Corporate Eye

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Archives for February 2011

Is China the future of CSR? | CSR Around The World

One of the acronyms which has gained common currency over the past few years is BRIC : meaning Brazil, Russia, India and China.  But have you ever wondered who coined the acronym in the first place?

Step forward Jim O’Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who invented the term some nine years ago when trying to predict what the world would look like in 2050.

With China now the second largest economy in the world, Brazil and Russia in the top ten and India knocking on the door at 11, his prediction that they would dominate the traditional G7 by 2050 seems to be coming true faster than he imagined.

This is why, writing in Project Syndicate, he has revised the original prediction and now believes that by 2020 the BRIC countries’ economies will outweigh the US with up to two thirds of that block coming from China.

Aside from the simple financial influence this will have upon markets and commodities, what will it mean for the way business is done and, in particular, the currently growing CSR movement?

To try and get to the bottom of this I asked Richard Brubaker, Founder and Managing Director, Collective Responsibility and Adjunct Professor of Responsible Leadership, China Europe International Business School, about his experiences of CSR in China.

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Is Mobile Marketing Still an Option or Now a Requirement?

If you thought social media marketing grew quickly, then hang on tight because mobile marketing is absolutely exploding. Every company is trying to get their brands a few taps away from smartphone and tablet owners, so consumers can engage with brands anytime and anywhere from their iPhones, iPads, Android devices, Blackberry devices, and so on.

This month, Apple unveiled a new subscription option for mobile apps in its store that streamlines the process for app developers to sell their apps and charge monthly fees for their use. Of course, Apple tacks on a 30% fee for themselves using this new process, but they also take care of credit card processing and other behind the scenes tasks and maintenance. Now, mobile app developers can sell their apps to the growing iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad consumer base for free, for a one-time fee, or for ongoing subscription fees.

The trick for businesses is finding the sweet spot that balances the usefulness of the app with the amount people are willing to pay for it. No one knows the secret yet because although mobile marketing is exploding, it’s still in its infancy.

And that leads back to our original question. Is mobile marketing still an option or now a requirement? In 2011, all companies are looking at mobile. It makes sense. That’s where customers are moving if they’re not already there. Research from Forrester reveals that U.S. consumers are expected to spend over $1 billion via mobile in 2011. Of course, that’s not all through apps, but it demonstrates a clear trend in consumer behavior.

The problem for businesses in 2011 is falling victim to the risk of marketing scared. The last thing a business should do is invest time and money into creating a mobile app just because that’s the big buzz or just because competitors are doing it. Instead, take some time to create a truly useful mobile app. As Forrester predicts in its 2001 mobile trends predictions:

“Companies will invest first in convenient services for customers; acquisition will come second. In the hierarchy of benefits that mobile offers — revenue generation, cost savings, and convenience — convenience will reign for the next year. However, for some industries, particularly in the retail space, we expect more and more companies to reach seven figures in direct mobile transactions.”

The key take-away is this: mobile marketing is a huge opportunity, but don’t dive in without a paddle or your efforts will drown. Your first step must be to plan, strategize, and think long-term by creating a truly useful app for your target audience.

What is your company doing in the mobile space? Leave a comment and share your story and your opinions about mobile marketing.

Image: Flickr

What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 39: What Makes You Unique?

company profileWhen most people are children, they want to be someone special when they grow up; nobody ever wants to be just another anonymous person. So growing up and even later in life, we all foster a belief in our unique combination of talents and characteristics that make us a special person (at least to our spouses, children and dogs).

And so it is with companies as well. Every company strives to be unique. In business school they give it the fancy name of differentiation, but the concept is clear: your product or service offering needs to stand out from the competition. Even if your product is simply a ‘me too’ offering, there needs to be something that makes it more attractive in some aspect, whether that be price, delivery mechanism or simplicity of use, that will cause the customer to part with their money.

To take this analogy one step further and apply it to investing, if investors can be shown that a company occupies a unique position in the marketplace, they are more likely to understand the underlying investment thesis of the company and buy the stock.

Burberry's Company Profile
click the image to enlarge

Take for example Burberry, the British apparel company. The firm has traditionally been thought of as a manufacturer of traditional trench coats, but more recently has pushed into fashion. How is an investor supposed to think of this?

Burberry addresses this in their corporate profile page, which I’ve set out here. After reading the page, an investor has a pretty good idea of why Burberry thinks of themselves as unique, and how they plan to use that attribute to grow the company.

So the takeaway here is clear: by telling investors why your company is special, you can help them focus on the reasons to own your stock.

In this series:
Previous post: Investment Case
Next post: Key Performance Indicators

Would Your Employees Nominate Your Company for a Best Place to Work Award?

I’ve written about the importance of internal brand advocates and branding from within your organization before on the Corporate Eye blog, and today, I’m going to revisit the topic by asking a question.

Would your employees nominate your company for a best place to work award?

Each year, various organizations hold “best companies to work for” awards programs.  Advertising Age published a call for nominees for its own Best Places to Work award earlier this month.  Do your employees believe in your company and your brand promise enough to nominate your company for such an award?  If your answer to that question is no, then you need to invest more time into building internal brand advocates.

If your employees don’t feel good about your company and believe your brand promise, then why should customers?  The answer is simple.  Customers won’t believe.

Your employees should be your first source for positive word-of-mouth marketing.  They can be your strongest brand advocates and most vocal brand guardians.

Not sure what internal brand advocates look like?  Spend some time on the Zappos corporate site.  Watch the videos, read about the Zappos culture and core values.  You’ll learn very quickly what people who believe in their company and brand promise look like, sound like, and are capable of in terms of brand advocacy.

The next question is whether or not you can do it in your organization, too.  Remember, internal brand advocacy comes from the top.  Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh walks the walk and talks the talk when it comes to the Zappos brand promise, and Zappos employees believe.  If your leaders don’t buy it, then your employees won’t buy it.  And that means customers won’t buy it either.

Image: stock.xchng

Eni : A Leader in CSR Websites

It’s not often I look at websites outside the UK … partially because it’s always difficult to mash CSR language through a translator, and partially because Corporate Eye’s core market is UK based.

However the Italian oil and gas supplier Eni has caught my eye several times.  Their online reputation is, quite simply, massive.

Other Corporate Eye bloggers have written enthusiastically about their Corporate Governance and Investor Relations and the company’s CSR site regularly wins plaudits from Lundquist, an Italian website benchmark consultancy along the same lines as Corporate Eye.

Now the website has also come second in Lundquist’s online branding analysis for Italian companies (Pirelli came first).

So what is it about the six-legged, fire-breathing dog which makes them such a colossus in the online world, and why is their CSR site in particular such a hit?

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