Good work
Branding
By Harish Bijoor
Coca Cola has got its act right.
The guys behind the scenes, Muhtar Kent downwards, are a force to contend with
in the world of CSR Marketing. CSR Marketing is today a new sub-science of the
world of marketing at large.
CSR Marketing is not an Oxymoron
anymore. In fact it is the best thing to do when you are a big brand with a big
footprint of consumption all across the world. Brands such as Coca Cola,
Marlboro, Dettol, and indeed every other mega brand that touches billions
across the world can and do use a bit of CSR in their marketing approach.
Take the history of CSR in the
world. It began in many ways when marketing companies looked around themselves
into the environment. They looked first at their Corporate bottom-lines and
discovered profit. And having discovered profit, and having invested that
profit and splurged it around into everything that was possible, from the
realms of personnel training, corporate junkets, corporate jets and more,
profit had to find its way into society.
In many ways, if you view the
evolution of CSR in any country, you will see that it is the last thing that a
corporate enterprise does. When profit oozes from every orifice of the
organization, that’s when CSR bounces and bounds.
Visualize a large vat. Imagine moneys that go
into CSR as moneys that go out of a small little pipe vent right at the top of
the Vat, much beyond and after the Plimsoll line of profits has been breached.
In many ways visualize this Vat with a small little vent opening right near the
top brim. If you visualize it this way, you will also realize that if these
profits did not find their way out (into society), the vat would itself be in
danger. Danger of bursting as well. Therefore, CSR expenditures typically have
been “safety valve expenditures”. When profits have been obscene, they find the
way out. Ouch!
That hurts for sure, but then
that has been the history at large of most corporations and the CSR movement. With
a few exceptions.
Let me trace this further. In the
beginning corporate organizations look after their immediate physical environment.
If you had a factory in Jamshedpur, you looked after the people in the eco-system
around. Then the mindset to CSR changed. You started thinking beyond geography.
You picked causes. And when you picked causes, you picked adjunct causes to the
industry you belonged to. If you were a tobacco player, you looked at health.
If you were a marketer to kids, you looked after under-privileged kids.
Subliminally, if not overtly, the connect always existed.
And then came the era of obscene
CSR marketing. I have been witness to CSR efforts during the recent Tsunami
that hit Indian shores. I have personally seen large trucks carrying water and
supplies. Many of them chose to emblazon themselves with the brand names and
logos, literally telling the people all around the source of where the help
came from. One savvy corporate organization even had ‘savvy marketing-think’
where they had the top of the trucks emblazoned with their brand logo. This was
ostensibly for the media helicopters to catch when they hovered around the area
under distress. How far can one go! How far must one go!
And then there is the latest
evolution of it all. The Coca Cola India ‘Support My school’ campaign with NDTV
is a classic example of it all.
I like this campaign as it picks
a cause that is universal and big. It is about kids and their right and need to
education. It picks rural and small town schools. It takes valuable resources
to points of need. It is not shy and does not use subterfuge as well. It talks
to its audience without resorting to the ‘in-the-face’ tools of advertising. It
helps build future customers. In
that way, it gives and takes. It gives resources today to get a nation of school-children
going. It takes subliminally. It takes when it impinges its brand name all
across, and plants a soft thought of an otherwise hard brand in the minds of
impressionable kids.
I do believe this is fair. I do
believe no corporate organization must invest its money into CSR without purpose. Do remember, corporate organizations
are run by stake-holders of share-holders and employees among others. The
purpose of a corporate organization is profit. The organization must aim at
profit in all their ventures, whether commercial or CSR oriented. In however making
this profit happen, nothing wrong if good money can chase good causes such as
this one. I do be believe Coca Cola has cracked this code with this and other
initiatives in South Africa where the company is aiming at getting
water-positive. After all they consume so much of it. Only right that they
focus on the biggest issue that faces the planet: water!
The point is a simple one. CSR
makes eminent marketing sense. Companies make their moneys from people. When
you focus your profits back into the very same people who help you make money,
the marketing cycle is complete. CSR is really the new advertising of the
future. As people tire of inane advertising that aims at awareness and trial,
people will give positive brand blessings to those companies that invest in
good work that leads to trial and use of product or service.
Harish
Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Twitter @harishbijoor
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
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