Does your business use recycled paper products or donate to ahomeless shelter? A growing number of consumers consider suchfactors when deciding whether to patronize your business. Acompany’s “social responsibility” quotient can make a difference toits bottom line.
If you think getting involved in social causes would work foryour business, here are some things to consider. First andforemost, customers can smell “phony” social responsibility a mileaway, so unless you’re really committed to a cause, don’t try toexploit customers’ concerns to make a profit.
Here are a few steps you can take to make social responsibilitywork for you:
- Set goals. What do you want to achieve?What do you want your company to achieve? Do you want to enter anew market? Introduce a new product? Enhance your business’simage?
- Decide what cause you want to align yourselfwith. This may be your toughest decision, considering all theoption out there: children, the environment, senior citizens,homeless people, people with disabilities–the list goes on. Youmight want to consider a cause that fits in with your products orservices. For example, a manufacturer of women’s clothing could getinvolved in funding breast cancer research. Another way to narrowthe field is by considering not only causes you feel stronglyabout, but also those that your customers considersignificant.
- Choose a nonprofit or other organization topartner with. Get to know the group, and make sure it’s sound,upstanding, geographically convenient and willing to cooperate withyou in developing a partnership.
- Design a program, and propose it to thenonprofit group. Besides laying out what you plan toaccomplish, also include indicators that will measure the program’ssuccess in tangible terms.
- Negotiate an agreement with theorganization. Know what they want before you sit down, and tryto address their concerns upfront.
- Involve employees. Unless you get employeesinvolved from the beginning, they won’t be able to communicate thereal caring involved in the campaign to customers.
- Involve customers. Don’t just do somethinggood and tell your customers about it later. Get customersinvolved, too. A sporting goods store could have customers bring inused equipment for a children’s shelter, then give them a 15percent discount on new purchases. Make it easy for customer to dogood; then reward them for doing it.
