Why you should use CSR strategies to strengthen your brand equity

In a recent blog post, he notes that the pandemic provided prime opportunities for firms to demonstrate their commitment to helping communities deal with the challenges facing the world. Many that seized the opportunity were able to wade through the worst health crisis of recent times by reaching out to their communities through social initiatives. 

The Ipsos report entitled Two Years On: Lessons from Covid-19 Times, found that although Covid disrupted the way that we live, it didn’t dent our concern for climate change.

“In fact, the major highlight of this research was how the pandemic offered a key opportunity for change — to take a more sustainable approach that could protect the long-term viability of business and pay more attention to environmental and social outcomes,” Muthoka writes in the post.

Few believe there is a clear climate plan in place

“[The] Ipsos 2021 Earth Day study found two-thirds of the global public say government and business will be failing employees, consumers and citizens if they do not take the lead in influencing actions towards reducing [the] global warming responsible for climate change. Globally, only 31% believe their market has a clear plan in place for how government, businesses and people themselves are going to work together to tackle the crisis.”

According to the Ipsos report on lessons from the pandemic, evidence shows that people are far from being aware of how their lifestyles may need to adapt to save the planet. For example, 59% globally believe that recycling waste as much as possible has a significant impact on CO2 emissions, while it is relatively minimal in comparison with other activities. 

And, overall, there is only a slight increase in public willingness to change high carbon emission behaviours since 2014, which poses a problem.

Muthoka says consumers help build the brand equity of a socially responsible company by enhancing its future profits and goodwill. Therefore, business must turn up and play a leading role in addressing the climate change crisis. That is where CSR comes in as a handy tool in addressing the multi-sectional challenges posed by global warming.

“In this era, where [the] climate crisis is the gravest challenge facing humanity, socially responsible entities will live [up] to their reputation by establishing impactful community social initiatives around saving the planet. This will set them apart from the clutter of the philanthropic world.”

Read the full blog post here.