Six reasons to incorporate Corporate Social Responsibilty into your business in 2015

With 2015 rapidly approaching is it time to start thinking about Corporate Social Responsibility for your businesses.
Simply put, CSR aims to ensure that companies conduct their business in the most ethical way possible. This means taking account of their social, economic and environmental impact and even consideration of human rights.

In addition to ‘doing your bit within the community’ CSR can have a positive impact on profitability by helping companies undergo a transformation from impersonal corporate giving to the “impact” of products and services on consumers’ lives – and, of course, the profits generated in the process.  This is backed by consumer surveys that show over 50% want to reward responsible companies by buying their products, and 53% would even pay a 10% premium for products they believe are provided by more ethical companies.

CSR can involve a range of different activities such as:

– Working with local communities
– Developing relationships with employees
– Developing relationships with customers
– Environmental protection
– Sustainability

So why should you start thinking about CSR and how will it benefit your business?

Here are six reasons why you should include CSR in 2015 –

Innovation – Innovation can be a key differentiator between market leaders and their rivals. New ideas are critical to your business’s success and businesses that fail to innovate run the risk of losing new business to competitors, losing key staff, or simply operating inefficiently.

Cost savings – One of the easiest places for a company to start engaging in sustainability is to use it as a way to cut costs. By treating sustainability as a goal businesses can develop competencies that competitors will be hard-pressed to match. That competitive advantage will stand them in good stead, because sustainability will always be an integral part of development.

Brand differentiation – CSR affects brand differentiation through customer preference and employee engagement.   We believe that CSR assists with the customer buying process when a company’s corporate social responsibility agenda is visible on a website.

Long term – One main reason businesses adopt CSR is to drive growth. CSR makes a company think long-term and plan wider initiatives than their core business, helping to prove and support a company’s future.

Customer engagement – What’s the point of doing CSR if no one knows about it? Since the message is about something “good” CSR can always help you engage with your customers in new ways.

Employee engagement – Along similar lines of customer engagement, if your own employees don’t know what’s going on within your business, you are also missing an opportunity.

If you would like help planning and integrating and engaging corporate social responsibility programme for your business, call one of the team at Whale Marketing today 0161 236 5395.