I told my friends, “Oh, no! I cannot believe that commercial! That ad was so horribly annoying that I couldn’t help saying something!”
The pizza company’s marketer celebrated when I said that. The ad forced its way into my consciousness through hundreds of other marketing messages. That is success . . . of a sort.
But I watched that commercial in the living room while my kids laughed and shouted next door. I don’t just want pizza. I want the world to be better for my kids.
I am not invested in the pizza company’s success. On the contrary, I’ll celebrate their failures.
We are engaged in celebrating successes like this one.
Marketing that makes us want to pay attention, on the other hand, is another matter:
An assistant answers the phone to, “Hi, Pete. Can you help me reach Jane? I’d like to see if your company can increase profit by reducing racism.”
That is powerful. And, that is what most consumers want. According to the 2018 Edelman Brand Report, more than half of all consumers (56%) want marketers to make us want to pay attention. And two-thirds (66%) of consumers choose to switch to, or boycott, a brand based on its stand on societal issues.
When we run into an attractive message sincerely communicated, we align with that message. Even if Pete can’t connect the caller to Jane, he wants the caller to succeed.
That is a key power of social responsibility: people want you to succeed.
In my last writeup, I talked about how solving problems creates value, some of which can become company profit. That’s also powerful. However, there’s something unique about society today that makes the most effectively designed social responsibility even more critical for shareholder returns.
Let’s talk about that new value for social responsibility next week.
What do you think makes for effective social responsibility? Share your thoughts in the comments or by sending me an email: info@RodWallacePhD.Com. I read all my mail.
If you approve of this message, then please help me by writing a review for my book, Drowning in Potential: How American Society Can Survive Digital Technology:
(in US: HERE, outside US: HERE).
Our society cannot just survive. For the sake of our children, it must thrive.
Rod
PS: When you’re ready, here are three ways you can grow your own profit while solving society’s big problems:
- Get insights, tools, and strategies for improving society—while benefiting yourself—in my book, Drowning in Potential: How American Society Can Survive Digital Technology.
- Hire me to speak at your next event. Hit reply and put “speaker info” in the subject line and I’ll send you my speaker information and a link to my demo reel.
- Explore how your business or organization can profitably solve society’s big problems through a customized one-half- to three-day workshop. Just hit reply, put “workshop” in the subject line and I’ll send the workshop highlights.