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FEATURE


GROWING YOUR BUSINESS The responsible way


of building a winning brand


Natasha McCracken (pictured), Consultant for SMEs, charities and the third sector, talks about how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a limited concept and moving to a new approach can enable all businesses to build winning brands.


The notion of corporate social responsibility has been a staple on the marketing plan of every large business for many years, usually characterised by some mixture of donations of cash to worthy causes, staff volunteering, and donating specialist expertise, such as helping a charity become better at their digital marketing skills. And why is it on the marketing plan? To differentiate of course. To ‘build brand’. People like buying from decent people and staff also like working in decent businesses. The notion is great for business ‘big guns’ with cash and


people to spare, one could argue, but for many smaller and newer organisations CSR is seen as a luxury they cannot afford. Firstly, there isn’t the cash to ‘give away’, it may be even a struggle to cover costs; certainly any profits need to be ploughed back in to the business to facilitate stability and growth. Secondly, there is not a jot of spare staff capacity for volunteering during working hours. I would suggest such businesses ditch getting hung up on CSR in their marketing plan and ask themselves the question: ‘How can we be a social business?’ A social business is not a social enterprise. A social


enterprise is profit-making but driven by the aim to solve a social issue or promote good and all profits are put back in to the business. A social business is driven by profit but considers social impact alongside financial return, such as a decent business making an effort to be decent. I maintain every business can be a social business and most businesses to some extent probably are, but they don’t shout about the positive things they do effectively, and most could do that little bit more at no expense, differentiate that bit more and build brands that are more competitive. Here is a case study of a great social business. Timpson’s


strapline is ‘Great Service by Great People’. How does that marry up with its social impact activities? I have always found the company very friendly and efficient, so for me, it has delivered for one stakeholder group – the customer. The second biggest social business ‘shout out’ related to individuals and wider society is that a large proportion of its workforce are ex-offenders, and they even run day- release training so trainees are able to immediately take up jobs on release, sometimes at managerial level. Timpson says that it is a true equal opportunities employer, employing only on the basis of personality and attitude. It say this has only benefitted Timpsons. The company also advertises other positive social


impacts that aren’t so unusual, but has set standards publicly for itself to adhere to, such as a ‘happy index’ (employee feedback) the findings of which are publised yearly. It promotes that it is family-run, as many businesses do, but on its website this feels meaningful as each member individually writes what they care about.


44 business network May 2017


Small changes in the way your business is run could make a difference in its positive social impact


Regarding pay, the company doesn’t just say it gives


‘highly competitive salaries’, but ‘we pay what we can afford rather than what we can get away with’ which feels honest as some years of course business will be better than others. This is just a flavour of a few things one business which has ‘released their inner social business’ has done, having a positive impact and leveraging that to help build a successful business. Timpson is a leading retail service provider with 3,400 staff, a low employee turnover rate and outstanding public relations opportunities. I suggest you undertake this step-by-step process to


release your ‘inner social business’ and build a winning brand: • Assess the full value of your contribution now to all your stakeholders (you probably have more stakeholders than you think and don’t forget your staff)


• Check you are continually telling your stakeholders where you do have a positive social impact


• Find changes you could make so your business can have a bigger positive social impact. Involve all your staff and clients too. What do they care about? Brainstorm like crazy


• Ensure your mission statement or publicised brand values include something about your desired social impact, and that your visual brand and strapline is coherent with that


• Refresh your website and use social media to keep telling the world about your positive impact and make your brand shine


‘Every business can be a social business and most businesses to some extent probably are, but they don’t shout about the positive things they do effectively’


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