CSR Dissonance – Five Tips for Ensuring Brand Harmony

Recently, several respected organizations conducting a multi-city fundraising tour booked the San Diego leg of their event at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. The fundraiser was part of a bigger, well-conceived corporate social responsibility program. But event organizers were unaware at the time that the proposed San Diego venue is the target of a boycott called by labor unions, LGBT groups and social justice activists. Click here for background on the boycott.

Despite challenges, the organizers decided to move the event to a less controversial venue. Was the decision to cancel a good one? Resoundingly so, according to recent research on the impact of corporate social responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility programs are notoriously difficult to measure, but research in the field is establishing some basic principles. One of the most interesting findings: if a company is well known in its community, its CSR activities will strengthen its brand more than they would if the company were less well known. (Holding Associates/Corebrand).

That means one of CSR’s greatest potential impacts is to enhance an organization’s relationships with existing clients or consumers. But CSR efforts that create dissonance with stakeholder values — for any reason — can actually be harmful to an organization’s reputation and stakeholder relations.

When you work on CSR initiatives for your own organization or your clients, it’s important to keep that principle in mind. Consider the following five tips as you plan your CSR effort to avoid unintended consequences.

Five Tips to Ensure Brand Harmony with Your CSR Initiatives
1. Know your constituents.
2. Understand what they care about.
3. Do a brand affinity test – does your cause amplify your brand values? Or does it create muddled messaging that confuses your stakeholders?
4. Avoid controversy unrelated to your cause. This means screening venues, partners and others that could damage your program’s reputation by association.
5. If you have overlooked something, analyze your options, and don’t be afraid to cancel. After all, it’s ultimately your reputation on the line.

Cook and Schmid Nominated for Silver Anvils

The Public Relations Society of America named Cook & Schmid as a finalist for two Silver Anvils. Not to brag, but our staff has done terrific work over the last several years and it’s great to be recognized. And this is the third year in a row that we have been nominated or won. Stay posted and we’ll announce if we won.

–Jon Schmid

Ambassadors for Water Conservation

Santa Fe Irrigation District, our client, today announced the launch of their water conservation ambassador program. Cook & Schmid will be managing the program and creating the social networking tools to support it. We’ll post updates as the program progresses, but this will be an interesting example of PR, community based social marketing, social networking and web 2.0. Ambassadors will be given the tools to go out into the community, literally and virtually, and educate their friends, neighbors and co-workers about water conservation.

– Jon Schmid

Skittles 2.0

Interesting Wall St. Journal article on Skittles going Web 2.0 and starting a social networking site for fans and consumers. This is user generated content and when you log on there is a disclaimer that indicates the content is not under Skittles control — after asking you your age! It’s being called an interesting experiment and there are a lot of detractors. In addition to some very funny videos, there are comments, a Wikipedia entry and a Twitter search. Hard to say what the effects will be in the long run, but the new Skittles social media Web site has been successful in creating a lot of buzz, and some good laughs, in the short run.

– Jon Schmid

Transparency, Open Government, the Stimulus and New Media

In January, President Obama sent a memo to the heads of all executive departments and agencies directing them to establish a “system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.”

“Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online,” he wrote. Providing this information, he explained, would help the administration achieve its goals of increasing public feedback and public participation in government.

A few short weeks later, we’re beginning to see how Obama’s team is implementing his vision. The best example: recovery.gov, where Americans can track the stimulus package, with unprecedented openness.

Web 2.0 and new media are changing the way all communicators – in the private, non-profit, and governmental sectors – do business. It’s not often we can look to government for examples of leadership in open communication. But this is one instance, all politics aside, where that leadership clearly exists.

– Rick Cook





iPhone app for supply chains

Morgan is a supply chain and logistics company in Pleasanton that has developed an iPhone app that allows their customers to track shipments in real-time and records who signed for deliveries. This is especially important for just-on-time logistics, which Morgan is involved in. And it really levels the playing field and allows Morgan to compete with the Fedexs and UPSs of the world at a fraction of the investment. They’re a client of ours. The release is below.

– Jon Schmid

Contact: Larry Edwards

Phone: (619) 944-8190

Email: ledwards@CookandSchmid.com

News

D.W. MORGAN DEVELOPS iPHONE APPLICATION TO COMMUNICATE REAL-TIME DATA FOR CUSTOMER SHIPMENTS AND DELIVERIES

· iPhone application enables real-time reports and electronic signatures for customer shipments and deliveries
· iPhone allows Morgan to more tightly manage customers’ supply-chain moves
· iPhone app being rolled out in Austin, Texas; global coverage by May
· Web 2.0 technology puts Morgan on cutting edge of supply-chain services

PLEASANTON, CALIF., February 24, 2009 ― The D.W. Morgan Company has developed an application for the Apple iPhone to communicate real-time shipment tracking reports and recipient signatures to its global customer base. The iPhone application is integrated into the company’s ChainLinq® Suite of transportation and inventory-management applications.

As a leading supply-chain consulting, transportation management and logistics services firm, D.W. Morgan will use the iPhone for enhanced electronic communications between dispatchers, drivers and warehouse personnel. The driver will receive pick-up and delivery instructions via the Web 2.0-enabled iPhone and use the cutting-edge device to file status reports and obtain an electronic signature at the point of delivery.

In addition, the new service integrates the iPhone’s GPS features, providing the exact location of a delivery, which can then be displayed visually on a Google Earth map. This tracking data, delivery notification and imagery is available to customers in real time via the D.W. Morgan Web site.

“We coordinate critical, can’t-fail movements of goods for our customers,” said David W. Morgan, CEO and founder of D.W. Morgan Company. “The iPhone app enhances our ability to provide better information and tighter management of these assignments than our competitors do. For us, real time really happens in real time.”

The iPhone helps Morgan’s clients realize just-in-time, on-demand logistics by providing the technology and communications infrastructure to make it work, thereby reducing operational costs and improving efficiencies.

“Real-time communication and getting things right is a necessity rather than a luxury in today’s fast-paced, supply-on-demand, global marketplace,” Morgan added. “Because we can now provide electronic signatures in real time, we and our customers will know immediately when a delivery was made, where it was made and who signed for it.”

The advantage of using the iPhone, rather than developing a proprietary software package like those used by other supply-chain services, is that it:

• Is an off-the-shelf communications device optimized for Internet protocols
• Has the broadest cellular network support internationally, with service in 85 countries, unlike other popular cell-phone services, which have limited compatibility overseas
• Minimizes the cost of application development through modular tools provided by Apple
• Is readily adaptable as additional technological advances are introduced

Adrian Trevino, receiving manager for the Austin, Texas, operations of Singapore-based Flextronics, said: “Morgan is high-tech. Real-time communication is critical to delivering cost-effective engineering and manufacturing services in our highly competitive business, and with the new iPhone application, we can more effectively schedule and deliver products to our OEM customers.”

D.W. Morgan is rolling out the new service within its Austin operation, where it serves a number of customers, including Cisco Systems and Flextronics. The company expects to have it deployed worldwide by the end of May.

“With the iPhone, we can more tightly manage our customers’ supply-chain moves and keep our customers informed minute by minute,” Morgan said. “This provides peace of mind in the high-stakes game of global competition.

“That is an advantage of being a boutique supply-chain logistics company,” Morgan added. “We have the agility to respond quickly to technological innovation, adapt it to our needs and better serve our customers worldwide.”

About D.W. Morgan

D.W. Morgan Company helps the world’s top manufacturers provide Supply On Demand® for their clients. By combining transportation management and logistics services with a flow of coordinated, real-time information and strategic consulting, Morgan dramatically improves efficiency and reduces costs—while maximizing flexibility. Since 1990, Morgan has served a Who’s Who of leading businesses, including Cisco Systems, Lockheed Martin and Applied Biosystems. Morgan has received numerous industry awards and has twice been named Cisco Systems Supplier of the Year. Morgan is certified as a Corporate Plus™ minority-owned business by the National Minority Supplier Development Council. The company’s headquarters is located in Pleasanton, Calif., and it has regional offices throughout the United States. Morgan maintains overseas subsidiaries in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Africa, and provides services to more than 85 countries worldwide. To learn more about Morgan’s products and services, please visit www.dwmorgan.com.

Awareness of Homelessness is Up

Homeless issues are getting a lot of attention these days. Media pitches on behalf of our clients who deal with homeless issues have been an easy sell. That’s because the number of homeless people is growing. And, most disturbing, the number of families and children living on the streets or in temporary housing is on the rise, too. A recent homeless services fair in San Diego saw more than 600 people show, up. That’s more than triple the number from last year. Riverside County saw big increases in calls to a help line as a result of an outreach program our firm conducted. Walt Sandford, executive director of the Regional Taskforce on the Homeless, will be on KPBS’ These Days tomorrow, Feb. 11, with several other guests to discuss the state of homelessness in San Diego.

– Jon Schmid

The Decline of Print Journalism

Did anybody else notice the full-page advertisements on page three of today’s San Diego Union-Tribune? It’s not surprising if you didn’t. These articles/ads (Sales are booming for clinical strength diet pill; Drug stores load up with powerful joint pill) were designed to appear exactly like articles, down to the type face and black and white photos. They also carried bylines naming the authors, which added to the credibility. Below the bylines the source was identified as “Universal Media Syndicate.” These types of “advertorials” are nothing new. As a PR professional, we have been placing stories like this for years. What was surprising to me was the prominence that the advertorials in today’s paper were able to garner. Page three is usually dedicated to news. You might think that I would be happy to see this new level of visibility being given to advertorials. On the contrary. To me it communicates the serious demise of print media. In a related story, Voice of San Diego reports that the Union Tribune has been cut in half.

– Jon Schmid

How TO Build a Ship

Philip Taubman, writing in the New York Times yesterday, chronicled the disastrous attempts by the Navy and several large defense contractors to build a high-speed littoral combat ship in an article titled “How Not to Build a Navy Ship.” Experts widely recognize that these types of ships, which can operate effectively in coastal waters, are critical to winning conflicts in the 21st century.

The two programs profiled in the article have resulted in large cost overruns, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and vessels whose effectiveness is questionable at best.

Meanwhile, a small San Diego company, and client of ours, called M Ship Co. built and launched a functioning littoral combat ship that exceeded the Navy’s performance expectations, cost just $6 million to build, and was produced in about a year.

Dubbed the Stiletto, this ship was named one of Time Magazine’s coolest inventions of 2006. The Stiletto was a project of the Navy’s now defunct Office of Force Transformation and seems to achieve what the late Admiral Arthur Cebrowski preached about building a “brown water navy” that can meet the challenges our soldiers and sailors are likely to face in the post-cold-war-world.

The Stiletto is loved by the special forces warfighters that have been using her on training missions. But there are no plans to build more Stilettos or other vessels based on the proprietary and pioneering M Hull design and revolutionary construction methods.

Taubman’s article is a sad story about the status quo beating out innovation and entrepreneurship.

–JS

Saving the Olympics

News reports today said that China is bowing to pressure and initiating talks with the Dalai Lama.

A few weeks ago, Iris Dorbian, a reporter with PR News asked me if the Olympics could be saved with PR, given that the games have turned into a PR disaster and a stage for protesters. I responded that PR or spin alone will not solve this crisis, but there are things that the interested parties can do to improve the situation.

Starting talks with the Dalai Lama was the first thing I recommended. But, as I told Iris, any plan to start a dialogue with Tibet would have to come across as genuine, rather than a token gesture. I also said that China needs to do a better job of engaging the media. The media tour of Tibet China held recently had some pretty transparently staged interviews and events that didn’t really help their cause.

The Olympic Committee, another player in this unfolding drama, needs to pressure China behind the scenes to make some steps in the direction described above. Publicly, the Olympic Committee needs to focus on whatever progress has been made by way of China’s pledge to respect human rights as a precondition to hosting the games and hopefully progress that is made in the near future. Externally, the Committee should try to elevate the games above the squabbling and focus on the athletes and the spirit of the games.

Sponsors are in a difficult situation. They cannot openly criticize China or just walk away from the situation for fear of ruining the buisness relationship. However, there is the danger of negative association if companies continue to support games that are marred by demonstrations and overshadowed by questions about the human rights record of the host country. Sponsors should consider including subtle messages in their advertising and other communications that show they support human rights, in addition to the games. But they need to strike a careful balance to not alienate the Chinese government. And again, the emphasis should be on the athletes and the spirit of the games. There are other things that sponsors can do to ameliorate the problem. For example, sponsor companies can donate to human rights watchdog groups or initiate a campaign to donate money to regions of the world in need of help. In both cases the groups or causes should not be directly involved in the crises at hand — Tibet, Sudan, etc. But by doing so, sponsors would generate goodwill, or political capital, if you will, that could help blunt criticisms of their support for the games.

The Olympic games have a long history of serving as a stage for protests and that’s not likely to change any time soon. In weighing its public image versus interests internally and abroad, China might choose to do the right thing this time around and we could see real progress thanks to the Olympic protesters.

– JS