Not All CSR Projects Are Effective

I have watched with keen interest the way many individuals and some organisations go about executing brand promotions through CSR activities. Some, I have been impressed because of the effect and the way such projects are streamlined to affect the targets. Others, I have been greatly disappointed and many of many colleagues in the brand promotion world share my sentiments also.

My observation so far is that, many organisations embark on what I call, HAPHAZARD Promotions. What I mean is, they lack focus, target and reason/reasoning. I believe the essence of engaging or employing the services of professionals; both Public Relations and Advertising or the entire gamut of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is to provide the necessary professional touch to an organisation’s CSR/Advertising activities, but this is lacking in many organisations in Nigeria, despite the fact that they all have agencies they work with.

Although the agencies are most times not to be blamed because of this as industry observers /research have shown that most CEO’s in Nigeria embark on CSR activities base on either affiliations or personal interest without engaging the communication unit of their company.

For example, there is a popular Bank in Nigeria whose CSR projects don’t make much meaning, don’t get me wrong, the projects affect the community or the individual where such projects are done, but the big question is, what impact does it have on the brand?.

In the last few years, CSR has surged passed its tipping point. “A plethora of research points to a majority of stakeholders agreeing that CSR is a ‘must do’,” says Kristian Darigan Merenda, Edelman’s senior vice president of brand and corporate citizenship. According to Edelman’s 2010 Goodpurpose Study, 67% of consumers say they are more likely to buy products and services from a company if they know it supports good causes, up more than 11% from the year before.

As a key ingredient in business strategy and execution, CSR is playing a central role in helping corporations to be seen as leaders. Astute corporations are allocating increasing internal resources to CSR investments that feature clear objectives and deliver measurable social outcomes. This must be done the right way. There have been too many examples of CSR programs that ignore business fundamentals. Leadership-level CSR programs always directly reflect what the business is and what it does.

In a nutshell, organisations must begin to ensure that they have a well-structured CSR, Advert etc plan and this must be done by professionals if such organisation wants to get the expected feedback