CSR for brand image building - A Pandemic Escape route through PR

CSR has a vibrant role in building a brand’s reputation, recognition and making a brand a household name. The consumer development CSR project that has been proposed stands on the same ground with community development. This would in turn enable an increased sales and revenue building. Especially in the times of COVID-19, where we are running out of PR tools and options, CSR can be utilized as a remarkable PR tool that projects a brand for its goodwill.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be defined as a continuous organizational innovation (Groot & Dankbaar, 2014). CSR refers to voluntary activities of firms and organizations to demonstrate the inclusion of social and environmental aspects in business operations and interactions with stakeholders (Van Marrewijk, 2003).

Taking a holistic approach to building out CSR programs can help strengthen brand reputation by cultivating relationships with local community members and employees who will, in turn, serve as advocates for your company and brand. It also provides an opportunity to build authentic, collaborative multi-sector partnerships with nonprofits and governmental agencies that may historically have been on the other side of key issues. Hence, this is an important area for and brand to reverse the bleed points that are entangled with its particular industry. 

It is evident that CSR should be incorporated as an integral part of an organization’s objectives. Customers, government, suppliers, and society in general will benefit and would be in a win-win position. 

CSR can be a good marketing tool for the organization's business profit making purpose where they operate and will enhance their financial position better than previews. Profit is important for any private firm but it should not be only and sole aim for firms, there should be CSR activities and initiatives which would aim to give back to the society in the community they operate.

There is a need for understanding on CSR and engagement of firms in social activities which would play an extensive developmental role in the society at large. Awareness of CSR and, clarity of its meaning are both important for the managers and all employees to understand its implications.

Public Relations can be utilized to spearhead CSR. As such, Corporations are being called on to demonstrate how they contribute to society. Effective, well-publicized CSR programs build goodwill for the company, attract loyal customers, and increase shareholder value. 

As corporate social responsibility gains attention, PR agencies can help plan, lead and publicize their company’s charitable efforts. One may call this an easy way out in a pandemic backdrop. But we can easily deduce that there is a certain amount of Zoom launches, product press releases, and advertorials a brand can handle, and an agency can pitch to the media. Evidently, contemporary PR agencies across the globe need to revisit their PR strategies. Hence, we propose CSR.

However, one should always remember the golden rule, when proposing a CSR project as a PR opportunity, that only by recognizing its responsibility for doing good, the ability to make a difference, and fulfilling this obligation, an organization can reap the rewards of CSR. Which in turn will offer - positive image, customer loyalty, and trust. The role of PR in this process is to ensure that customers, along with internal and external stakeholders are aware of the organization’s commitment and efforts. This can only happen if a PR strategy that corresponding to the CSR initiative is developed.

In other words, PR would give the brand a voice to inform and inspire people about their CSR efforts. Done successfully, Public Relations is the vehicle that enlightens and shares with the world the progress made by your brand. Thus, successfully embracing the strategic and integrated nature of CSR.

Sample CSR projects in Sri Lanka;

For ease of comparison, I have utilized the mobile industry of Sri Lanka, for my justifications. Both the brands I have highlighted here have engaged in minimal or optimal level CSR projects and utilized them as PR boosters for their organization’s market share increment and to build a positive consumer landscape. The following CSR projects are pre-Covid. However, each initiative embodies the true values of a CSR project.

Huawei Sri Lanka - CSR ( Educational Development) 

HUAWEI ‘Seeds for the Future’ 4th batch of Sri Lankan students leave for China

‘Seeds for the Future’ is Huawei’s global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) flagship program and most heavily invested CSR activity. Huawei firmly believes digital initiatives such as ‘Seeds for the Future’ flagship CSR program augur well with the Sri Lankan Government’s futuristic vision for the development of an advanced inclusive digital economy, with technocrats creating and developing the talent and the skills needed to take the country forward to achieve Sri Lanka’s goal of becoming a developed economy. In Sri Lanka, Huawei Seeds For The Future program was first launched in 2016, and since then till 2018, 30 top Lankan university students have benefited from the program. 

Samsung, Help Hands Society in CSR at flood-affected areas

Eager to get back to school, over 700 children in the flood-affected areas of Biyagama and Puttlam were presented with backpacks from Samsung Sri Lanka. The initiative was implemented by the Help Hands Society, a non-profit organization helping disadvantaged children and their families. Samsung Sri Lanka identified a key requirement for children keen on getting back to school and realized that school supplies, especially backpacks were overlooked by on-going relief efforts.

In today’s business world, it’s not always about the economic bottom line. As competition continues to increase among various industries, consumers are starting to take a deeper look at organizations that share their same values and embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR).

From a business perspective, one of the biggest benefits of promoting CSR initiatives through public relations comes from consumer and client preference in today’s society. By showcasing that a company has a CSR program you’re not only putting value in a product or service, but you are placing value behind that company’s ethos as a corporate citizen. As a result, you’re relaying the message that the company cares about more than just profit, but also the importance of their community and the world around them. This is a major boost point in the Sri Lankan context, which validates the social and ethical reliability of organizations when it comes to the consumer decision-making process and the Covid-19, backdrop makes this impact stronger.

If your brand does not do public relations outreach around their CRS program, they are missing out on an opportunity to share key messages that may not be readily evident to customers and clients. Public relations support behind CRS programs allows a company’s vision, mission, and values to come into life above and beyond a plaque on the wall or a statement on a company website. As such creating sustainable, and long-term PR facelifts for a brand.

All in all, whichever CSR campaign a brand decides on has to be a sustaining effort. With that in mind, company management should ask themselves how much time and resources they are unwilling to devote to CSR campaigns and what the overall objectives are. From there, infusing those efforts with public relations will have the biggest impact on a company and its reputation in today’s competitive landscape that is thoroughly suffering from the plagues of the COVID-19 pandemic.