Social Responsibility in Marketing is More than a Trend

Black History Month, Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day, Earth Day, Asian Pacific Heritage Month, LGBTQ+ Pride Month. If you’re consuming media of any kind, it probably feels like you’re noticing an influx of marketing campaigns promoting content related to the celebration of and advocacy for specific groups and causes. You also may have noticed the companies promoting these campaigns run the gamut from Domino’s Pizza to Ernst & Young chiming in on why these celebrations matter to them. You’re not wrong. We’re just half way through the year, but marketing and social media calendars are packed and planned for content relating to these dates months and months in advance, even from the most seemingly unlikely of sources. 

Companies do this for a variety of reasons: they present a great opportunity to showcase their relationship to a certain cause, spotlight their talent and commitment to diversity, and more and more, to show that they’re part of a purpose greater than simply making money. If that sounds a little disingenuous, it certainly can be. Some of the campaigns are a more surface-level attempt to seem aligned with values of inclusivity, diversity, and, in some cases antiracism without being backed up by genuine internal commitments to the external marketing around the causes. But more and more, the public is quick to recognize those disingenuous attempts of solidarity and are likewise more discerning about the deeper social responsibility embedded into a company’s work. And that is evident in where consumers put their money. According to a recent study on corporate social responsibility conducted by AFLAC, seventy-three percent of Americans believe it’s either “somewhat” or “very important” for companies to make the world a better place, and the sentiment doesn’t stop there: a whopping seventy-seven percent of consumers are motivated to purchase from companies committed to making the world a better place. 

Numbers like this make it clear that weaving social responsibility into your business is no longer a feel-good, nice-to-have sidebar; it’s a necessity. People want the purchases they make and even their place of employment to contribute to a greater good. Dwindling are the days where just another superficial social media post on select national holidays will do – to keep up, socially conscious marketing and corporate communications must speak to a deeper commitment. It’s why 90% of companies in the S&P 500 have corporate social responsibility programs. But what does that look like in practice from a communications standpoint?

Let’s take for example a pioneer in the social impact marketing space: TOMS. In 2006, entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie founded the shoe company with a “buy one, give one” business model, capitalizing on the already brewing do-gooder tendencies of Millennials. The one-for-one model presented an easy-to-understand and extremely compelling story to market: buy a pair of shoes from us and we’ll give a pair to a person in need. Everybody wins! What’s not to like? So in the years that followed, countless other companies such as Warby Parker and Bombas successfully followed suit, and the co-mingling of social good and business and marketing has never been the same. 

In 2019, however, TOMS dropped the one-for-one model amid questions of whether or not the method is the most effective way to serve the communities they promise to benefit. They responded to these questions by evolving their business, and now instead of buy one, give one, they commit one-third of their profits to various grassroots social good programs relating to mental health, equity, and ending gun violence. Though this evolution might be a little too complicated to tell with a snappy catchphrase, shoppers have gotten wise in the last 15 years, and TOMS was agile enough to reframe to meet the demands. Gen-Z in particular has learned to look beyond the initial feel-good sentiment of a social impact-driven marketing campaign; they want details, and companies like TOMS who stay transparent will ultimately succeed with these audiences.

On the other side of the transparency spectrum sits a situation Disney recently found themselves in. Though Disney has worked hard to position themselves as an ally and champion for the LGBTQ+ community over the years, when it was discovered that the company was in actuality donating to political causes that will directly and negatively impact their lives, the blowback was swift and harsh. At this time, allegations of Disney executives’ attempts to censor LGBTQ+ content came to the surface. Disney employees staged walkouts, fans called for boycotts of the parks, and any sort of goodwill the company had worked to build suddenly felt disingenuous at best and completely erased at worst. Although CEO Bob Chapek issued an impassioned apology, vowed to pause political donations in Florida, and announced they’d be donating 100% of proceeds from their Pride merchandise collection to LGBTQ+ organizations, many felt it was too little, too late. 

What we can learn from these examples is that while incorporating social good into your business and marketing is a powerful way to connect to your audience, to attract and motivate talent and partners, and of course, to give back to your community, you need honesty, transparency, and integrity to build the credibility and trustworthiness to make a real impact with discerning audiences.

When done right, social impact storytelling and marketing has the power to strengthen and be an extension of our own brands, and doing that authentically should be simple. Companies that do this successfully know that the best place to begin is within their own communities and industries. Patagonia, the outdoor clothier inspiring their customers to spend more time in nature, naturally focuses on environmental causes. Airbnb, with access to available housing around the globe, focuses on refugees and disaster relief. LEGO is committed to learning through play via a multitude of programs that reach millions of kids around the globe. Connecting outreach work to our own business initiatives or our own communities sets the stage for greater impact, simply by capitalizing on our strengths and what we already know. From a marketing perspective, this is the most natural foundation for the kind of authentic, heartfelt storytelling that inspires trust and the greater sense of purpose that audiences are looking to connect with and in the grand scheme, feel a part of.