13 simple ideas to help Marketers to engage with CSR in order to achieve their marketing and business goals
1. Be inspired - Watch Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth”
2. Do some research. Speak to the person responsible for CSR in your company, or the Chief Executive and identify your most significant environmental or social impacts and what you’re already doing about them. You might be surprised how much unrecorded work is already taking place.
3. Take ownership over CSR. If no-one owns environmental, social or ethical issues in your company, this is your chance to own CSR.
4. Work with your stakeholders - Speak to your Public Relations or Corporate Communications Departments and find out if anyone ever protests against your company or products or services. Think about how you might work with the protesters to solve the problem and evaluate whether that effort is less than the potential reputational benefits of finding a solution. See if there are any charities which work in your area, meet with them and brainstorm how you can help one another.
5. Listen to your customers - Contact your top 10 customers to request and then read a copy of their CSR report. Think about how your business could solve some of the issues which are discussed in their CSR reports. Ask if there are any environmental accreditations like BITC CommunityMark which might allow you preferential supplier status.
6. Get some help – Speak to your local Business Community Partnership like www.bhbcp.org.uk or www.envirowise.org.uk and ask for their specialist help. Consider applying for a Green Action Grant to help fund your action plan http://www.betre.org.uk/Detail4.aspx?ChannelID=29&PostingID=176
7. Build a team – find out who amongst your work colleagues, suppliers and customers shares your interest and form a team to share the workload.
8. Make a Plan – work out what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there. Design a structured one year plan with objectives, timelines and people with designated responsibilities.
9. Green alternatives - Does your marketing encourage mass consumption? Think about how you might minimize the environmental impact of its production, distribution and disposal and / or produce a more durable “low carbon” or environmentally friendly alternative.
10. Packaging waste – ask your suppliers to come up with some eco friendly alternatives which minimize wasteful and excessive packaging and eliminate oil based plastics and toxic inks.
11. Move your marketing and distribution online! Online marketing uses no paper, requires no road transport and in many instances provides a better return on investment (we would say that wouldn’t we!!) We’ve provided some innovative marketing ideas in Section XX “Internet tools for CSR Brands and Advertising Agencies” for your Ad Agency to consider in future campaigns.
12. Green your supply chain – ask all of your suppliers (from stationary and print to SEO and web design) what they are doing about Climate Change and give preference to those taking positive action. Their good work will reflect well on you.
13. PR and Communications campaign – be sure your CSR activities have substance and deliver tangible benefits; if they do, make the most of it, the media have an appetite for news like yours.
RSS Post Feed
Linked in