While the youth of today continue to be catalysts in the drive toward environmental action, brands have been busy getting involved in environmental and other social good issues through ongoing or sporadic CSR initiatives. New research from comms giant Ogilvy intends to help brands understand how they can help make the world, and their business, better faster by intentionally making CSR efforts grounded in their brand’s core.
From Conspicuous Consumption to modern-day Conscious Consumption, the research examines how consumers have shifted over the years—and have driven brands to embark on CSR in different ways. From one-off projects through to business models built on circular design, brands have been active participants in CSR, but there’s still a long way to go. The report offers key actions brands can take to expediently make CSR a genuine and authentic component of their brand’s core going forward.
ESG areas of focus, while started in the investment world, now serve as areas of focus for brands to align their CSR initiatives:
Some key takeaways include:
Brands are dabbling in CSR across a spectrum
From one-off initiatives to those who have managed to become fully purpose-driven ecosystems, approaches to CSR have become diverse.
There’s a price tag that often comes with sustainability
The future state of conscious consumption is when sustainable products are affordable and attainable across spending power.
A brand’s core embodies a brand’s purpose, positioning, and action plans
All CSR initiatives need to stem from this core, and be felt internally as well as externally.
There’s an abundance of sustainable activity happening in the world today
Brands that matter will take a hard look in the mirror and spend the time to intentionally align their CSR activities to their brand’s core.
The corporate brand identity matrix:
“Sustainable enough is not good enough. Our goal is to help brands to more effectively harness the power that CSR can have on its organization and on the world by rooting those efforts in the brand’s purpose, positioning, and action plans,” said Ogilvy Director of Engagement Strategy Stephanie Bakkum and Executive Partner, Global Brand Strategy Lead Antonis Kocheilas, the authors of Making Brands Matter for the Generations to Come, in a news release.
Download the full report here.
