“Err, WTF is social conscience marketing?”
Glad you asked! It gives us a chance to shout about it again. Social conscience marketing spreads benefits beyond the client’s sphere of influence. In other words, it’s marketing for good. A client’s product or service, and the marketing process itself, can reinforce social and ethical values for the benefit of communities – and it does not need to cost more than conventional marketing. The one proviso? Make it genuine.
At G&A, we exemplify social conscious marketing by pairing our client up with a cause, charity or not-for-profit for the mutual publicity and benefit to all parties involved.
For Example
A construction company client with a low public profile came to us for marketing services. We proposed to find them a community group needing post-earthquake repairs to their building, and source the best match for them by running a competition over social media. The construction company paid to run the campaign, which attracted great interest through the activities and energy of all the community groups that entered – because one of them stood to win a free building repair worth tens of thousands of dollars! As predicted by G&A, the competition winner was a group with a savvy leader, with strong community engagement on social media, a highly-visible building and a clear plan. The cost to our client was significantly less than advertising over conventional media and the period of high exposure for them lasted months, not days.
Results for the client:
• The company now has a solid social media following.
• It has built up a bank of goodwill within the community that will last for years.
• Company culture has been affected positively.
• New community links and leads to new work have been formed.
• Contact with the target market is all measurable and a contact data base has been built.
Result for the community group:
• The group, which could not afford repairs to their building, got their building repaired at no cost!
Check out the details here
Benefits of the practice of social conscious or socially responsible marketing:
• Certain grants and incentives from government agencies, or tax cuts, might be available for clients whose promotions benefit an environmental cause, community group or charity.
• Showing social responsibility in marketing gives a perception of integrity and suggests that a company is ‘following the rules’. This typically instills faith in their customer base.
• Socially responsible marketing makes sense as a business strategy because it inherently supports sustainability and increases the likelihood of repurchasing. It can encourage the customer to perceive a product marketed this way to be of greater value than a competitor’s.
