Corporate Social Responsibility

What are the Major Current Challenges to Doing Good?

Photo courtesy of Harvard Business School OnlineOpens in new window Managers and program planners are challenged at each of the fundamental decisions points identified as follows, decisions related to:

1. choosing a social issue
2. selecting an initiative to support this issue,
3. developing and implementing program plans, and
4. evaluating outcomes.

1.    Choosing a Social Issue

Challenges are perhaps the greatest in this very first step, as experience has shown that some social issues are a better fit than others, and this first decision has the greatest impact on subsequent programs and outcomes. Those making the recommendations will end up juggling competing priorities and publics. They will be faced with tough questions, including these:

In February 2003, a feature article in Business 2.0 entitled “The Selling of Breast Cancer” described one of the pitfalls in this decision making in real terms. In the summer of 2000, Dreyer’sOpens in new window had apparently decided it wanted to support the cause of fighting breast cancer. “It had watched other companies conduct campaigns backing the search for a cure—and had seen their logos displayed at well-attended rallies and their products festooned with the cause’s signature pink ribbons.”

When Dreyer’s approached the Komen FoundationOpens in new window, however, they found that YoplaitOpens in new window had an exclusive contract to be the only yogurt manufacturer involved in this cause.

2.    Selecting an Initiative to Address the Issue

Once an issue has been chosen, managers will be challenged regarding recommendations on what initiative or initiative(s) should be selected to support the issue. And they will need to be prepared to answer tough questions similar to the following:

3.    Developing and Implementing Program Plans

Key decisions at this point include whether to partner with others and, if so, with whom; determining key strategies, including communications and distribution channels; assigning roles and responsibilities; developing timetables; and determining budget allocations and funding sources. The questions continue, especially around issues of time and money:

Philip MorrisOpens in new window began a social marketing initiative in 1999 with the slogan, “Talk to your kids about not smoking. They’ll listen.” This mass media campaign included print ads in magazines, a free 16-page, four color brochure, and a website with tips and lists of additional resources for parents.

For some, this initiative probably rang hollow, with people perhaps questioning the authenticity of a claim that a member of the tobacco industry is not interested in a market representing one billion packs of cigarettes a year.

4.    Evaluation

Ongoing measurement of marketing activities and financial investments for corporations has a long record, with decades of experience in building sophisticated tracking systems and databases that provide analysis of returns on investments and compare current activities to benchmarks and “gold standards.”

By contrast, the science of measuring return on investments in corporate social initiatives is very young, with little historic data and expertise. Marketing professionals and academic experts in the field confirm this challenge.

• Sinha, Dev, and Salas report that “Since the benefits related to CSR are not directly measurable, and most firms do not disclose expenses related to such activities, it is difficult to directly assess the return on CSR investment.”
• McDonald’s reports that even measuring a major event is challenging. “Most of our current goals and measurements are related to processes, systems development, and standard setting …. We are 70 percent franchised around the word: Currently, we do not have systems to collect and aggregate what some 5,500 independent owner/operators do for their community, people, and environment at the local level.”
• John Gourville and Kash Rangan confirm this difficulty: “Rarely do firms fully assess a cause marketing alliance and its potential impact on both the for-profit and the nonprofit entities. Yes, there are several stunning success stories . . . but most for-profit businesses would be hard-pressed to document the long-term business impact of their cause marketing campaigns and most nonprofits would have trouble pinpointing the value they bring to the partnership.”

And yet, as Bloom, Hoeffler, Keller, and Basurto conclude, “showing that the program was a more financially productive promotional tool than other possible promotional tool is becoming increasingly necessary.”