How to do Business

I have been spending a lot of the last couple of months teaching a module on a Digital Marketing MSc. The official text on CSR appears to be Kotler and Lee’s 2003 book which seems to me to be written rather cynically from the “what’s in it for the corporate” viewpoint rather than anything for the greater good of mankind.

However there is some good stuff in there about what might work in practice for the smaller company. Generally do things that make sense within the context of your business and if you supply a local market donate a mixture of cash and time to projects that mean something to your staff and your market using stuff that you do anyway.

Good examples are the Body Shop’s 18 year PR campaign Against Animal Testing (EU ban coming in next year) Microsoft and BT’s commitment to funding digital divide issues and the many small companies that support local charities.

However the company that really seem to have grabbed the imaginative space are Innocent – of Smoothie Fame. Not only do they plant a tree in India for every carton of healthy glop dispensed but they have a campaign that they run every Christmas for help the Aged. (I’m in favour of this for obvious reasons).

They get ladies all over the country to knit little hats for their mini smoothie bottles. These are lovingly inserted onto the product and its sold via Sainsburys. Everyone sold – 50p goes to help the aged.

And the really cool thing is the hatometer. This  is viral so you can insert it into any web page .

Like this one.

thebigknit2008

I think it’s great – enjoy

Alan

PS If you’d like your own hatometer More details here. – or follow them on twitter

thebigknit2008