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Branding

What Is Corporate Social Responsibility 

Businesses that practice corporate social responsibility aim to improve their communities, the economy or the environment.

  • Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is a form of self-regulation that reflects a business’s accountability and commitment to contributing to the well-being of communities and society through various environmental and social measures. 
  • CSR plays a crucial role in a company’s brand perception; attractiveness to customers, employees, and investors; talent retention; and overall business success. 
  • A company can implement four types of CSR efforts: environmental initiatives, charity work, ethical labor practices and volunteer projects. 
  • This article is for business owners who are looking to implement or improve CSR initiatives and want to learn more about the benefits, best practices, and potential pitfalls.

The definition of business success goes beyond profitability, growth rate and brand recognition. In today’s world, customers, employees and other stakeholders judge a company by how its activity impacts the community, economy, environment and society at large. In other words, by whether it cares about the greater good and not only greater profit. Corporate social responsibility practices are a way to demonstrate your business’s stance on the matter. 

What is corporate social responsibility?

Corporate social responsibility is a type of business self-regulation with the aim of social accountability and making a positive impact on society. Some ways that a company can embrace CSR include being environmentally friendly and eco-conscious; promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace; treating employees with respect; giving back to the community; and ensuring business decisions are ethical. 

CSR evolved from the voluntary choices of individual companies to mandatory regulations at regional, national and international levels. However, many companies choose to go beyond the legal requirements and embed the idea of “doing good” into their business models. 

There is no one way a company can embrace CSR, but one thing is certain – to be perceived as genuine, the company’s practices need to be integrated into its culture and business operations. In today’s socially conscious environment, employees and customers place a premium on working for and spending their money on businesses that prioritize CSR. They can detect corporate hypocrisy. 

To ensure CSR authenticity, a company should look at its values, business mission and core issues and determine which initiatives best align with the business’s goals and culture. The business can do this internally or hire a third party to conduct an assessment. 

Reviewing the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals is a good place to start. While goals like Good Health and Well-Being or Gender Equality can apply to most businesses, specific goals like Life Below Water or Affordable and Clean Energy may be relevant to select industries like water technology or energy providers.

Why CSR is important

There are many reasons for a company to embrace CSR practices. 

1. It improves customers’ perception of your brand.

It’s increasingly important for companies to have a socially conscious image. Consumers, employees, and stakeholders prioritize CSR when choosing a brand or company, and they hold corporations accountable for effecting social change with their beliefs, practices, and profits. 

“What the public thinks of your company is critical to its success,” said Katie Schmidt, founder and lead designer of Passion Lilie. “By building a positive image that you believe in, you can make a name for your company as being socially conscious.”

To stand out among the competition, your company needs to prove to the public that it is a force for good. Advocating and raising awareness for socially important causes is an excellent way for your business to stay top-of-mind and increase brand value. 

The Kantar Purpose 2020 study demonstrated a direct correlation between perceived positive impact and brand value growth. Companies that the public considers highly impactful demonstrated a brand value growth of 175% over 12 years, while businesses with a low positive impact showed only 70% growth.

Schmidt also said that sustainable development could help a business financially. For example, using less packaging and less energy can reduce production costs.

2. It attracts and retains employees.

Consumers aren’t the only ones drawn to businesses that give back. Susan Cooney, head of global diversity and inclusion at Symantec, said that sustainability strategy is a big factor in where today’s top talent chooses to work. 

“The next generation of employees is seeking out employers that are focused on the triple bottom line: people, planet and revenue,” she said. “Coming out of the recession, corporate revenue has been getting stronger. Companies are encouraged to put that increased profit into programs that give back.” 

According to Deloitte’s 2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey, the modern workforce prioritizes culture, diversity, and high impact over financial benefits. An estimated 44% of millennials and 49% of Gen Zers rely on their personal ethics in determining the type of work and companies they’d join. The respondents of the Porter Novelli Purpose Tracker 2021 report go even further, with 70% saying they wouldn’t work for a company without a strong purpose. 

What’s more, employees that share the company’s values and can relate to its CSR initiatives are much more likely to stay. Deloitte’s 2020 Global Marketing Trends Report shows that purpose-driven companies retain talent up to 40% more than their competitors. Considering that the estimated cost of losing an employee averages 40% of their annual salary, according to a report by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, offering your team a sense of purpose and meaning in their work is worth the effort.

3. It increases your appeal to investors.

By demonstrating a developed CSR program and initiatives, your company is bound to become more appealing to both current and future investors. CECP’s influential 2021 Giving in Numbers report shows that investors play a growing role as key stakeholders in corporate social responsibility. Almost 80% of surveyed businesses were open to providing them with data and considering their perspectives on sustainability. Just like customers, investors are holding businesses accountable when it comes to social responsibility. 

At the same time, a company that takes CSR seriously signals to both investors and partners that it’s interested in long-term as well as short-term gain. CSR goes hand in hand with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics that help external analysts quantify the company’s social efforts, and becomes a key factor for investors’ consideration and continued interest.

4 types of corporate responsibility your business can practice

In recognition of how important socially responsible efforts are to their customers, employees and stakeholders, many companies focus on four broad CSR categories. 

  1. Environmental efforts: One primary focus of CSR is the environment. Businesses have large carbon footprints, regardless of size. Any steps a company can take to reduce its footprint is considered good for both the company and society.
  2. Philanthropy: Businesses can practice social responsibility by donating money, products or services to social causes and nonprofits. Larger companies tend to have plentiful resources that can benefit charities and local community programs; however, even as a small business, your efforts can make a difference. If you have a specific charity or program in mind, reach out to the organization. Ask them about their specific needs and whether a donation of money, time or your company’s products would best help them.
  3. Ethical labor practices: Companies can demonstrate CSR by treating employees fairly and ethically. This is especially true of businesses that operate in international locations with labor laws that differ from those in the U. S.
  4. Volunteering: Participating in local causes or volunteering your time (and your staff’s time) to community events says a lot about your company’s sincerity. When your company does good deeds without expecting anything in return, you express concern (and support) for specific issues and social causes.

Building a socially responsible business

While startups and small companies don’t have the deep financial pockets that enterprises have, their efforts can have a significant impact, especially in their local communities. 

“Even 5%, though it might not sound like a lot, can add up to make a difference,” Schmidt said. “When thinking of ways to donate and give back, start local, and then move from there.” 

When identifying and launching a CSR initiative, involve your employees in the decision-making process. Create an internal team to spearhead the efforts and identify organizations or causes related to your business or that employees feel strongly about. You’ll increase engagement and success when you contribute to something that matters to your employees. Involving your employees in the decision-making process can also bring clarity and assurance to your team. 

“If decisions [about CSR] are made behind closed doors, people will wonder if there are strings attached and if the donations are really going where they say,” Cooney said. “Engage your employees [and consumers] in giving back. Let them feel like they have a voice.” 

Whichever strategies you use for sustainable development, be vocal. Let your consumers know what you are doing to be socially conscious. [Related read: PayPal’s Mission for Corporate Social Responsibility]

“Consumers deserve to share in the good feelings associated with doing the right thing, and many surveys have found that consumers are inclined to purchase a sustainable product over a conventional alternative,” Cooney said. “Announcing these benefits is a win-win from both a commercial and sustainability perspective.”

What Is Corporate Social Responsibility? [Biznewsdaily]

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Branding

Creating a Great Corporate Logo

A company’s branding is an important part of its consumer-facing identity. No aspect of branding is more visible or immediately recognizable than a company logo.

  • A corporate logo is an image or visually appealing set of words that reflects your brand’s values and distinguishes you from competitors.
  • To create a logo, you’ll need to reflect on the meanings of certain fonts, shapes, lines, and colors and how they dovetail with your brand. Obtaining audience feedback through a focus group is helpful.
  • You should change your logo if your offerings shift, your brand has recently received negative press, or your logo is outdated. But be careful: Altering a popular logo could hurt customer loyalty.
  • This article is for small business owners who want to develop the perfect logo for their company.

Given how prominent logos are, rebranding can have an enormous impact on a company. It’s critical for businesses to go about rebranding the right way and avoid confusing or upsetting their audiences.

In a recent study, C+R Research examined some major brands and how their logos have changed in relation to their revenue over time. The results shed light on corporate logo design and the benefits and risks rebranding poses to businesses.

Major companies like Starbucks, Apple, Amazon and Levi’s have each taken different approaches to logo redesigns and rebranding throughout their histories. These industry giants’ rebranding experiences hold valuable lessons for small businesses considering changing their corporate logos.

We’ll explore the importance of a corporate logo and how to design an effective logo that will represent you well to consumers.

What is a corporate logo, and why do you need one?

A corporate logo is a symbol that represents and identifies your business. It distinguishes your business from others and hints at your identity and values. It also invites people to learn about your brand and helps build customer loyalty.

Perhaps most importantly, your logo goes everywhere: on your business website, social media pages, business cards, marketing materials and more. If you run a storefront, it goes there too. Think about all the Target logos you see when you shop there.

According to C+R, the most effective logos are wordless and minimalist. Dan Ferguson, CMO at Adore Beauty, advises businesses to keep logos consistent, simple and memorable.

“Whether you’re starting from scratch or just want to give your logo a facelift, think carefully about the colors, shapes, patterns, and fonts you use and the emotions they create around your brand,” he said. “If there is a mismatch between your identity, values, and logo, it can lead you down the difficult path of trying to market a disengaging or downright confusing brand.”

Ferguson offered the following insights on different logo elements and what each can convey to consumers.

Color

Color psychology plays a massive part in the messages your logo sends and how consumers interpret those messages, said Ferguson. What do your logo colors say about your brand? What emotions do your colors elicit?

Research by 99designs shows that consumers associate warm colors like red and orange with passion, vigor, and energy, while cool colors like blue and green are associated with tranquility, refreshment, and nature.

Shapes and lines

Logo shapes mean more than you may think. They can enhance your overall brand meaning and provide further insight into your identity and emotional messaging, Ferguson noted.

  • Circular: Circular designs can convey ideas of positivity, endurance, community and even femininity (e.g., World Wildlife Fund, Chanel).
  • Square: Square designs or those that use sharp, hard edges connote balance, symmetry, strength, professionalism and efficiency (e.g., Adobe, National Geographic).
  • Triangles: Triangles communicate messages intended to be masculine, powerful, scientific, legal or even religious (e.g., Adidas, Google Play).
  • Horizontal: Horizontal lines impart emotions associated with tranquility and community.
  • Vertical: Vertical lines are more related to strength, aggression and masculinity.

Font

Just like colors, fonts become identifiers for your brand and behave in a similar way to shapes. What messages do your fonts carry or reveal about your brand?

  • Angular: Angular fonts can reveal your brand identity as dynamic and assertive, while gentler, rounded typefaces come off as youthful and soft.
  • Bold: Bold fonts are more masculine, while cursive fonts are more feminine.

Ferguson notes that one font in a logo is ideal, but don’t mix more than two fonts. Whatever you choose should be clear and easy to read.

Words vs. no words

You should use a consistent font in your marketing emails, graphics and other visual materials. In fact, email marketing services like Mailchimp often prioritize logo use. (Read our Mailchimp review to learn more.)

However, you don’t need words in your logo, though they’re generally recommended for smaller, newer businesses.

Think about it: Can your company really convey its message with just an image before becoming a household name? The answer lies in how a handful of corporate logos have changed over time.

Once upon a time, Adidas, Shell, and NBC all had symbols and words in their logos – a “combination mark.” Each logo included the company’s name under the image. Over time, as these companies became trusted household names, they became identifiable on image alone. They dropped the name and left behind a visual-only logo known as a “brandmark.” The result is a crisper, more compact – but no less identifiable – logo.

Target audience feedback

Your logo is among the key ways you’ll reach your target audience. It only makes sense, then, to get your audience’s feedback on your logo. Focus groups consisting of your target customers can help here. What about your colors, shapes, lines and fonts has a meaningful impact on them? What misses the mark?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can incorporate this feedback into a revised logo. You might also want to present more than one logo option to make the most of the occasion.

Different logo options

If you invest all your time and energy into developing only one logo, you might get tunnel vision and fail to consider some glaring flaws. That becomes a nonissue when you draft several logo options. You can bring all these options to a focus group to determine the most impactful. Then, with the group’s feedback, you can adjust the logo to further strengthen its impact.

What you can learn from household-name corporate logos

While the C+R study found that each company’s revenue sometimes fluctuated around the time of logo change, there was no consistent correlation. The conditions surrounding a redesign and the actual product or service are likely more important, said Matt Zajechowski, outreach team lead for Digital Third Coast.

“One thing this analysis confirms is that a lot of marketers who are fretting about the relation of brand aesthetic to revenue should probably be turning their attention to other things first,” Zajechowski said. “There was no consistent, noticeable correlation that showed different logos lead to more or fewer sales. … The most interesting pattern we noted is that many major brands, particularly tech brands, fuss with their logo a lot in the early years. Then, as soon as they take off and experience explosive growth, they back off the logo and leave it alone. Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter are great examples of this behavior.”

So what else can we learn from C+R’s findings? Below are some key takeaways from four corporate giants included in the study.

Starbucks

Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee shop, was established in 1971 with a retro, brown version of its now well-known circular logo. It first added the green-and-white color scheme in 1987, then updated it with a sleeker style in 1992.

In 2011, Starbucks dropped the text “Starbucks Coffee” from its logo entirely, leaving just the central image. Each rebrand was a new iteration of the same logo, with minor changes, often in the direction of a sleeker, more minimalist style.

Apple

Founded in 1976, Apple launched with a drastically different logo than the well-known apple it boasts today. The following year, Apple underwent a redesign that introduced the first apple logo with a rainbow color scheme.

In 1998, Apple rolled out two new logos based on the same image: one in black and the other in a light blue. In 2001, Apple’s chrome logo debuted. Then the company started to increase sales and, in 2007, debuted another chrome apple logo with a shimmery new finish.

Finally, the company introduced a new iteration of the simple black apple logo, which it still uses today.

Apple’s logo redesigns almost always seem to be moving toward a futuristic or advanced feeling. These efforts would naturally be helpful to a big technology company’s brand.

Amazon

After incorporating in 1994, Amazon rebranded in 1997 with two new logos, one of which would go on to serve as the basis for its modern “Amazon.com” imagery. One year later, the company developed two more logos. In 2000, Amazon rebranded yet again, this time sticking with the logo for the long haul.

Amazon has cultivated a brand around one image after iterating six different logo designs in its first six years of existence. Importantly, Amazon began as a bookseller, then expanded to “books, movies, and more,” and now has a hand in seemingly everything. It’s common for a company to rebrand when the business model changes or expands.

Levi’s

Levi’s is known for one major product: jeans. This famous denim company was established in 1853 and only once changed its logo – in 1936, to today’s red-and-white Levi’s imagery. The brand has used the same logo ever since.

With such an iconic name – Levi Strauss – attached to an easily identifiable product, it’s worth asking if Levi’s ever really needed much of a logo redesign beyond the simple, recognizable logo designed in the ’30s.

Here are some instances when you should consider a logo change:

  • Your logo’s style is outdated.
  • Your company is expanding its product line.
  • You are merging with another company.
  • You want to reduce negative associations with the brand.
  • The brand has globalized, making language less relevant.

What are the risks of logo redesign?

These are some potential downsides of a logo redesign:

  • If consumers are attached to the existing logo, a redesign could backfire and hurt sales.
  • Seeking feedback prior to release from focus groups, for example, can expose weaknesses in the redesign.
  • Change doesn’t always mean progress.

How to Create a Great Corporate Logo [BusinessNewsDaily]

Categories
Branding

5 Innovative Ways to Improve Your Branding

Every entrepreneur wakes up wondering how the world views their business. For many new businesses, the main issue might be that few people even know about them. Even for veteran entrepreneurs, finding the right audience can take years and years of hard work and practice. In any case, there are ways to improve the quality of your brand and ensure that your marketing efforts actually reach the right people. So, in today’s post, we are going to take a closer look at 5 innovative ways to improve your branding!

Get Involved In High-Profile Events & Projects

As previously mentioned, getting seen and noticed is a difficult hurdle to overcome for many entrepreneurs. For this reason, getting your foot in the door of a high-profile event or project can do wonders for your visibility. Whether it’s a red carpet event or even a local community project that has attracted media attention, getting your brand associated with it can help expose hundreds or even thousands of potential customers to your business.

Reduce Human Errors With Automation

Looking at the internal operations of your business, you should always be focused on providing a positive experience for customers, clients, vendors, and partners. Unfortunately, humans are not infallible. They make mistakes. While there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes from time to time, you should do your best to reduce human errors by automating some of your business processes. For example, if your business operates within the healthcare industry, you can work with Amitech Solutions to implement robotic process automation (RPA).

Find the Niche Within Your Niche

Oftentimes, entrepreneurs take a blanket approach to marketing and branding. While this may cast a wide net when generating leads and looking for customers, it can also be a major waste of resources. Instead, find your niche, and then find the niche within your niche. This way, you can target marketing and branding efforts to specifically appeal to your ideal audience.

Consistently Speak to Your Audience

If and when you establish your brand as an authority in your niche, you may think that you can just sit back and let the branding take care of itself. In reality, branding is something that you must constantly work to maintain and improve. For example, if your brand has one or more social media pages, you should engage with your followers consistently. This means answering messages, responding to comments, and generally letting people know that there’s a real person behind the steering wheel of your business.

Work With Other Value-Centered Brands

Like people, your business is often a reflection of the company it keeps. If you work with vendors or other businesses with bad reputations, it will greatly tarnish your brand. Instead, look for value-centered and value-driven businesses that have a proven track record of positive engagement with the public. This way, you can make your brand look good by association!

Did you enjoy our guide on 5 innovative ways to improve your branding? If so, be sure to check out some of our other great posts on Get Entrepreneurial today!

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Branding

How to build your online brand presence

Most businesses understand the importance of branding through logos and business signs or posters, but they often forget that building a strong online brand presence is just as important. Nowadays, not being active online is a huge disadvantage for businesses. Building a strong online brand can greatly improve your marketing results and help you to reach more potential customers, but it can be difficult to get started. Here are some tips to begin creating your online brand presence in order to expand your customer base: 

Humanize Your Brand with Social Media

Social media is one of the best ways to create your online brand presence. By posting engaging and informative content, you can help give a face to your business while also attracting new customers. Making your business seem more relatable can increase customer trust, but it is important to stick to the same brand voice and tone throughout your online presence (both on and off social media). Business branding adds value to your company by helping customers better recognize your business.

Assist Customers by Maintaining a Helpful Blog

In addition to maintaining your business website with up-to-date information on your product or service offerings, you should also add a blog section to your website to make it more interesting and valuable to consumers. You can discuss your products and services on your blog as well, but it should be more general and focused on earnestly helping your customers. For example, OTW Safety maintains a helpful blog to assist customers in understanding the history of their field, learning the different applications for their products, and much more. This information provides value to consumers whether they decide to ultimately purchase from OTW Safety or not, and this will likely encourage them to return in the future. Therefore, blogs can be a great way to further build your brand presence while also increasing customer retention.  

Utilize Video Marketing 

Video marketing is a very effective way to reach more customers and provide engaging content. Video advertisements are much more likely to be interacted with than static advertisements, so they can be a powerful tool for marketing and for creating your online brand. Video marketing can reinforce your social media and blog content by providing product demonstrations, interviewing experts, answering customer questions, and so on. Your company can also make shorter videos (one minute to thirty seconds) for your social media pages to add variety and interest.

Overall, there are many easy and effective ways to build your online brand presence. When combined with digital advertising campaigns, these methods can greatly expand your customer reach and conversions or leads. By utilizing social media, blog posts, and video marketing, your company can create a unified online portrayal of itself to gain customer loyalty, attract new customers, and increase sales.    

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Branding

5 Ways That Charity Can Boost Your Business

There are two reasons to get your company involved in charitable activities: It’s good for the world and it’s good for business. 

A survey from just two years ago shows that 88 percent of consumers want their favoured companies to help them make a difference. 

Your business will receive several advantages in partnering with a charitable organization, including improving image, more productive employees, boosting your brand, building a network, and a healthier bottom line. 

Improved image

The internet is a busy place, and any kind of traffic, especially positive comments, will improve your SEO and visibility in the online marketplace. Also, clients and community members are more likely to remember your business positively and spread the news to others. 

Happier, More Productive Employees

Everyone wants to feel like their work makes a difference in the world. Getting your employees involved in the charitable process means that you’ll have a happier and more productive workforce that believes in your company’s mission and values.

Boost Your Branding

There’s no publicity quite like charity and philanthropy. Not only will donating money and/or time improve your standing in the local and business communities, but you’re likely to see new opportunities as a result. 

Network, Network, Network

When clients see that a business cares about the world as well as their bottom line, they want to patronize that company. You’ll end up not only with more clients as a result of charity, but potentially more loyal customers that will spend more money patronizing your business. 

More Money

For all you CEOs and CFOs out there wondering why you shouldn’t just spend that money on advertising, the bottom line is that donating to charity almost always brings in more profits than you lose. 

There are several ways of going about your charitable work. It doesn’t always have to be a giant check at a fundraiser. There are so many ways to get involved in charitable work, whether it’s asking employees to volunteer, or donating a portion of a certain product’s profits. 

How to Do It

Here are some other smart ideas from successful business-charity partnerships. 

Partner with Similar Organizations

There are major benefits to joining nonprofit organizations or businesses with parallel goals, as this CEO learned firsthand. 

Judd Schoenholtz, CEO of Open Listings, said this: “The mission of Open Listings is to make homeownership more affordable. Our service makes this possible by vastly reducing the real estate fees incurred when buying a home through a 50 percent commission refund. To date, we’ve saved California homebuyers nearly $5 million.

“As our company and team has grown, we’ve also begun to support local organizations working on affordability by donating resources and energy to groups that share our mission. One example is Abundant Housing LA, an organization “committed to advocating for more housing… lower rents and a more sustainable and prosperous region, where everyone has more choices of where to live and how to pursue their dreams.” 

Donate Skills

This is an easy and wonderful way to connect with your local community, get some good press, and maybe grow your business. 

Ask your managers and employees to donate some time to teaching skills. This could be at a high school or college, a free class at the library, or even an open house where you invite people to see your business and learn from your employees. 

You and your employees have valuable knowledge that they can share. Why not spend one day a month sharing it with others?

Let Givers See The Impact

Many charities now understand the importance not only of transparency but creating systems that allow donors to see exactly where their money is going and what it’s doing.

If you offer a way for clients and donors to see the impact of their generosity, they’re more likely to come back and to spread the word to others about your business’ good deeds. 

A great example of this is the Track Your Impact function at WE Charity, which founder Craig Kielburger said has been crucial for donor trust. 

From Craig Kielburger: “The beauty of Track Your Impact is that it shows you what your purchase will do. And with sharable content that customers can take to social media. Shoppers buy the product, make an impact, meet the community affected, and share the story, like pictures of clean-water projects or facts about drought and small-hold farmers. The social media halo amplifies the brand and invites other consumers to join. And when consumers opt-in to receive information about their impacts, at the bottom of the message they see additional products and services that deliver more impacts to change the world. All of this amplifies the cause, inspiring others to shop with impact.”