Ethics in Business

Where to Begin?

If your company has never thought seriously about where it stands on ethical and corporate social responsibility issues, these six steps can serve as a guideline to begin the process. While it's important to behave ethically, it is just as important to get the message out to the public if your firm wishes to benefit from "doing good."

1. Define what your company stands for and what values it brings to the marketplace. Is the public aware of these values? Do they have a favorable reaction to them?
2. Examine your company's internal and external relationships. Do they make sense and reflect your company values? The public and the media often proclaim guilt by association. Seek out new relationships with companies that meet your ethical standards.
3. Understand what the public expects of a company today. Are you prepared to meet these expectations?
4. Review the positioning, assets, liabilities and promises of your brands, products, public positions and community initiatives. Conduct a competitive analysis.
5. Compare your public profile with your private actions. Do they contradict each other?
6. Don't be bashful about getting the word out through the media, to your employees and the community.

Cause-Related Marketing: Another Way Virtue Can Pay

There appears to be one sure-fire way to make virtue pay cause related marketing (CM). All things being equal, a sizeable niche of consumers around the world (well, almost every place around the world) would rather do business with a company that stands for something beyond profits.

Cause marketing is marketing that connects a business' product to a particular cause or set of values in the hope that consumers who hold those values will be more likely to purchase the product as a way of supporting that cause. The point is to attract consumers wanting to make a difference in society through their purchasing.

This is not corporate philanthropy in the traditional sense. Companies have long made contributions to a host of nonprofit organizations; but such donations often go unnoticed by all but the beneficiaries. True CM involves a high-profile partnership between a company and cause. It ties donations to sales or, in some cases, to corporate profits.

Companies around the world no longer want to simply write checks to charities. They want to get involved and the reasons are not always altruistic. Corporations used to give to charities because they were philanthropically driven or were looking for a tax deduction. Now, when they give, they want something more in return. When properly executed, CM sells products, enhances image and motivates employees.

Note: The Body Shop company made a point of advertising its stance against product testing on animals as both a symbol of quality and as a means to attract customers sympathetic to the animal rights movement. Ethical behavior or good PR? Both, actually.

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