Responsible Marketing for People and the Planet
Share humanist values
Confined, deconfined, reconfigured, whatever, social distancing has accelerated the use of social networks and digital information media. Unable to express their consumption habits any longer, customers are necessarily concerned, among other things, with preserving their health and that of their loved ones, wondering about their professional future and acting at their level to help when they can. In this context, maintaining communication based on the values of solidarity and hope is much more than a strategic action. It is actually a way for the company to meet customer expectations, while sharing its values and vision for a better world. Thus, Marketing by values takes precedence over Product marketing to bring together a community of people (customers and prospects) likely to recognize themselves in these messages.
Responsible digital
At the height of the crisis, while many brands remained frozen in the first weeks of confinement, some on the contrary played the relay card of good practices.
Indeed, in order to demonstrate their attachment to compliance with the instructions set out by the public health authorities, companies have carried out awareness-raising campaigns on compliance with barrier gestures and social distancing. Establishments such as supermarkets (including large retailers), welcoming the general public have adopted reassuring communication. The Auchan health platform is a prime example. The objective here is twofold. First of all, inform the consumer about taking effective measures to guarantee their health security, but also make them aware of the need to respect government recommendations to preserve their own health and that of others. Responsible Marketing plays a decisive role in the dissemination of responsible behavior to consumers.
Taking into account societal challenges
Another important and not least element remains the coherence of Marketing in the face of current societal challenges. If it is true that Marketing has largely contributed to shaping the positioning of brands and making companies’ offers desirable in the eyes of consumers, today the acceleration of societal, environmental and economic issues requires revisiting the strategic choices of companies . In reality, a strong trend is clearly emerging: the consumer wants to fulfill his desires and at the same time, he aspires to contribute on his own scale to solve the major societal and environmental challenges of his time. Here again, opportunities exist if companies manage to redirect their Marketing approach in order to give the consumer the opportunity to satisfy these 2 types of need which formerly could be considered as contradictory.
Times have changed. Marketing has to catch up on the deep aspirations of consumers and which goes beyond the perimeter of companies. However, this requires upstream awareness within companies of what these challenges represent and how to integrate them into Marketing strategies.
Transparency on corporate commitments
Already present since the 1980s in the United States, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) represents a company’s commitment to sustainable development. Distributed in France for only ten years, the implementation of CSR approach has long been deemed useless, even dangerous by a large majority of managers and entrepreneurs. Today, informed observers have understood this well, a company that has not taken the time to define its social responsibility sorely lacks long-term vision and even runs certain risks (notably regulatory) that could undermine the sustainability of its activities.
That said, there are still certain strategic errors even among companies engaged in CSR approaches which can be summed up in a lack of integration and strategic communication.
Internally (employees, functional departments), as well as externally (consumers, partners), the different audiences of the company need to be regularly informed of the company’s CSR commitments. There is no point here in citing good or bad students. All the same, certain practices stand out clearly on the market.
Cited as an example on numerous occasions, the Danone company, through the multiple positions taken by its manager Antoine Riboud, has known how to position itself as one of the favorite brands of the French for the relevance of its Marketing strategy perfectly nested in its CSR approach . Beyond the speeches, the brand has been able to communicate intensely on its main Danone Way approach which aims to support the overall performance of the company through the prism of CSR.
As we can see, the consumer-citizen is looking for committed companies that offer responsible offers that are aligned with a certain ethic. The creation for several years of the Annual Social Media Sustainability Index demonstrates this very keen interest for brands to communicate more about their CSR commitments. Similarly, the multiplication of labels, such as B Corp, certifying the commitment of brands to assume their social responsibility, clearly expresses the enthusiasm of consumers for these new selection criteria in their purchases.
To conclude
Our objective through this decryption was to pose an analysis on the big challenges which face and will face companies and their leaders. In a world deeply marked by a health, social and economic crisis whose consequences are not yet fully understood, the challenges are daunting. Faced with the lessons that we continue to draw from this crisis, the first agenda for companies will be to strengthen their relational capacity, their agility and their culture of innovation, while remaining aligned with market aspirations. For this, Responsible Marketing will be a vector for sustainable transformation and sustainability of economic activity.
