Guest post by Simon Mainwaring
There is something intriguing about the research that measures consumer support for corporate social responsibility and cause marketing. Take, for example, the Cone Evolution Study of 1057 American adults and the Edelman Goodpurpose Survey of 7000 global consumers) Read a few of the statistics from these, and see if it also jumps out at you:
From the 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study
• 85% of consumers have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about.
• 81% want to buy a product in which a portion of the sales goes to the support of the cause or issue
• 75% say that cause branding is important when they decide what to buy or where to shop
• 61% say they would try a new brand if it supported a cause.
From the 2010 Edelman Goodpurpose Survey
• 62% of global consumers “would switch brands if a different brand of similar quality supported a good cause”
• 65% say they “have more trust in a brand that is ethically and socially responsible.”
• 62% would help a brand to promote their products or services if there is a good cause behind them. (compared to 53% in 2008 and 59% in 2009)
• 64% believe it is no longer enough for corporations to give money; they must integrate good causes into their everyday business
Do you see what’s odd about these numbers? Do you find yourself being impressed by the desires of the majority, yet wondering: Why aren’t all these numbers 100%?
While we should all find great encouragement from these numbers, they also demonstrate how much more work there is to do to educate the public about corporate social responsibility. If you consider, for instance, that 15% of consumers don’t have a more positive image of a product when it supports a cause, and that 35% of consumers don’t have more trust in an ethical brand, it should make you wonder why these people fail to side with a worldview that seems very clear to others. It should make you wonder what type of world they want to live in and what role they believe corporations should play in building a better world.
It is admittedly heartening that both these surveys show rising numbers over time on nearly all fronts. For example, the 2010 Cone Cause Evolution study revealed that 88% of Americans say it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause or issue in their marketing, a one-third increase since Cone began measuring in 1993 when the statistic was only 66%. Similarly, the Edelman Goodpurpose survey showed that 62% of global consumers in 2010 vs. 53% in 2008 agreed that they would help a brand to promote their products or services if there is a good cause behind them, a jump of 9 percentage points. Such rising trends must be indicative of a greater public awareness about CSR, perhaps due to the negative publicity about irresponsible corporations since the financial crash of 2008.
Nevertheless, these results suggest that anyone involved in cause marketing has an important meta-task still to accomplish. We must begin campaigns to persuade people that CSR can no longer be a voluntary option in how we allow corporations to conduct business. We cannot achieve a more sustainable practice of capitalism while so many consumers still believe that CSR is an after-market choice they can make on their own, e.g., that they should have a right to choose between an environmentally sound product and one that is not, or between a product from a company that supports a cause vs. one from a company that thumbs its nose at the world.
In short, we need all consumers to be ready and willing to stand up for transparency, authenticity and sustainable practices from corporations. We must work together to ensure the next surveys demonstrate shifts in thinking that affect behavior in ways that can transform our world.
Simon Mainwaring is the founder of We First, a social branding consultancy that helps companies, non-profits and consumer groups build a better world through changes to the practice of capitalism, branding, and consumerism using social technology. He is the author of a new book, We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World (www.wefirstbook.com) Simon blogs at www.simonmainwaring.com and tweets @simonmainwaring
