Nothing builds brand loyalty like a company’s proven commitment to a worthy cause. Studies show that consumers favor companies that support social and environmental change, and many will switch brands to one that supports a cause if both brands are similar in price and quality.
This trend also applies to employees and the workplace.
The 2015 Cone Communications Millennial CSR Study found that (91%) of Millennials would switch brands to one associated with a cause, and make sacrifices for issues they care about (including) taking a pay cut to work for a responsible company (62 percent vs. 56 percent).
This growth in socially responsible consumers provides opportunities for employers. First, by embracing social responsibility, companies can grow their unique brand and become more competitive. And second, it can help attract and retain employees while providing a culture of shared values.
In the workplace, social responsibility can become an organizational touchstone. By providing opportunities for making the world a better place, companies can strengthen cultural cohesion and solidarity, even with thousands of employees dispersed across the globe.
Supporting social causes can also contribute to higher employee morale and wellbeing. Research by the Mayo Clinic, for example, found that volunteering can lower stress, improve mood, and provide employees with a sense of purpose, something deemed a “helper’s high.”
Moreover, a 2017 Deloitte Volunteerism Survey found that employees enjoy having community activities in their workday, with 70 percent of surveyed employees saying that volunteerism boosted their morale, and 77 percent feeling that volunteerism was essential to their wellbeing.
Strategic Social Responsibility
Strategic social responsibility is more than contributing to random charities.
It integrates business objectives and competencies with social causes and embeds them into company culture and operations.
To be strategic, businesses carefully choose which causes they support – from donations to how employees contribute – to ensure their social responsibility efforts simultaneously address social challenges while also strengthening their brand with employees, customers, and the general public.
For example, LensCrafters stands for healthy vision, and it created a natural cause brand in its Give the Gift of Sight (now known as OneSight). PNC Financial Services supports early childhood education with PNC Grow Up Great and incorporates multiple partners such as Head Start, Sesame Workshop and Family Communications.
This type of strategic alignment enhances the company brand and ensures mutually beneficial returns while making an authentic social impact.
To create maximum synergy between a company’s products, services and marketplace, companies should answer the following questions:
- Will supporting the cause enhance employee loyalty, morale, purpose and recruiting?
- Will supporting the cause generate interest in a company’s products and services?
- Will supporting the cause improve the perception of a company and its products and services?
- Will the cause increase visibility and strengthen a company’s brand?
“Cause branding makes the company’s commitment to a social cause central to the brand DNA,” says Carol Cone, who pioneered the field of social purpose in the 1980s, and today is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost social impact experts. “Cause-branding programs build on a company’s unique values and culture and become part of the company’s soul.”
Nonprofit Partnerships
Cause partnerships can involve joint fundraising events, or longer, more complex arrangements. When successful, the nonprofit or cause acquires resources such as donations, volunteers, and heightened visibility, and the business achieves strategic objectives, such as increased sales, employee volunteer opportunities and public goodwill.
Illegal Pete’s, a Colorado chain of Mexican restaurants, earns tremendous local goodwill by supporting community causes. Its Starving Artist program feeds touring musicians for free when they come through Colorado. And its recent “Smother Autism” campaign donated one dollar for every “smothered” burrito sold, raising 7.5% of the funds needed to open a school for autistic children.
Social responsibility is most effective when woven into a company’s culture.
HMC Architects, a 360-person architecture firm with offices in CA, AZ and NV leverages its knowledge to advance environmental causes and boost its brand in key markets, including, schools, hospitals and municipal buildings.
Employee Volunteerism
Giving employees paid time off to volunteer can help them feel connected to a social cause and ultimately the company.
Salesforce actively encourages its employees to embrace volunteerism, about 85 percent of its workforce is active in philanthropy, contributing over tens of thousands of hours volunteering in their communities.
Alan E. Lewis is the founder of Grand Circle Corporation, a provider of overseas vacations for Americans over 50. Grand Circle’s business model includes a strong commitment to philanthropy, including Grand Circle Foundation, a charitable fund that has donated $25 million to date, equivalent to $10 from every vacation booked.
“Philanthropy should become part of a company’s corporate culture,” says Lewis, who encourages employees at Grand Circle’s 45 international bureaus to volunteer time and participate in philanthropic activities during work hours. “This philanthropic commitment helps attract and retain good people.”
Tell Your Story
Communicate your social responsibility efforts with your marketplace. Your cause should generate interest in your business, boost your brand as a great employer, and generate tremendous goodwill and even media attention.
Strategic philanthropy must be led by top management. A company’s senior executives should actively support and champion philanthropic programs, both inside the company and to the public to achieve maximum impact.
By embracing strategic social responsibility as a central part of a company’s brand identity, it can humanize its brand and speak to consumers’ and employees’ desire to do business with ethical companies that invest in issues that make the world a better place.
