By: Boštjan Prijanovič, director of New Moment Y&R Ljubljana, founder of the BP Communications marketing school and board member of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Slovenia
In recent years it’s been considered mandatory for every company to undertake social responsibility activities. In the same way that in every American feature film you must have one African American, one Hispanic, at least one woman, one gay and, more recently, at least one Slav who speaks with a Russian accent (and in 90% of cases the role is played by Rade Šerbedžija).
So, to get back to our subject – it is politically correct for a company to have a union, a workers’ representative in the management, a woman as head of the personnel department (or of the marketing department, but rarely of development), to be oriented towards society, and of course, to be socially responsible.
Well, the problem is that most companies don’t take these activities very seriously. It’s more of a PR thing, and not really necessary for sales. “It’s just for our image”, they say. “What we need is sales.”
If I ever hear again that brand image is not equal to sales, I’ll, I’ll … well, I won’t kill myself, but I will scream, loudly. At least that. Maybe I’ll also hit a wall – not with my head, but gently, with my fist. To be honest it makes no sense for me to suffer because the stupidity of others.
Back to the subject – it is possible for a company to engage in socially responsible activities and thereby to achieve practical goals. Socially responsible activity that increases sales. The dream of every marketer who wants really relevant activities, but must still convince the procurement department and management.
Do well by doing good. That’s what they call it in the country that will soon have a woman for president, or a woman from Slovenia as first lady. Both possibilities are fantastic.
In Slovenia, under the auspices of the Centre for Non-governmental Organizations, I’ve been running workshops on Cause Marketing, free for participants, for the third season. It’s a program that joins companies, non-governmental organizations and advertising agencies to create joint activities on a market basis. For example: with every purchase of a particular product part of the proceeds goes to NGOs.
So far, the project has involved 48 organizations and more than 70 individuals. Several excellent projects have been realized (in the forefront are BTC and, of course, Renault, and also Studio Moderna), where the companies supported the objectives of non-governmental organizations and at the same time pursued their vision. All this with great support from advertising agencies, which are an important part of the program.
Cause marketing represents the possibility for a company to be truly socially responsible, and not just on paper.
