Too often, communications and sustainability professionals make sustainability jargon the centrepiece of their communications efforts. But in the end, who understands and relates to such language apart from communications and sustainability professionals themselves?

Take the ‘sustainability’ word alone: highly complex and generic buzzword that is seen everywhere but never understood.

We all need to be better at borrowing the language of our audiences themselves to skillfully articulate the “so-what” and “what’s in it for me” of our sustainability strategies and visions. For examples, when communicating with employees, we need to connect with their language, context, and priorities, often without ever using the S-word. If the job of our engineers and technicians is all about safety, frame ‘sustainability’ as greater safety. Greater safety for employees. But also for the environment and the communities.To get to that point, the key is to understand the audience: which values does employees relate to? what is expected from them in their day-to-day role? How is their behavior rewarded in return? How to they define the S-word? what does it mean to them?

I am so happy anytime I see a piece of communications collaterals that does not use the S-word. In the end, isn’t this the ultimate sign of a successful integration into the business? ….but then … how will I call my blog?

I love data and surveys! This one is a must read for anyone looking at corporate reputation and sustainability communications issues as it gauges the perceptions and/or expectations of the most influential thought leaders in the sustainability arena – NGOs, corporate peers, government representatives or academics.

This year, the findings are really interesting and worth sharing (click on the pictures to enlarge them):

• Confidence in NGOs to advance the sustainability agenda continues to erode and falls below the 50% line, while confidence in social entrepreneurs keeps increasing and is now reaching 57%. Is this trend due to a perception that innovative business models put forward by social entrepreneurs are more effective in creating positive change than NGO activism or NGO/corporate partnerships? Definitely something to keep an eye on…, while confidence in government is at an all time low. 

• Making long-term sustainability commitments, taking on bold goals and communicating about it through well-defined and branded engagement platforms is key to drive perceptions of leadership….and thus corporate reputation. The spike in Unilever’s perceived leadership since the launch of its Sustainable Living Plan is a clear exemple of this.

• Commitment to sustainability values is considered as the most important factor in determining leadership. It confirms again that sustainability has to be core to what a company stands for and needs to be deeply embedded into a company’s DNA and internal culture first and foremost. Deploying a sustainability strategy into the core business model and across the supply chain can only come after solid foundations have been established internally, starting from the top.

For the second year in a row, I am very excited to be media partner of Communitelligence’s Communicating Sustainability conference, which will be held on September 22 and 23 in Santa Clara, California.

Very excited, why?

• Because it touches on a critical aspect of (genuine) corporate sustainability: bringing it at the core of what businesses stand for, at the core of their culture, mission and values….their DNA!
• Because it brings together a global audience of experts and professionals from a wide range of organizations – businesses, non-profits, media, etc. – to discuss latest trends of sustainability communications
• Because it is also accessible to people like me who do not live in the US: the second day of the conference will be a virtual conference!

For more information, please check Communitelligence’s website here. Enjoy!

This is the question Nathan Schock of the Greenway Communiqué tried to answer in an article published in the first PRSA Tactics issue of 2010: Communicate your environmental achievements in the New Year, by reaching out to the most prominent sustainability commentators, journalists and bloggers in the US.

All these interesting inputs and answers revolve around five key principles that I attempt to summarize below:

• Be transparent. This is THE golden in sustainability communications. Greenwashing has resulted in increased skepticism and green fatigue. So, be honest. “Tell us the progress, but tell us the trade-offs, too. The cliché about this being a journey, not a destination, is true here,” says Martin LaMonica, senior writer at CNET News and CBS Interactive, blogger at Green Tech. This will help make your story human…and much more credible.

• Think about the audience. “It’s a truism, but you have to craft your pitch to the journalist and his or her publication,” explains Todd Woody, contributing editor at Fortune and blogger at Green Wombat. Understand what matters to your audience, what are the top of mind issues, what the audience wants to know and read about. This often means focusing less on green features and more on benefits such as cost savings from energy efficiency, etc. depending on what means the most to your target audience, be it customer or investor. Marc Gunter, contributing editor at Fortune and blogger at Marc Gunther adds, “I’m looking for stories and blog posts that will not only attract readers but leave them feeling that they learned something new, different or provocative, maybe even something they would pass along to a colleague or friend.”

• Prove what you say with data but still keep it clear. Facts and figures are indispensible key proof points. But don’t overwhelme the audience with it. As William Brent, senior vice president at Weber Shandwick, blogger at The Search for Cleantech advises, stay specific (don’t speak in often meaningless ‘green’ generalities) while making sure you speak in simple terms (frame your story in terms that people understand).

• Provide a bigger picture as well. It is critical to put your client’s story into context, i.e. the bigger sustainability issues around it, how this fits into your client’s overall business strategy and sustainability goals, etc. “Too many PR folks spew facts without context, leaving their audience with more questions than answers and setting themselves up for charges of greenwash, or worse,” says Joel Makower, blogger at Two Steps Forward.

• Don’t “pitch” bloggers—participate! As traditional media models are struggling with fewer reporters covering sustainability and green stories (and not only) and readers are getting most of their news via online channels, it is critical to determine how social media can best meet your needs. However, be reminded about the specificities of blogger outreach! Build relationships with individuals and communicate with one-on-one, personal messages. As Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, founder and editor of Sustainablog insists, “Don’t play the numbers game with green bloggers — blasting out press releases just doesn’t work very well in this space. Find a few you’d really like to connect with, and then do just that: try to build a relationship. Offer opportunities to talk with clients and have your client prepare for a genuine conversation, rather than a presentation of a scripted message.” This is also true for traditional media relations. Be a helpful resource to reporters or bloggers.

• If you do participate, be ready to go a step further. Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation says it all: ‘The leaders will be companies willing to talk about the things their competitors are afraid to talk about.” This is probably the only way to truly cut through the clutter, isn’t it?

Image Credit: Getty Images

As CSR/sustainability players are catching on, one truth is to be reminded: social media is an attitude, not a technology, as showed on the slide below extracted from SustainAbility’s interesting research on stakeholder engagement through web 2.0 (click here to download the slide deck).

One of the many mistakes organizations can often make with social media is the mistake of getting on social media and learning the technology and the tools/platforms offered (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.), but not learning the best practices of what is called social media behavior.

Social media is about conversations and relationship building. Revolving around trust, social media requires openness, transparency, accountability, and two-way engagement with an ability to listen first….. and this is even more important in our field as all of these elements are fundamental principles of CSR/sustainability strategies themselves!!

Before getting on the social media bandwagon, it is therefore important to “be and live social”. As David Armano noted in HBR’s Conversation blog:

“Social media’s not a product you foist on others, or some rigid business process that, if implemented, yields results. You shouldn’t treat social media like a temporary advertising campaign. Social media is more organic than that. It’s a way of thinking and approaching business that requires passion and commitment and, above all, willingness to participate in social spaces honestly and freely and by the rules of the social network itself. When someone ridicules your organization in the social space, unfiltered in real time, how do you react? If you are trying to control rather than participate in the discussion, then you’re not living social. When your own employees talk about your organization on a social network what do you do?”

What do you think? How do you help your organization or your client be and live social?

(Full disclosure: David Armano now works at Edelman, the PR firm that also employs me.)

Well, this is also a golden rule for consumer engagement too.

When interviewed by marketers, consumers tend to reply that they want to buy green & eco-friendly. But as we know, the main bias of market research is that ‘intent’ rarely translates into ‘action’. Because a product will save the planet does not mean that consumers will love it.

Successful green marketing practices follow an ‘eco-frugal approach’. The rising prices of energy and the current recession have been an unprecedented opportunity to switch the marketing focus from ’spending green’ to ’saving green’. As John Grant, author of The Green Marketing Manifesto, says: ‘There are very few instances where saving money and saving energy are not compatible, and, in that sense, reducing the impact on the environment is the only silver lining in the recessionary clouds”.

Rather than promoting green credentials as an end in themselves and trying to bolster green brand image as a result, the strategy for brands to effectively and durably engage consumers (while not being suspected of ‘greenwashing’) is to help them make the life-style choices that will make a difference to both their pockets AND the environment, such as using washing power that can be used at low-temperature (30°C) or switching to eco-efficient light bulbs, which in turn help lower electricity bills as well as carbon emissions emitted in the atmosphere.

This is the approached for example used by EDF, France’s main energy company, which developed an online platform to advise customers on how to save energy (and therefore money) by managing and rationalizing energy consumption in their homes (i.e. electric appliances, etc…). The website called “Ma Maison Bleu Ciel” offers a full set of news, forums, blogs, Q&As, personalized support & follow-up, and more to be developed soon.

You may think it is not that groundbreaking (compared with what other companies may have already done in the past). But it is something simple, helpful, efficient and which matches consumer’s key concerns and needs.

This is green marketing 101, isn’t it?

• On one hand, Cone’s new media study in the US underlined that new media users overwhelmingly believe companies or brands should not only have a presence in new media (95%) but also interact with their consumers and other stakeholders in this space (89%), with 40% of them believing their searching, sharing and discussing of information about corporate social responsibility efforts can have a significant effect on company business practices.

• On the other hand, a report by financial communications consultancy Lundquist spotted out the failure of major companies around the world to engage with stakeholders online, via their corporate websites, online CSR reports or social media.

What companies are afraid of totally makes the case for social media involvement!

Many CSR pioneers and leaders have very early understood the value of engaging consumers and broader stakeholders via digital channels in order to enhance reputation, build loyalty and even crowd source business innovation. My Starbucks Idea or Timberland’s CSR reporting are striking examples of successful online stakeholder engagement through continuous CSR improvement and two-way dialogue.

However, overall, digital communications are (unfortunately) not leveraged to their full potential, why so? While it is true that not everyone should engage in social media, there are still many reasons why companies are reluctant (not to say scared) to engage in social media, especially when it comes to CSR & sustainability. These same reasons that are making a stronger case for online engagement.

• Getting into social media is like “opening the Pandora box”

“What if people say very bad things about our CSR initiatives? Criticise us with bad spill over effect on our brand image?” This is probably the first answer that comes up anytime social media is discussed. Actually, before getting out there, in the (intimidating) openness and transparency of the online, companies should listen first. Listen to what is said about their brand, about the issues they face, and about the programs they have put in place. Only by knowing what the issues and stakeholders’ expectations are a company can change and develop meaningful CSR or Sustainability strategies with true benefits, for the business and the society as a whole.

• Getting into social media means “loosing control of the brand”

Message control is an illusion. Your stakeholders (employees, consumers, activities) are already talking about you and what you are doing, whenever you are talking to them or not. So you might as well join the conversations where they are (Facebook, Twitter, blogs…wherever) and participate as equals, inform the debate with credibility.

So yes, stakeholder engagement is the next frontier in CSR and Sustainability. But as for any topic that raises doubts, fear … it all comes down to educating people about what social media and CSR really are, that a company can get on the social engagement bandwagon at its own pace, etc. Have you ever tried to suggest social engagement strategies to your clients? Was it successful? How did you educate them about the rationale and benefits of such engagement? Did you overcome resistance?

To be followed then…!

Image credit: Martin Barraud, Getty Images

]]> http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/2009/11/01/social-media-the-next-frontier-in-csr-stakeholder-engagement/feed/ 2 http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/2009/10/20/when-brands-are-not-succesfully-talking-the-walk/ http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/2009/10/20/when-brands-are-not-succesfully-talking-the-walk/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:06:02 +0000 admin http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/?p=748 Grail Research, a global strategic research and decision support firm, has published a new report late last month, Green Revolution, showing (among other things) that the majority of (U.S.) consumers are unaware of major brands’ sustainability initiatives.

Probably as a result of a ‘sustainability noise overload’, greenwashing-induced skepticism, eco-fatigue … or simply ineffective communications, it appears that the great majority of consumers (in this case 85%) have no idea about what pioneering companies such as Estee Lauder, Hewlett Packard, Unilever, Nestle and Intel  are doing in terms of sustainability and CSR.

Surprising? Not really. While corporate reputation and brand image are converging, the gap between a company’s responsible initiatives and consumers’ perceptions and … ultimately decisions still remains important. And not properly addressed.

While companies have been pressured to practice what they preach, i.e. ‘walking the talk’, it is also critical to be effectively able to ‘talk the walk’ as well:

• By being transparent and authentic: 63% of consumers rely on product labels as their primary sources of information about green companies and their products, only if product labeling does not lead to confusion.

• By leveraging the right communications channels (as well as the right messages), that engage consumers, leverage their experiences and interactions with brands and encourage peer-to-peer evangelism, through word of mouth conversations (both online and offline), which are considered as more trusted sources of information (45%)  than advertising (38%) or company websites (18%).

So in the end, isn’t it more a question of ‘are we allocating marketing & communications budgets properly?‘ What are you thoughts?

Clownfish

Some trends are more of a very long-term evolution that goes much beyond 2010, i.e. energy efficiency, legal requirements , etc.. as there are still holes in the system such as weak law enforcement, economic performance/environmental protection dilemma, etc…

However it is a pretty comprehensive list and Clownfish points out to some trends that will largely impact the way businesses will effectively communicate (or are already communicating) their sustainability performance, and how they will have to engage with their stakeholders. It includes:

• From greenwashing to green identification

Chinese consumers may soon become aware of the concept of greenwash – the deceptive use of green marketing. In Taiwan, 23% of the public already believe that claims about sustainability are just a new marketing technique (cyberone.tw 2008).

Some Chinese furniture companies have made ‘green’ claims and plastered unverified green labels all over their packaging. Yet officials have revealed that many items are actually a health hazard – far from the environmentally and socially responsible image that their advertisements would have you believe.

One way or another, companies that turn themselves ‘green’ overnight or simply use ‘green’ iconography will soon have to face the consequences. Consumers expect companies’ sustainability to be real and transparent, not a manipulative tool. At Clownfish, we believe that it is about creating compelling communications, underpinned by fact, with a clear call to action for consumers.

• From offline to online

Brands can no longer hide behind their TV ads or billboard posters because of the power of online search. Consumers can find information about anything, anytime, and they are actively seeking information about the brands with which they interact. In 2009, it is going to be increasingly important for brand image to match company behaviour. Blogs such as Tianya and Sohu, where people have open discussions about anything, anytime, often have more influence on consumers buying habits than a company’s advertising.

The recent claims made about harmful substances in Jonhson’s baby products have escalated, with some people even claiming adverse effects after using the products. Although the Chinese government has cleared Johnson’s name after careful investigations in March, the active bloggers of the world have spread the incident across the internet, damaging the brand’s reputation considerably.

So brands must use clear, genuine, and authentic messages that promote transparency. As this research hows there is a positive correlation between transparency and trust – It’s about being tangible.

• From external claims to internal change

The health and safety standards of products have always been a concern for the Chinese public and this concern is not going away anytime soon. In reaction to this, many companies have adopted marketing strategies to emphasise that their products are ‘natural’.

Clownfish predicts that this emphasis on nature will soon become intertwined with greater environmental and social impacts, that go beyond health and safety, such as carbon emissions, waste production or water usage. As the awareness around these issues grows, business models will start to change – not only for the good of the world, but also because they offer real business opportunities. Clownfish suggests that those companies that get ahead of the game and address their environmental and social impacts now will be the successful companies of the future.

• From company claims to external verification

Consumers no longer passively accept news and product information thrown at them by marketers, ads, or their peers. 64% of consumers want third-party verification of green claims according to the GfK-Roper’s 2007 report. Some partnerships are already developing between NGO’s and large organisations, for example Lenovo and five Chinese NGOs, McDonald’s and Greenpeace, and Coca-Cola and WWF. As this trend continues in 2009, there needs to be a balance between credibility and values for both the company and the NGO. This will help to retain the trust of consumers.

When it comes to comes to the increasing role and impact of NGOs in China (that Clownfish sees as “From NGO criticisms to active involvement”), I would be much more cautious as many NGOs (non-GONGOs) in China are still operating in grey areas where clear regulations are still lacking, and where trust and credibility with the public (consumers, media) is still a major issue.

Furthermore, it is also important to look at the Chinese government’s agenda for the years to come in order to define whether green will be a top priority for business willing to secure their license to operate (and profit) in China, or whether other issues might come first, such as access to healthcare, poverty alleviation, education, etc..

To be followed!

For those more interested in global trends, Clownfish as also published a set of trends for business in more developed market, here.

Original source: Cleaner Greener China

Credit Image: Michael Turek

***

No week goes by in China without a new Sustainability/CSR conference being held or a new Corporate Sustainability (CS) initiative being launched.

Despite the economic crisis, the field of Corporate Sustainability has kept on growing and expanding. However, as CS is getting more mature, it is also getting more complex, so that a few basic, but nonetheless important, market-specific principles should be kept in mind when launching CS initiatives in China.

Corporate sustainability is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’, but a must have

Not so long ago, foreign companies operating in China could literally buy a ‘good reputation’ through a well-placed donation to a leading politician’s favorite charity or a disaster relief fund.

However today, CS strategies based solely on philanthropy are insufficient and companies that are making increasing profits in China are expected to “give back to the society” and do their fair share through a more hands-on role.

Sustainability efforts do not have to be exclusively green!

It is critical that foreign companies align their Corporate Sustainability efforts with the Chinese political agenda and priorities, since the government’s support, and even endorsement, is necessary to secure market access and credibility with other stakeholders (e.g. government-controlled media) in China.

However, today, being good and responsible does not automatically mean being green. As a result of the economic crisis, the environment has become less of a priority for the government. Limiting further layoffs, improving access to and quality of social services (particularly health and education), and encouraging local innovation are now top national concerns, and therefore ‘hot issues’ to potentially engage with.

Authenticity is key…otherwise beware of word-of-mouth!

Beyond government and media, employees and consumers are also key audiences of CS programs. They have increasing expectations towards companies, and will value CS as a relevant proof of companies’ and/or brands’ transparency and trustworthiness.

However, as multinational corporations in China are traditionally held to higher standards than their domestic counterparts, authenticity is key when engaging consumers or employees. Any ‘greenwashing’ type of accusation or corporate misconduct can be voiced and amplified online by more than 300 millions netizens, which are seen as the most trusted source of information in China. Some examples of past online crises in China show how careful companies and brands have to be when they market their CS initiatives online.

Corporate Sustainability plays an increasing role in driving corporate and brand reputation in China, perhaps more than any other country. Foreign companies are implementing CS programs in China as never before, yet those programs need to be relevant the local context and issues. To do this effectively, it is imperative to have two-way communications platforms in place in order to effectively understand what stakeholders expect., and how to move things forward.