Environmentally speaking…

This is a special post because it responds to the request of BlogActionDay for a blog post in every blog around the world that will cite an environmental issue (of the bloggers’ choice) for today: Monday 15 of October of 2007.

Because of the fact that my blog is related with business issues, I will discuss about CSR initiatives. Corporate Social Responsibility can take many and various forms; one very important aspect of CSR can relate to corporate environmental “sensitivity”. Many corporations globally choose to focus their corporate social initiatives and programs in the protection and sustainability of the environment. Some very common environmental initiatives may be the following:

• Recycling various materials (print paper, glass, plastic)
• Reduction of Energy consumption (power saving policies, use of technological innovations)
• Reforestation (of burned forests)
• Cleaning of the sea and the coastline
• Fighting global warming (reduction of CO2 emissions, etc.)

Environmental initiatives are most likely to be undertaken by large corporations with industrial activities. This is because such corporations usually pollute or deteriorate the environment and they now realize the outcome of their actions and the future impact they will have on the lives of all living beings. Large industrial corporations take on these initiatives to improve their brand name by “compensating society for their deeds”. These corporations start to use air filters that decrease air pollution and toxic gas emissions, they implement power saving tactics such as low energy consumption devices, they use recycled raw materials e.g. recycled paper, glass, etc. Moreover they infuse that environmental friendly philosophy in their employees to act respectively both in their workplace and in their private lives.

On the other hand there is a great number of heavy industrial units that do not compromise with laws and environmental policies. They often evade law procedures and engage into lobbying tactics to avoid acts against them. Sometimes the only powerful weapon against those kind of corporations is branding. People are getting more concerned about environmental issues in recent times and they start to demand firms not to pollute and act in accordance with nature. The consumer has great power and should start boycotting the former type of corporations. Only then top management in these unethical corporations will realize the deterioration in their brand name and may start implementing environmental friendly policies.

Blogging for Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Blogs can disclose information about the firm’s social responsibility campaigns and initiatives. Such actions deliver very effective messages to a greatly wide range of stakeholders. Social Responsibility Initiatives and Programs add a really great value in a brand name. The whole process may be done with a formal or an informal way of blogging and the disclosure of information may be delivered with the same style.


Some examples

• Regular posting on everyday initiatives’ progress

• Posting about some major and minor events

• Posting about new initiatives undertaken

• Posting about weekly – monthly aims / goals and their results

• Posting thoughts and ideas for new initiatives or improving old campaigns

• Posting meetings’ outcomes

• Posting self-assessment on how one is contributing on a CSR initiative

• Posting about how a team devoted to a social cause works together

• Posting about tough problems and challenges that appear and need solutions

Interactivity

A blog about corporate social responsibility enable great interactivity and feedback from every potential stakeholder group and that can become a strategic competitive advantage that will take a corporation a step ahead of even the most innovative and creative (in terms of CSR and marketing) competitors.

Social Causes

One great use of social media and user generated content of any form (text, audio and especially video) is to support a cause and a social initiative. Corporations in particular can utilize that form of communication to publicize and enhance awareness of the cause and their contributions as well. Corporate social initiatives and corporate social responsibility are current trends that have great impact in brand reputation and equity. I believe that businesses will realize the potential benefits that social media could add to their CSR campaigns and start utilizing these as strategic tools.

An example of my previous statement can clarify what I mean. Suppose you are a business that starts a new social initiative, for example a race against deforestation. You can host videos and other forms of content (such as photos, text comments, etc.) of local people and your employees planting trees. On each event you plan and host you can add valuable content of that kind to inspire more people to join your efforts, to show that while doing these activities you can have fun and to show that you support and embrace your community and its members. These videos or media of any kind you choose to implement can also have a great educational value.

Great Brands…

Great brands not only sell like crazy; they also provide a unique consumer experience. They tell a story. A great brand name is Warcraft. It started as a game and it has evolved into a whole philosophy. Warcraft originally was a strategy pc-game. There are 3 series of warcraft: warcraft 1 (Orcs and Humans), warcraft 2 (Tides of Darkness and the expansion: Beyond the Dark portal), warcraft 3 (The Rhein of Chaos and the expansion: The frozen throne). Later came the ultimate MMRPG World of Warcraft and its latest expansion The Burning Crusade. But Blizzard (the computer game manufacturer company) does not sell only software but also books, comics and other merchandise. Blizzard has created a successful brand build upon a wonderful story. It’s that story that sells like crazy. There are many other similar titles both for the strategy and the MMRPG game that simply cannot compete warcraft because of the strong community it has build over the years and is based on an evolving and absolutely consistent story. Figures appeared in previous versions of the game appear again in the multiplayer game giving the players a strong feeling of consistency and a flashback. When one remembers one in-game character from its childhood switching to another massive multiplayer role playing game is getting almost impossible. There is strong emotional connection with the game. That is the ultimate branding technique. Connect the brand with the users in such a strong emotional relationship that can never be replaced.

A Branding Dilemma

Suppose you have created your own super widget and you want it to spread it and to be branded and put on thousands of other blogs, websites, etc. Widget is consisted of one squared area with the widget’s main function in the center of that square. You then add a link (usually) on the bottom of this square which refers to your website (the widget’s webpage) and to the sign-up / register / download – get yours page. Now a real marketing dilemma is raised: Suppose your widget is called PerWid (i.e. Perfect Widget ;-)). Do you put PerWid’s logo and name on that bottom link or you just add a plain link that writes “get yours instantly”? There are 2 approaches in that problem: The branding approach which enforces us to use logo and widget’s name as much as possible for several advantages (brand awareness, brand recognition, brand repetition & recall) and the simplicity approach, the approach corporations like google use. The later approach is based on the fact that if one sees the widget and likes it, he/she will click the link to get one for himself/herself too. You don’t need to confuse him/her with logos, brands and marketing tricks. I like it, I download it, I use it! (I cite that this is the google’s approach because google use to have a very simple and plain interface; no extra graphics, impressive effects, sounds, colors, etc. It only has the name of the search engine and the search bar; real simple and real clever! Sometimes success comes out of unexpected, of surprisingly different and controversial. We used to think that if we add more buttons and more graphics and more stuff we give customers more options and more features and thus more satisfaction but is this so? Don’t we just confuse visitors?

Does simplicity approach has any meaning in this particular example (the widget application)? Or the “normal” marketing – branding approach is better? I really don’t have any answer to that question. Should one use the common approach or try to differentiate? Of course both approaches are right but one might be better. Which one do you think?

2 uses for blogs

Blogs are useful to a lot of people. I blog and I bet you blog too. Whether you have a business blog, a little mall (exploiting SEO friendly and rich content blog) or a personal diary one thing is for sure: your blog is useful. The fact is that blogs can be used literally for every use. There is no limit other than one’s imagination.

In this post I will cite the two professions that are most benefited from blogging. These are journalists and writers. Journalism through blogging is a very effective mean for establishing one’s reputation, fame, for doing one’s passion and also a must for beginners. Writers can also be great benefited: they can post small samples of their work. This is similar to offline merchandising: just think it like a bakery that uses scents to lure passersby to shop. Moreover, writers can also start their career from blogging as this can facilitate the process of being noticed and stand out from the crowd.

Because of journalists’ and writers’ products being intangible word arrays, blogging is the perfect carrier.

Corporate Social Resposibility

I 've been inactive for a while, sorry about that!

I would like to discuss a few things about corporate social responsibility, a fast growing concept which is not as considered such a new idea!

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is about activities undertaken by corporations and organisations as regards environmental and social issues. It is about environmental protection measures such as reforestation or activities against sea contamination; sociatal issues such as unemployment programs, human rights support, local communities support etc.

Social Responsibility while it seems to be against shareholders' interests and share value can have a positive impact to the price of a share. Several researches from many countries have shown that although there are some others with ambiguous results.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

• Can boost a corporation's reputation (by increased publicity, strong Brand name building, word-of-mouth, etc.)
• Can save millions from prosecutions, negative publicity, riots, provoked by dissatisfied customers, pressure groups, local communities and the sevaral stakeholders (there are many examples of corporations which have been damaged in millions dollars and reputation)

There are several programs that corporations undertake, some of them may be:

• Support for literacy
• Support for Humal Rights and Labour Relations
• Fight against environmental pollution (air pollution, sea contamination)
• Fight against hunger, diseases (such HIV), race and other discriminations
• Support for child's rights and against children's employment
• Local community support (local umemployment, sustainable development and resources of local communities)
• Support for culture, science, sports etc.

There is not any standard program to undertake or any best policy to adopt. The best way to involve into corporate social responsibility practises is to find the needs of your corporation, the obtainability of your objectives and the impact your business has to the sociaty and the environment. Then you can choose the best program to fit your business goals and objectives and create your plan of action. It is also crucial to enable channels for interaction and communication with your stakeholders (shareholders, state, employees, suppliers and customers, pressure groups etc.) and support feedback from those groups. Thus you can be enable to predict the impact of your actions, mentain a good and honest communication and relation with your stakeholders something which will give you their help and support.

That's for now! Stay tuned-in for more articles and resources about Business and Marketing practices...