Kapitel 1
When Business and Social Good Collide: The Art of Doing Well by Doing Good
In a world where 94% of consumers would switch brands to support a cause they care about, corporate social responsibility has evolved from a fringe concept to a strategic imperative. Philip Kotler's "Good Works" has become the definitive playbook for companies seeking to balance profit with purpose-a book so influential that it's required reading in MBA programs at institutions like Harvard and Stanford. Since its publication, the text has been translated into 27 languages and has profoundly shaped how companies approach their social impact strategies. What makes this work particularly compelling is that it emerged during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, a time when public trust in corporations had plummeted to historic lows. Against this backdrop, Kotler demonstrated that doing good wasn't just morally right-it was good business. Today, as Gen Z consumers increasingly demand ethical corporate behavior (with 90% saying they would switch brands to support a cause), the principles outlined in this book have only grown more relevant in our interconnected, socially conscious marketplace.
Kapitel 2
The Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility has undergone a remarkable transformation since Milton Friedman's 1970 declaration that business leaders had "no responsibilities other than to maximize profit for shareholders." By 2011, only 6% of global consumers agreed with this narrow view. Instead, most now believe businesses should support social issues, advocate for change, and align operations with environmental needs.
This shift represents a fundamental reimagining of the corporation's role in society. CSR, defined as "a commitment to improve community well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of corporate resources," has become a core business function rather than a peripheral activity. Despite economic challenges, corporate giving rose 10.6% in 2010 to $15.29 billion, with cause sponsorship growing as the fastest-growing segment of corporate philanthropy.
What's driving this change? The rise of social media has created unprecedented transparency, amplifying both praise and criticism of corporate behavior. Consumers increasingly make purchasing decisions based on perceived corporate morality, with studies showing remarkable preference for socially responsible companies. Research by Business for Social Responsibility identifies six key benefits: increased sales and market share; strengthened brand positioning; enhanced corporate image; improved employee attraction and retention; decreased operating costs; and increased appeal to investors.
However, implementing effective social initiatives presents significant challenges. When choosing issues, managers must balance business goals against social impact while addressing stakeholder concerns about relevance and competitive differentiation. Initiative selection raises questions about business distraction, visibility, and resource allocation. Implementation challenges include funding sources, partnership management, and avoiding hypocrisy. Perhaps most difficult is evaluation-measuring social impact remains largely undeveloped compared to traditional marketing metrics.
Despite these challenges, companies like Starbucks demonstrate how comprehensive commitment to social responsibility can be integrated across all aspects of business operations. Their environmental initiatives span from Cup Summits addressing recycling infrastructure to building LEED-certified stores with sustainable materials. This holistic approach represents the new paradigm: strategic social responsibility that simultaneously builds a better world and a stronger bottom line.
Kapitel 3
Six Paths to Social Impact: A Framework for Corporate Engagement
Successful companies have discovered that social initiatives work best when strategically aligned with business objectives. Six distinct approaches have emerged, each with unique strengths and applications depending on a company's goals, resources, and market positioning.
Three approaches are primarily marketing-driven: Cause Promotion increases awareness through corporate resources, as seen in The Body Shop's campaign against animal testing; Cause-Related Marketing links donations to product sales, exemplified by Kraft Foods' Huddle to Fight Hunger program supporting Feeding America; and Corporate Social Marketing focuses on behavior change campaigns addressing public health, safety, environment or community well-being, like Allstate's anti-texting pledge for teen drivers.
Three other approaches are corporate-driven: Corporate Philanthropy involves direct contributions through grants, donations or in-kind services; Workforce Volunteering supports employee participation in community service; and Socially Responsible Business Practices involve operational changes that support social causes, whether company-initiated (like DuPont's energy reduction efforts) or collaborative (such as Whole Foods' sustainable fishing partnership).
The most effective companies often implement multiple approaches simultaneously around a focused theme. Target Corporation exemplifies this strategy through its education initiatives, committing to reach $1 billion in education-related giving by 2015. Their focus on helping U.S. children read proficiently by third grade recognizes this as a critical transition point from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." Target implements this focus through multiple initiatives: sponsoring book festivals nationwide to generate enthusiasm for reading; donating 1% of REDcard purchases to customer-selected schools; supporting the National Education Association's Read Across America; providing Field Trip Grants to schools facing budget constraints; transforming school libraries through employee volunteer efforts; and offering tuition reimbursement for employees pursuing higher education.
Johnson & Johnson similarly aligns its social initiatives with its 1943 credo, which prioritizes responsibility to healthcare professionals and patients. Their Campaign for Nursing's Future addresses the nursing shortage through television spots featuring real nurses, recruitment materials, continuing education resources, and partnerships with nursing organizations. This strategic focus fulfills both their ethical commitments and business needs by ensuring a strong healthcare workforce.
What makes these approaches powerful is their integration with core business strategy rather than existing as isolated charitable efforts. When properly implemented, they create mutual value-advancing social causes while simultaneously supporting business objectives like brand differentiation, customer loyalty, employee engagement, and operational efficiency.
Kapitel 4
Cause Promotion: Building Awareness Through Strategic Partnerships
Cause promotion leverages company resources to raise awareness and support for social causes while simultaneously achieving business objectives. This approach has proven particularly effective for companies seeking to strengthen brand positioning, build traffic and customer loyalty, create brand preference with target markets, and drive sales.
Chipotle Mexican Grill demonstrates how cause promotion can reinforce brand positioning. Built on the "Food with Integrity" concept, Chipotle launched a Halloween promotion where customers dressed as "the worst kind of junk food" received discounted burritos, with the company donating up to $1 million to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. This campaign brilliantly reinforced Chipotle's commitment to wholesome, unprocessed foods while engaging customers through in-restaurant activities and social media.
PetSmart took a different approach, building store traffic and customer loyalty by providing in-store adoption centers for homeless pets rather than selling dogs and cats. These centers, maintained by local animal welfare organizations, drive daily store traffic while aligning with the passion of PetSmart's customers and employees. The real estate value of this space equals approximately $13 million annually-a significant investment that has helped save over 4.5 million animals while creating deep emotional connections with customers.
First Response pregnancy tests partnered with March of Dimes to reach women of childbearing age with prenatal care information, boosting their market leadership position. Their collaboration includes shared messaging on packaging, product literature, advertising, joint research studies, and online resources. This partnership has contributed to First Response becoming the top pregnancy test brand in America, with significant market share growth since 2004.
Macy's collaboration with Reading Is Fundamental generated nearly $21 million for children's literacy while driving sales through discount vouchers for donors. Their "Be Book Smart" campaign offers shoppers $10 off $50 purchases in exchange for $3 donations to RIF. The program achieves remarkable redemption rates-70% of consumers who received savings vouchers used them-while enhancing the shopping experience, engaging employees, and increasing sales.
What makes these campaigns successful? They select issues that connect to products and company values, have management's long-term commitment, concern customers, motivate employees, and attract media exposure. When developing plans, successful companies connect campaigns to products, develop partnerships, ensure brand visibility, and measure results.
However, cause promotion initiatives present several potential downsides. Company visibility can get lost among many sponsors, promotional materials are often short-term, tracking investments and returns is difficult, and successful promotions can be copied by competitors. Despite these challenges, when strategically implemented, cause promotion creates powerful connections between brands and the issues their customers care about most.
Kapitel 5
Cause-Related Marketing: Turning Purchases Into Purpose
Cause-related marketing creates a direct link between consumer purchases and charitable donations, dating back to American Express's groundbreaking 1983 Statue of Liberty restoration campaign. This approach has grown exponentially as research consistently shows consumers prefer brands supporting good causes-94% would switch brands to one supporting a cause if price and quality were similar.
What distinguishes cause-related marketing is how it directly ties corporate giving to consumer action, creating transparent contribution formats like specified dollar amounts per product sold (TELUS giving $100 for each new cable account), percentage of sales pledged to charity (eBay Giving Works allowing sellers to donate 10-100% of sale prices), or in-kind donations tied to purchases (TOMS Shoes' one-for-one model).
TOMS exemplifies how this model can build positive brand identity. Founded by Blake Mycoskie, TOMS grew from a living room startup to selling over a million pairs of shoes in just four years through its revolutionary "One for One" approach. For every pair sold, TOMS donates one pair to a child in need. This giving component transformed TOMS shoes from mere products into "part of a story, a mission, and a movement," creating passionate "supporters" rather than just customers. The power of this model also attracted valuable business partnerships, including an AT&T television commercial that dramatically boosted sales.
The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade demonstrates how cause-related marketing can build brand equity while raising funds for a cause. What began as UK Avon representatives selling pink ribbon pins in 1992 grew into a global initiative raising over $700 million worldwide. This cause perfectly aligns with Avon's positioning as "the company for women." Pink ribbon product sales generated $266 million between 1992-2010, with most items priced under $7 to ensure accessibility. This association differentiates Avon when recruiting representatives and inspires deep commitment throughout the organization.
Procter & Gamble's "1 Pack = 1 Vaccine" program with UNICEF shows how cause-related marketing can increase product sales. When Pampers needed to differentiate in the competitive diaper market, they partnered with UNICEF to fight maternal and neonatal tetanus, donating 10 cents per package. Focus groups revealed mothers were deeply moved by the concept of buying needed diapers while saving a baby's life. The campaign dramatically boosted sales intent (29% lift in Germany) while funding over 300 million vaccines by 2011.
Successful cause-related marketing requires selecting causes that resonate with both company and target audience, partnering with charities having engaged supporter bases, finding products with natural connections to causes, conducting research before full launch, ensuring high visibility, keeping offers simple and transparent, and being willing to adapt when needed.
Kapitel 6
Corporate Social Marketing: Changing Behaviors for Better Communities
Corporate social marketing distinguishes itself through its primary focus on behavior change to improve public health, safety, the environment, or community well-being. Unlike other corporate initiatives, the goal isn't simply awareness or donations-it's motivating specific actions that benefit both individuals and society.
This approach applies strategic marketing principles to influence behaviors, using situation analysis, audience targeting, behavior objective setting, and identifying barriers and benefits. Companies typically select issues connected to their core business, often partnering with public sector agencies or nonprofits who provide technical expertise and credibility.
Subway leverages its partnership with the American Heart Association to cement its position as the healthy fast food option. As the national sponsor of the Start Walking Initiative, Subway reinforces its positioning through supportive product features dating back to the company's 1965 founding vision of "a restaurant without a fryer." Their stores offer FRESH FIT sandwiches low in fat and calories, with nutritional transparency through calorie posting and online nutrition calculators.
Levi Strauss & Co. builds brand distinction through its sustainability initiative "A Care Tag for Our Planet." As the first major retailer to include care tags encouraging eco-friendly behaviors, Levi's prompts consumers to wash less, use cold water, line dry, and eventually donate unwanted jeans to Goodwill. Their "Dirty Is the New Clean" campaign engages consumers through social media, encouraging them to tweet how many times they wear their jeans before washing (#Care4OurPlanet).
Best Buy's e-cycle program invites customers to recycle electronics at all U.S. stores with the inclusive message "No matter where you bought it, we'll recycle it." Convenient in-store kiosks accept items like ink cartridges, batteries, and cables, while larger electronics are accepted with no fees. By 2011, Best Buy had collected 83 million pounds of consumer electronics and 73 million pounds of old appliances-approximately 387 pounds of e-waste per minute. While not explicitly stated, these store visits likely generate substantial replacement purchases.
Allstate Insurance addresses teen driving safety-particularly texting while driving-to potentially reduce costly claims. Their national "X the TXT" campaign includes a 30-city tour of pledge events, Facebook virtual pledges, and congressional petitions. Participants receive thumb bands marked "TXTNG KLLS" as reminders of their commitment, with over 250,000 pledges collected by 2011.
Despite their potential, social marketing campaigns face significant challenges. Issues must match the corporation appropriately, as consumers have a keen sense for detecting hidden agendas. Many campaigns require clinical expertise from public or nonprofit partners. Behavior change takes time, with milestones needed to track progress. Some citizen groups may criticize campaigns as interfering with personal rights. Finally, these initiatives demand more than financial support-they require staff time, integration into media channels, and ongoing monitoring.
Successful campaigns share important principles: using existing data to identify priority areas, conducting research to understand target audiences' needs, supporting behavior changes with skill-building programs, and taking a long-term view of success.
Kapitel 7
From Philanthropy to Strategic Investment: The Evolution of Corporate Giving
Corporate philanthropy has evolved dramatically from simple hometown charity donations to strategic approaches aligned with business goals. Modern philanthropy involves direct contributions to charities through cash grants, donations, or in-kind services, with companies typically donating between 0.69% and 10.9% of pre-tax profits.
As Porter and Kramer argued in Harvard Business Review, strategic philanthropy can enhance productivity, expand markets, and ensure a strong future workforce. This approach seeks measurable business and social outcomes while experimenting with varied approaches beyond traditional models.
PepsiCo exemplifies this evolution through its groundbreaking Pepsi Refresh Project. When Indra Nooyi became CEO in 2006, she committed to making the company "one of the most responsible companies in the world" through "Performance with Purpose." Recognizing consumers' preference for brands "with soul," PepsiCo launched a crowd-sourced giving campaign in 2009, redirecting Super Bowl advertising funds to award $20 million in grants for social projects nominated and voted on by the public via social media. This pioneering approach generated 183,000 ideas, 84 million votes, and $65 million in media coverage.
The Boston Beer Company's Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream program demonstrates how philanthropy can strengthen a corporation's industry. Founded by Jim Koch in 1984 on a shoestring budget, the company launched this initiative in 2008 to support low and moderate-income food and beverage entrepreneurs. The program combines a microloan fund with training programs including "speed coaching" events where Samuel Adams employees provide expertise in branding, marketing, and distribution through 20-minute sessions with small business owners.
Pfizer's Trachoma Initiative shows the power of in-kind contributions. Since 1998, Pfizer has partnered with the World Health Organization and the International Trachoma Initiative to combat trachoma, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. The company has donated over 250 million Zithromax treatments valued at approximately $5 billion across 21 countries. Through these efforts, Morocco became the first country to eliminate trachoma, with several other nations following closely behind.
Corporate philanthropy presents several challenges. Companies must carefully select nonprofit partners with strong reputations and effective management capabilities. They may face shareholder concerns about funding social causes. While corporate philanthropy traditionally had low visibility, public expectations have changed, and consumers now often make purchase decisions based on a company's giving. Finally, tracking activities and measuring outcomes remains challenging.
Successful corporate philanthropy requires choosing causes connected to your business, employees, and citizenship focus. Leadership involvement is crucial, especially for major initiatives. Companies should select grantees carefully, aim to make concrete differences, and consider multi-year partnerships. Exploring in-kind service donations related to core products can be valuable. Finally, companies should appropriately communicate results and celebrate successes.
Kapitel 8
Mobilizing Employee Passion: The Power of Corporate Volunteering
Community volunteering represents one of the most genuine and satisfying forms of corporate social involvement. These initiatives support employees in volunteering their time for local organizations and causes, with corporate support ranging from paid time off to recognition programs. What's noteworthy is the strategic integration of volunteer efforts with existing corporate social initiatives and business goals.
The benefits are substantial. Volunteering uniquely builds strong relationships with local communities while attracting and maintaining satisfied employees. It effectively augments and leverages investments in other social initiatives while contributing to business goals, enhancing corporate image, and providing opportunities to showcase products and services.
Sellen Construction demonstrates how even simple voluntary gestures can create genuine connections with communities. While building a new wing at Seattle Children's Hospital, construction workers created a "Where's Waldo?" game with a life-sized character that moved daily around the construction site, and spray-painted personal greetings to individual patients on steel beams. These heartfelt actions generated significant community goodwill, media coverage, and pride among both hospital and construction company employees.
Pfizer's Global Health Fellows Program shows how volunteering can contribute to business goals. The program places employees in three- to six-month assignments with international development organizations addressing major health issues. Assignments leverage Pfizer's core competencies in building health systems, training workers, and improving service delivery. One fellow, Peter Zhang, spent six months in Kenya helping Population Services International improve their sales and marketing activities. The experience enhanced Zhang's work at Pfizer China by enabling him to personally demonstrate Pfizer's corporate responsibility, opening new doors with stakeholders including the Ministry of Health.
IBM's On Demand Community program supports employee and retiree volunteers with technology solutions to enhance their volunteer work. The program connects employees' personal passions with opportunities that leverage their unique skills. For IBM's hundredth anniversary, 300,000 employees logged 2.8 million hours of service in one day across 120 countries. By mid-2011, the program had logged over 12 million volunteer hours since inception, earning IBM the prestigious Corporate Engagement Award of Excellence.
Patagonia offers a distinctive Environmental Internship Program where employees leave their jobs for up to two months to work for environmental groups while still receiving their salary and benefits. Created in 1993, the program embodies the company's mission to "use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis." By 2011, over 850 employees had participated, averaging nearly 50 annually.
Corporate volunteer programs face several challenges. The cost can be substantial-if a company with 300,000 employees offers 24 paid volunteer hours annually and half participate, that's 3.6 million hours of "donated productivity." With dispersed efforts, social impact may be diluted across too many causes. Tracking outcomes becomes especially difficult for global companies without centralized systems.
Despite these challenges, successful corporate volunteer initiatives match real social issues with employee passions and business needs. They connect volunteering with broader corporate citizenship strategy, secure long-term management support, develop strong community partnerships, recognize employee contributions, and measure impact effectively.
Kapitel 9
Transforming Business Operations for Social Good
Socially responsible business practices involve discretionary corporate actions that improve community well-being or protect the environment beyond legal mandates or ethical expectations. The past decade has seen a shift from reactive adoption to proactive research into corporate solutions for social problems, driven by increasing evidence that responsible practices can increase profits, boost revenues, meet consumer demand for ethical business practices, and improve worker productivity.
These practices involve changing internal procedures related to products, facilities, manufacturing, and employee support, as well as external reporting and customer interactions. Common activities include designing environmentally-friendly facilities, reducing waste, selecting sustainable suppliers, developing employee wellness programs, establishing responsible marketing guidelines, increasing accessibility for disabled populations, and protecting consumer privacy.
DuPont transformed from "environmental boogeyman to darling of the green movement" by voluntarily reducing energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions by 72% below 1990 levels. This plant-by-plant efficiency assessment saved the company approximately $3 billion over 15 years. Led by Linda Fisher, former EPA deputy administrator, DuPont established additional "footprint reduction goals" for 2015, moving beyond mere regulatory compliance to meet stakeholder expectations.
Nike's N7 program demonstrates long-term commitment to bringing sports and health benefits to Native American communities. After extensive research with podiatrists and health organizations, Nike discovered Native Americans typically have wider and taller feet than standard shoes accommodate. In 2007, they created the Nike Air Native N7, designed specifically with features like larger toe boxes, fewer irritating seams, and thicker sock liners. Available only at Native American wellness centers, the program expanded in 2009 with the N7 collection for the general public, with a portion of profits supporting Native youth sports programs.
Whole Foods Market addressed the gap between consumer intention (70% want sustainable fish) and action (only 30% buy it) by implementing a simple color-coded labeling system for seafood sustainability. Partnering with Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium, they categorize seafood as green (best choice), yellow (good alternative), or red (avoid). Since implementing the system in 2010, Whole Foods has progressively eliminated red-rated fish from their inventory, pledging complete elimination by Earth Day 2012.
When implementing socially responsible business practices, companies face several challenges: skepticism about corporate motives, demands for actions that back up words, questions about long-term commitment versus short-term campaigns, doubts about real impact, inquiries about previous practices, and expectations for transparent reporting of results. To decrease skepticism and criticism, companies should be preemptive, choose issues that meet both business and social needs, make long-term commitments, build employee enthusiasm, develop supporting infrastructure, and provide honest, direct communications.
Corporations should consider new business practices when they can both improve quality of life and provide corporate benefits. Implementation requires an integrated approach backed by executive management, supported by employee communications, education, and infrastructure changes. Setting measurable goals and establishing tracking mechanisms ensures accountability, with transparent reporting of both successes and failures.
Kapitel 10
Building a Strategic Framework for Social Impact
The most effective corporate social initiatives aren't random acts of kindness-they're strategic investments that create value for both business and society. Companies seeking to maximize impact should follow several best practices when selecting social problems and implementing initiatives.
First, choose only a few social issues to support, allowing for focused resources and deeper impact. Target Corporation demonstrates this principle by concentrating on education, particularly helping U.S. children read proficiently by third grade. This focused approach enables them to develop comprehensive programs from book festivals to library makeovers.
Second, select issues of concern in communities where you do business to demonstrate authentic commitment. Western Union's "Our World, Our Family" program supports economic opportunity for migrants who make up 85% of their customer base, creating genuine connections to the communities they serve.
Third, choose causes with synergy to your mission, values, products and services to enhance credibility. Johnson & Johnson's Campaign for Nursing's Future aligns perfectly with their credo prioritizing responsibility to healthcare professionals and patients.
Fourth, select causes that can simultaneously support business goals. Levi's "Care Tag for Our Planet" initiative encourages eco-friendly clothing care while reinforcing their brand's sustainability credentials and potentially extending product life.
Fifth, choose issues that matter to key constituents including employees, customers, investors and leaders. PetSmart's in-store adoption centers reflect the passion their customers and employees share for animal welfare.
Finally, commit to causes that can be supported long-term (3+ years) to achieve maximum impact and establish ownership of the cause. Avon's Breast Cancer Crusade has maintained consistent focus since 1992, raising over $700 million worldwide.
When implementing initiatives, companies should form cross-functional teams including representatives from marketing, finance, operations, facilities management, human resources, and executive administration. Including community partners early in planning maximizes effectiveness and efficiency. Establishing clear objectives and measurable goals for both the company and the cause facilitates program evaluation and accountability.
Perhaps most challenging is evaluation. Companies should determine how information will be used: improving future efforts, reporting to stakeholders, calculating return on investment, or determining optimal giving levels. Measurement should focus on both resource outputs (cash, in-kind donations, staff hours) and outcomes for both the company and the cause.
The most important advice is to develop formal written corporate guidelines for social initiatives that reflect the company's unique history, culture, goals, and strategies. These guidelines should be created by interdepartmental teams and updated every 2-3 years, covering priority issues, desired outcomes, preferred initiatives, contribution levels, ideal partners, and evaluation expectations. Executive approval and enthusiasm are critical, ideally with leadership embodying passion for doing good.
In today's interconnected world, companies that strategically align their social initiatives with business objectives create sustainable value for all stakeholders-building stronger brands, more engaged workforces, loyal customers, and healthier communities. As the examples throughout this book demonstrate, doing good and doing well are not competing goals but complementary strategies for long-term success.
