing importance of purpose: 88% agreed or strongly agreed it would be 'increasingly important to building brands,' 83% that it is 'important for a brand to have a sense of purpose' and 81% that it was 'a business opportunity.' However, when comparing their responses with Edelman's consumer data, marketers seem to underestimate the extent to which consumers said they supported good causes (46% of marketers said consumers support good causes vs. 60% consumers) and the proportion of global consumers who thought it was OK for brands to support good causes and make money at the same time (56% vs. 76%). Significantly, the biggest gap between the two sets of responses was marketers' perceptions of which region's consumers are most motivated by purpose. When asked for the continent with the greatest proportion of consumers who say they make purchase decisions based on good causes, 58% of marketers chose Europe, 36% North America, 5% Asia and 1% South America. Conversely, Edelman's research identifies consumers in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE and Brazil as being the most purpose-driven. These results show that consumers' passion and action on behalf of a company's CSR efforts in these emerging markets is much stronger than in developed markets. Consumers in these countries also say they are more willing to pay more and more often for purpose-infused brands. Marketers agreed that purpose needs to be top down with 80% saying that the Chief Executive — and 74% the Chief Marketing Officer — should be involved in designing and shaping purpose. Only 53% of marketers thought all employees should be involved; but as many as 88% agreed or strongly agreed that 'purpose needs to pervade the entire organisation and have buy-in from all business functions.' When asked if the brands they worked for generally had a sense of purpose, 49% marketers agreed or strongly agreed but only 38% felt they had been successful in effectively communicating the 'purpose' of their own companies. Nevertheless, some 93% agreed that it is possible to measure the impact of purpose on positive PR and reputation, 91% on consumer engagement, 90% on employee satisfaction, 86% on brand equity and 71% on customer satisfaction. 54% agreed it was possible to measure the impact of purpose on sales but 74% disagreed or stronglydisagreed that it is easy to measure the the impact of purpose on the brand. When asked to pick a purpose leader out of the Ad Age top 20 global marketers, 23% of respondents chose Unilever, Coca-Cola and P&G were tied second with 16% each of the votes, and McDonald's came in fourth with 11%. Putting Purpose Into Marketing is based on responses from 149 senior marketers representing 58 companies in more than 40 countries for companies representing over billion in advertising. Jennifer Elks is Managing Editor of Sustainable Brands. She is a writer, editor and foodie who is passionate about improving food systems, closing loops and creating more livable cities. She loves cooking, wine, cooking with wine, correcting spelling errors in… [Read more about Jennifer Elks]