A few years ago I had the privileged of attending a seminar hosted by former NFL player and online entrepreneur Tracy Eaton. Though I ended up not taking part in the business venture that he was advocating, there was one thing in particular that he said that has stuck with me:
“The only effective means of advertising is word-of-mouth.”
Last year I was able to sit in on a presentation given by my sister, Alice Yates, about corporate social responsibility (CSR). She made a similar statement that particularly struck my interest:
“CSR is one of the only effective means of advertising in today’s market.”
I feel like these two concepts are directly intertwined. Traditional advertising has become ubiquitous with today’s media, so much so that it has become easy to overlook. Our eyes no longer see the advertisements on the side of websites, DVRs enable television viewers to skim through the commercials, and, having worked on a multi-state mail campaign, I can testify to the lost effectiveness of print advertisements.
Coffee always tastes better if you know your latte money is going towards a good cause
People talk, and they talk about companies. Enron will forever be known, not for the energy and pipelines they produced or their numerous awards from Fortune Magazine, but for their infamous accounting scandal in 2001. In the same way, people notice when companies do positive works.
CSR is all about companies giving back, and not just their stakeholders. It allows companies to attract people’s attention, including potential customers, through ethical behavior and contributing to the community.
To top it off, CSR works.
Take coffee for example, something which I personally cannot live without. Experience has shown that customers are willing to pay more for fair trade coffee, knowing that those extra few cents to a dollar is going towards a good cause. Companies such as Allann Bros Coffee Company have build their business model around selling only organic, fair trade coffee. Starbucks has become the country’s biggest trader in fair trade coffee, and has plans to double the amount of fair trade coffee they purchase in 2009. To check out their CSR report, click here.
So while spending millions of dollars on Super Bowl commercials has its payoffs, CSR offers a real way to give back to the community while spreading your name. It also costs a lot less.
What do you think? Has your perception of a company ever changed after learning about their CSR programs?
good job!
[...] I discussed in a previous post, word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of advertising. By combining the shock value of [...]