Corporate social responsibility programs and cause-related-marketing are very much in vogue these days.  However, what many don’t know is that a poorly conceived “do good” program can do more harm than good to your company.

Generally speaking, social responsibility and cause-related-marketing efforts are good for business on numerous levels.  A 2010 survey found that, despite the economic crisis, 75 percent of people say that a company’s socially responsible acts and values are important; 55 percent are more likely to choose a product or service based on a company’s commitment to a cause or causes; 75 percent who read about a company’s social responsibility efforts on its website say they are more likely purchase goods or services from that company; and 59 percent plan on spending more on socially responsible companies in the coming year.  Additionally, studies show that socially responsible companies have higher levels of employee satisfaction and loyalty.  Even in this economy, over a third of workers would even take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible firm. 

However, studies show that, while consumers are willing to reward companies for their good efforts, they are equally willing to punish brands for ill-conceived social responsibility programs.  Consumers will see through programs that aren’t believable or don’t fit with what a company is about. 

This complicates things for companies.  Consumers expect you to be socially responsible, yet they may punish you if you don’t do it right.  And, even if they don’t actually punish you, a poorly developed program squanders a huge opportunity to make a major impact—both socially and on the bottom line.

In order to help our clients develop social responsibility programs that do well at doing good, two of our team, Ben Porritt and Rob Housman, devised the idea of “Tight Fit” corporate social responsibility.

A Tight Fit social responsibility program is one that focuses on something that is:


• In the public eye - an issue that concerns the wider public.
• Of importance to your specific customers
• Builds off of, derived from or reinforces what your company does.

We've drawn this as three-dimensional graph. The Y-axis reflects how important an issue is to the general public. The X-axis shows how important the issue is to your specific customers. The Z-axis relates how closely the efforts being considered fit with and/or build on what your company does. A tight fit campaign is one found in the back, upper right eighth of the graph.

Lots of companies that are extremely good at marketing and branding companies fail this test. For example, we recently examined the corporate responsibility programs of one of the leading companies in athletic footwear and sports equipment. Only a fraction of their social responsibility programs had anything to do with what the company is about or what their specific customers care about. Instead, they invested large amounts of money into reactive programs designed to answer critics, not advance causes close to their core—let alone build their brand or market share. At the other end of the spectrum consider Cybex's Pink Ribbon Run. This year we helped our client Cybex, a leading manufacturer of premium fitness equipment, expand their "Pink Ribbon Run" to combat breast cancer.

Cybex's Pink Ribbon Run is a truly Tight Fit campaign. Breast cancer awareness and prevention is a major public health concern. October, when the Cybex Run is held, is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, during this month the focus is very heavily on this disease. General public concern is high. Women make up a large percentage of both people who belong to gyms and people who use Cybex equipment. Cybex's client base cares about this disease. Lastly, research shows that women who work out significantly reduce their risk of ever getting breast cancer, and surviving it if they are stricken with the disease. Promoting fitness not only helps fight the disease, it is also great for Cybex's business. That's what we mean by a tight fit.