This article discusses how the corporate brand can be used as the platform for developing and managing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability initiatives, to achieve sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) for the business organisation. The article begins with a brief overview of CSR, sustainability and the triple bottom line (TBL) approach, before concluding with the case for adopting the corporate branding approach.  

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)

Corporate social responsibility is rooted in the view that business organisations are social actors, whose activities have social and environmental impacts. CSR is about businesses going beyond their legal obligations and self-interests, to also identify and manage the impact of their activities on society and the environment. Businesses need to consider how they interact with their stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, employees, investors, and the communities in which they operate. Among businesses who adopt this approach is Unilever, which views CSR as a core business activity of ‘doing business responsibly’. Its CSR policy addresses three key areas: the company’s own operations; the company’s relationships with its value-chain partners; and the company’s voluntary or philanthropic contributions to communities.

Research evidence shows that a company’s socially responsible image positively influences stakeholder engagement and results in positive reputation for the company. This evidence has led to some companies to treat CSR superficially, such as communicating untrue messages regarding CSR initiatives. Such greenwashing poses reputational risk for the companies involved when stakeholders cotton on to these insincere CSR messages.

A three-pronged attack is advocated for managing CSR:

1. Managing legal behaviour to ensure every employee is aware of and observes relevant laws, such as consumer protection and competition laws.
2. Managing ethical behaviour to ensure that there is a clear distinction is spelt between normal business practice and unethical behaviour. A written code of ethics can be developed, disseminated, and hold employees accountable for observing ethical and legal guidelines.
3. Managing social responsibility behaviour that requires social conscience to be observed when dealing with customers and stakeholders. Businesses could provide information about their CSR activities, to held stakeholders decide which companies to buy from, invest in and work for. Businesses can also adopt corporate philanthropy as part of their CSR.

SUSTAINABILITY AND TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE (TBL)

Sustainability is concerned with meeting current needs of humanity without harming those of future generations. Sustainability is assessed using the TBL approach, which requires businesses to identify and measure the long-term impact of their actions along the three Ps of people, planet, and profit. 

The people bottom line assesses the impact of business activities on people including customers, employees, and communities. Positive people impact of businesses include not exploiting people; not exploiting child labour; providing fair salaries and fair treatment for employees; as well as controlling their subcontractors to obey socially responsible rules. 

The planet bottom line is premised on the notion that planet Earth is home to everyone, companies, and people alike. Hence, adverse impacts on the environment drive planet Earth to destruction. Examples of businesses activities detrimental to the natural environment include irresponsible exploitation of natural resources, producing contaminating waste or emitting polluting by-products. Hence, as a minimum, businesses need to assess and minimise or eliminate the detrimental environmental impacts of their activities.

Assessing the profit bottom line is often treated as a common practice among commercial business managers whose imperative is to provide value for shareholders. The profit bottom line represents an economic survival imperative. Hence, the profit bottom line is the economic dimension of TBL, which assesses the direct and indirect economic impact of business activities on local communities and other stakeholders or the business of making profit responsibly.

This article adopts the TBL approach to sustainability because it is easy to implement across small, medium, and large businesses alike. However, other approaches for assessing social responsibility are available including the United Nations Global Compact and the   International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO 26000. 

CORPORATE BRANDING (CB) AS THE PLATFORM FOR DEVELOPING AND MANAGING CSR AND SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES

King (1991) considered the proponent of corporate branding argued that the design school view of corporate branding was narrow-minded. The design school focuses on corporate branding as the design of visual brand identify elements such as logos, uniforms, and signage strictly guided by corporate brand design books. Post King, several academic researchers and consultants have contributed towards the growth of corporate branding. Consensus is shared to treat corporate brands as valuable intangible assets with both financial and stakeholder-based reputational equity. Because corporate brands are unique and difficult to copy, they are strategic vehicles for achieving sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). Strong corporate brands have strong brand awareness and favourable and strong unique associations/images among stakeholders, which enable them to charge premium prices and command market values that exceed their book values by several multiples. For example, the market value of Microsoft in 2020 was 13 times its book value (assets -liabilities). 

Corporate brand identity is underpinned by a corporate brand covenant (promise), which represents a set of core values that underpin internal and external brand-building. Corporate brand-building ought to be a company-wide responsibility, with corporate culture and employee behaviour aligned with customer and other stakeholder expectations and with corporate brand communication utilising the entire corporate communication mix, instead of being limited to PR, and corporate communications.

To conclude, this article argues that since any corporate entity can be branded, the corporate brand is the best platform for developing and managing CSR and sustainability initiatives. To do so, businesses can incorporate CSR, sustainability and innovation as core corporate brand values and adopt a creative brand orientation and entrepreneurial mindset towards CSR and sustainability. The outcomes of CSR and sustainability initiatives can be assessed using the TBL approach, to assess impact on people (customers, employees, value-chain partners, and communities), the planet to determine environmental impacts, and profit to measure the direct and indirect economic outcomes of CSR initiatives. Adopting this approach could enable businesses to meaningfully differentiate themselves and achieve SCA.

Space does not allow the author to provide examples of CSR and sustainability initiatives that corporate brands could implement. Nevertheless, opportunities abound among corporate entities including retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, educational institutions, and government-owned enterprises to incorporate CSR and sustainability in their corporate brand strategies, to achieve SCA.

About the author

 Dr Simon David Munyaradzi M’zungu is a Zimbabwean-Australian citizen and lives in Harare. He went to Australia in 1978 on a Commonwealth scholarship and lived there for 40 years until December 2018. He holds the following Australian qualifications: Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Marketing (First Class Honours) and PhD in Marketing (dissertation on SME corporate brand management). He taught at Griffith University, in the Marketing Department of Griffith Business School for 11 years. Prior to academia he worked in the finance industry as a business systems analyst, and in the retail and entertainment industries.

His purpose is to facilitate the bridge between academia and practice as well as to share his international experience. His interests are in strategic corporate brand management, strategic marketing, and entrepreneurship. He is available to facilitate training and workshops for private and public organisations. 

He can be reached via: Email: [email protected], Phone/WhatsApp: +2637863409866.