Building Socially Responsible Brands
It is important for every business to be socially responsible. At the core of every business, survival is the need to make profit. However, profit-making is more achievable when the business centres around creating lasting impacts on society. Society is made up of people, a pool of existing and potential customers for businesses.
We all agree that customers are the heart of a business. Any business without paying customers is unsustainable and will collapse. Thus, the need for entrepreneurs to conscientiously build socially-responsible brands.
Explaining CSR
The act of being aware of and integrating social concerns into a brand’s operational procedures or business activities is called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
CSR involves being committed to causes that advance the livelihoods of the people in a brand’s host communities on the one hand and being an active participant in actions geared towards ameliorating the challenges they encounter as a people on the other hand.
SMEs should be committed to CSR because it is a win-win for them and society. Apart from the communal gains from which the business owner and staff would also benefit as community members (since they live and work there), the brand would enjoy certain rewards for adding value to society.
Such rewards include a positive brand reputation among the people, which guarantees patronage recommendations: a great selling point that can generate huge sales and profits. According to the 2015 Cone Communications/Ebiquity Global CSR Study, 84% of the respondents say they prefer to buy products or services from socially or environmentally responsible brands.
Active engagement in CSR also breeds loyalty and public trust in the brand; since it shows the brand is on the people’s side and cares about them. I once heard of a certain company whose office was guarded and protected by community youth during a communal clash that led to the destruction of several properties. The youth did that as a repayment for the ‘good deeds’ the community had enjoyed from the company before that incident.
One of the speakers at a conference I attended recently said Africa is under-developed because small businesses, which are drivers of the African economy (as the largest employers of labour), are not actively involved in CSR. Even though I couldn’t fault his argument, I understand SMEs’ position as small business owners and consultants in the sector.
The challenges of running a small business are challenging: from meagre capital, which is hardly enough to keep the business running, coupled with the rigours of day-to-day activities as an entrepreneur, one’s attention is fixated on making the business succeed. However, experience has taught me that no business can succeed in isolation from society.
Thus, the need to pay attention to the social and environmental gaps in society. This is the reason why social enterprises attract more funding, grow and scale-up faster these days. Their business model of creating a solution to an existing social problem makes them endearing; people love and patronise brands that make their lives easier and better.
When the word CSR is mentioned, people often think about physical projects like the construction of public potable water system, roads, rural electrification etc. This is another reason why SMEs shy away from it. The thought that CSR involves spending huge money on expensive projects that should be the government’s responsibility is discouraging for small businesses. However, there are many ways a brand can be socially responsible without deflating its already limited financial resources.
Five ways SMEs can build a socially responsible brand
Give Discounts to the Vulnerable in the Society
Vulnerability depends on the peculiarity of your brand’s host community. A grocery store in a poor community offering discounts to indigent families on food supplies creates a huge impact on the people. This is why KYC is essential for small businesses. Knowing your customer will help you understand their challenges and level exposure to them. Capitalising on those challenges for product sales is not enough. It is even more honourable to help make their lives better by indulging them in paying little or nothing for your products or services.
Ensure Profits Are Not Made at the Expense of the People
Building a socially-responsible business could even be doing something as little as ensuring value for humanity is at the core of your business processes. Selling expired and damaged goods, intentionally deceiving customers with value propositions, producing sub-standard/counterfeit products (and even selling them deceitfully at the price of the original), engaging in business activities that are not only illegal but also endanger the lives of the people: are examples of making profits at the expense of the people. Small businesses that are profit-driven without regard for the directly or indirectly affected people are not socially- responsible.
Support Causes/Projects that are Relevant to the Development of the Community.
As I earlier stated, CSR is not only about financial donations to big projects. Showing up for the little projects in the community such as environmental sanitation, cleaning of drainages, etc. are good ways to show community solidarity. Support for local competitions, honouring invitations to cultural events, attending meetings where key decisions about the community are taken etc. Donation of books and other academic materials to community schools,
Advocacy
Lending a voice to issues that affect the people: sensitising the public on habits and lifestyles that may be life-threatening, supporting the government’s campaign for people to take certain actions to limit the spread of diseases (e.g. COVID-19 social distance and personal sanitary protocol compliances) etc
Environmental Protection
Small businesses should ensure that the environment is not polluted or endangered through their business operational procedures. Proper disposal of wastes should be the norm. Emission of toxic gasses into the atmosphere should be prevented as much as possible. Factories should not be situated in densely populated areas because of possible noise pollution from machinery.
