A month or so ago, I read a great article in Forbes by my friend Paul Klein . It was interesting because I deal daily with companies that engage in sponsorship and marketing. Each day, I work with brands that are trying to achieve better bottom lines. They invest in sponsorships to increase their brand awareness, penetrate new markets, or attract or retain employees. They make sponsorship marketing investments to drive traffic, increase sales, and so on. They need to deliver ROI.
Frequently, these companies invest in a sponsorship with a charity or non-profit. They hope to achieve their goals through affinity or branding alignment with social causes or organizations. It was the buzzword of the 2000s. They wanted to be (or at least be seen to be) a socially responsible company. As a result of this, we have seen unqualified individuals (as well as qualified ones) hang out shingles proclaiming to be Corporate Social Responsibility Specialists. Then there are the larger organizations that claim they can measure corporate social responsibility and tell you if you are doing “good” and why. These people and organizations have never sat well with me. I think much of what they do is smoke and mirrors, and fails to deliver real bottom line results.
Then I read Paul’s article. I thought it was great. What he has above the others is that he “gets it.” He hit the nail on the head. There must be true alignment. There must be buy-in to what you are doing from employees and consumers. Then it will truly yield part of the goal you seek to achieve…more profit. But you must truly believe in what you are doing. Otherwise, you are doing it only because you think it will help meet business objectives. You must be connected and not just doing a PR spin.
Paul sites several examples of how it is being done right. He quotes Mark Kramer, founder and managing director of social impact consulting firm FSG who said,
“Social change becomes part of the competitive advantage—companies have to compete around their ability to improve social conditions and achieve social outcomes.”
Paul then notes three questions that companies should consider when reviewing social change.
- What social issues are most relevant to who we are and what we do?
- What social issues are containing our growth or hurting our competitive positioning?
- What issues can we address directly to improve what we are already doing, and what do we need help with from NGOs, value chain partners, or government?
- Would we still be doing this if no one knew about it?
Perhaps this will make some re-assess what they are doing, how they are doing it and why they are doing it.
These are just one person’s thoughts. Yours are welcomed as well. Please add your thoughts or comments below. Thank you for reading and your feedback.
If you liked this post, you may like these:
- Is Sponsorship Part of Your Funding Program? The Need for Integration
- Truth Be Told – Sponsorship Marketing and The Social Good Report