Do the right thing

As more and more brands ask us to bring their corporate social responsibility programmes to the fore I was amused by this quote from John D. Rockefeller: "Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing".

I can see plenty of clients who would say amen to that but my colleagues over at Ogilvy Earth are now looking at  a new and more radical agenda. Most brand managers know that CSR programmes in themselves have very little effect on consumer demand. That may be fine if all you're looking at is corporate reputation type measures but the irony is that in many cases the best thing these companies can do is buy more from their suppliers. Put simply, the single most important driver of quality of life for many farmers and others is the level of demand for their goods & services. That, in turn, means brands selling more to consumers.

As we said before, they're unlikely to do this by simply celebrating their new and ethically sound CSR practices. Rather, people still make most decisions on simple factors such as price, perceived quality and performance. So the trick, if that's the right word, is to show consumers how good and ethically sound business practices makes their product perform better. They'll buy more and feel better about doing so too. And the farmers and other suppliers throughout the world will directly benefit through greater incomes. It's a classic win - win scenario, and there really aren't many of them around any more.