Brand assets and touch points are like words in a sentence. By themselves they might have their own independent meaning, but when combined they add up to convey a larger meaning and message or voice. Everything a brand says or does has an impact on a brand’s voice.

Historically brands and the business they represent were viewed by the general public simply as a business, with basic economic and strategic issues to deal with. However, right now we are witnessing a shift in the way consumers think about brands. Consumers are now seeing brands more as living, breathing entities with personalities and voices all their own. As a result, brands are being asked to act more like good citizens and have an overall net positive impact on the world or at the very least to limit their negative impact.

It wasn’t that long ago that the majority of consumers had no clue about a product’s life cycle. They didn’t know or care where their food came from. They had no idea what a brand’s policy on energy was of if it recycled. Consumers didn’t think about human rights issues in the factories of the developing world.

There’s little doubt about it, Corporate Citizenship has become a force within many brands and organizations. Some of these efforts are very large in scale and highly publicized (think Pepsi Refresh project). Others are as simple and small scale as creating an office recycling program. Either way, it seems as if people within organizations of all sizes and types are actively seeking out opportunities to be better corporate citizens. The momentum behind the movement seems so great that it almost seems assumed that something must be done by each and every brand and organization.

One question must be asked, though, when considering whether or not your brand should engage in an activity; what is my motivation for doing this? That’s right, I said it. As much as it pains me to say, your brand better have very specific reasons for being a better corporate citizen, or you may be doing more harm than good.

I’ll spare you the lecture that economist Milton Friedman would give on this topic. I’ll just say that anything that takes a brand’s eye off of the singular focus it was created to achieve makes the brand a little less competitive in its market and a little less viable as an ongoing concern. In an ever more competitive world, it doesn’t take much of a slip to lose your competitive edge and set you back. So, if you’re considering doing something in the Corporate Citizenship realm, you need to ask yourself a very important question. “What is my brand getting in return for this effort?”

The problem I see with the body of knowledge on the topic is that nobody really knows how much these efforts drive purchase.

Ok, I have spent the last five years convinced that the marketing hype was just that—hype. Mostly from reading countless advertisements for LED lighting products that play on unsuspecting readers with questionable claims, such as Long life! Excellent color! High efficiency! Brighter!

Well, what were previously exaggerated claims are now coming to be real. LED lighting products are here to stay. And the bubbling pot is about to explode. After years of refinements, and new industry regulation, the products are consistently better performers than the previous generation.

The US Department of Energy has developed a labeling program (I think it is voluntary) that provides a means of consistency for describing LED performance. It addresses Light Output, Watts, Efficacy, Color Rendering Index and Correlated Color Temperature. Or Brightness, Energy, Efficiency, Color Accuracy and Light Color.

“Each of us must work for his own highest development, accepting at the same time his share of responsibility in the general life of humanity—our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.” –Marie Curie

In a world where we are so quick to assign blame, BP’s name is currently mud. News stories, blogposts and articles suggesting that BP should be nailed to the cross for the latest major oil spill have been the norm for the past month. One result of this spill is that no one knows exactly how many gallons have spewed into the Gulf. Reports range from 200,000 gallons to 4.2 million gallons per day. I never excelled in math, but to state 200,000 with a possibility that, “Oh, we could be off by 4 million gallons,” seems to indicate that no one really knows how bad this could be. By the latest estimates, the spill has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (11 million gallons) to become the largest environmental disaster in US history.

If BP, who by the way has invested over 4 billion dollars in alternate energy initiatives since 2005, is now being deemed as the poster child of anti-Mother Earth, where does that leave the rest of us? I believe it leaves us in an odd predicament—caught between striving to be good corporate citizens and managing the latest PR backlash from polluting, using child labor, releasing toxic chemicals into the atmosphere…drinking from a Styrofoam cup, not recycling printer cartridges, or even God forbid using an incandescent light bulb.

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Tags: Citizenship, environmental initiatives, Sustainability | No Comments »