Why Should We Care About Making a Difference?

Making a difference sounds good and feels good, but in the end, aren’t marketers mainly responsible for generating more sales? What’s in it for business?

Ultimately, it is beneficial for business to care about corporate social responsibility and promote the greater good for several reasons.

From a marketing perspective, doing good raises a brand’s profile and allows for more sustainable growth. Organizations with robust corporate social responsibility programs often receive positive press and can showcase their efforts via a variety of online and offline marketing channels. Many businesses are now seeking to improve the environmental and social impacts of their supply chains, and marketing that conveys these values with the data to support them is likely to resonate with consumers who are becoming increasingly cause-conscious.

In terms of future growth, depleting the resources that a company and its customers rely on today can cause high costs and other business and environmental difficulties down the road. A socially and environmentally responsible organization can grow sustainably, knowing that it is a good environmental and social steward.

Businesses built on social responsibility are also better able to attract, retain and engage top employees. In a Net Impact survey, both current workers and students entering the workforce ranked “a job where I can make an impact” as far more important than either wealth or a prestigious career. Forty-five percent said they would take a 15 percent pay cut “for a job that makes a social or environmental impact,” and 58 percent would take the same pay cut “to work for an organization with values like my own.”

While environmentally-friendly changes can incur upfront costs, they can also save money in the long run through decreased energy use, lower packaging costs and improved supply chains. Unilever has set and begun the implementation of rigorous waste-reduction goals, and provides a B2C example of a major business that has taken sustainable action and increased growth and profits. Similar benefits are in reach for B2B and healthcare companies that take action now.

With all of these positive business outcomes, no marketer should have to ask ask, “Why should we care about making a difference?” Instead, the question should be, “Why have we waited so long to take action?”