New book explains how to integrate CSR in your brand strategy

If you are reading this magazine, chances are that you have some sense of the value that can come from having a strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. But have you figured out how to effectively tie it to your corporate brand?

This is the very pertinent question that Kellie A. McElhaney asks in her new book, Just Good Business: The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility and Brand.

McElhaney stresses that any CSR effort must be aligned with two things: a company’s core business objectives, and the core competencies of the firm. Once CSR is embedded there — basically, at the heart of the company’s operations — then it is possible to communicate that fact through branding efforts.

The author doesn’t suggest this is an easy task. In fact, she wrote the book because so few companies manage their CSR efforts well. And even those who do very good things internally often don’t communicate those efforts effectively to their stakeholders — customers, shareholders, suppliers or employees. These companies are missing great opportunities to boost their reputations, their branding, talent management and profits.

The problem, as McElhaney sees it, is that many companies don’t line up their CSR efforts with their core function. Her first rule of launching a CSR plan is "know thyself." Sounds like a simple question to answer, but what business are you really in? Not enough companies answer that succinctly with a clear mission, vision and value statement. Those companies that do should consider how their CSR efforts relate to those statements.

As an example of how not to tackle CSR, McElhaney offers the example of Ford Motor Company and its announcement in March 2008 that it would contribute to Susan G. Komen for the Cure each time it sold a Warriors in Pink trim package for the 2009 Ford Mustang. The author notes that Ford had sent more than $95 million in cash and in-kind contributions for breast cancer to this particular charity.

While the cause is clearly noble, how does it relate to the Ford brand? Ford’s core competency is designing, manufacturing and delivering vehicles. As the author says, "Ford did not select an issue for which it owns part of the solution." So while the cause is an excellent one, from a strategic perspective, an investment in affordable and sustainable new fuels, and helping its customers save on operating costs would have been closer to the mark. It isn’t that Ford isn’t placing some of its efforts in this area, but the brand identification gets muddled. Consumers notice when core competencies and CSR don’t jibe — and they prefer it when the two efforts are integrated.

When you have a good focus for your CSR efforts, then it’s possible to find other organizations with which to work with on your efforts — non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or other businesses in your supply chain that share the same concerns.

But McElhaney stresses that you can’t forget about your most critical stakeholders — your staff. Employees can be some of the best brand champions, but they can’t do so without understanding the brand message. The author offers an example of a barista at Starbucks who didn’t know why the company sold Ethos brand water. The mission of that water company is to help provide access to clean water for many who currently do not have it. Starbucks purchased this company, in part, for the power of the brand, and yet by poorly educating its staff, it wasn’t capitalizing on that opportunity.

Just Good Business is full of similarly useful examples of how and how not to approach your CSR strategies and your CSR branding efforts.

As David D’Alessandro, author of Brand Warfare, says, "Brand is everything, the stuff you want to communicate to consumers and the stuff you communicate despite yourself." By taking a strong stance in your CSR branding efforts, you are more likely to communicate the image you want to have seen.

Just Good Business is being published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers in November 2008.

To read the first chapter of Just Good Business, click here.

To learn more at the publisher’s website, click here.

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