Corporate Citizenship Is No Longer an Option: The New Reputational Reality

Steve Jobs believed that the superiority of the products Apple produced were a contribution to society.

It was never that simple then. And it definitely isn't now.

In the wake of a devastating 'post-tropical cyclone' and an election that created other types of havoc, corporations are re-assessing their place in the reputational firmament.

The storm in question hit the world's media center, highlighting who is helping and who is not. But combined with election results that confounded the US business community by defeating its chosen candidate and the laissez faire policies he articulated, the question facing corporations is how to regain the trust and respect of the electorate. Who also happen to double as the consumer market.

Producing quality products. Delivering cutting edge design. Exceeding financial expectations. All were once considered sufficient to earn kudos and the stock price performance that went with it. But as the following article explains, customers expect more. They have demonstrated their penchant for voting their values both at the polling place and the cash register.

In response, companies are going to have to embrace yet another aspect of convergence. In addition to understanding that social media, traditional media, corporate communications, advertising and marketing writ large must support each other, business must understand that reputation is multi-faceted. A company's statements and actions must be consistent, aligned and mutually supportive. And they must reflect respect for the consumer, which may mean adopting positions that could may run contrary to traditional business policies.

But against the backdrop of the most expensive election in history, consumers voted their interests, not necessarily the best-funded advertising or PR campaigns. And that was a reflection of a trend already in the making. JL

Sheila Shayon reports in Brand Channel:

Apple CEO Tim Cook has increased Apple’s charitable giving, “determined to change the company’s stingy reputation — as one of the few major American corporations that before had barely donated to charity,” reports the New York Post. “Tech titan Apple at last donated something to charity worth talking about: $100 million… [which] still leaves Apple in an unusual spot — far behind its peers.” Apple is giving generously to the Big Apple for Hurricane Sandy relief, as reported by 9to5Mac: “We just got the above email via an Apple employee from CEO Tim Cook showing the Cupertino company is looking after those on the other coast of the U.S. Apple will donate $2.5 million to the Red Cross to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims.”

The donation comes on top of an iTunes page for the Red Cross, where 100% of value is passed on to relief efforts. Apple’s recent link on their homepage that directs traffic to the Red Cross iTunes page is a major move as their site garners close to 35 million unique visitors monthly, placing it #23 in Compete’s popularity rank of websites.

“It’s a prime bit of real-estate and it’s nice to see one of the five major links on the page go to relief in the wake of Sandy’s devastation of the eastern seaboard,” notes TheNextWeb.

Stanford University hospitals received $50 million and another $50 million went to African AIDS fundraiser (RED), co-founded by U2 frontman Bono and Bobby Shriver, nephew of the late president John F. Kennedy.

“Steve Jobs had a lot of concerns about how philanthropy worked and what the value of it was,” Stacy Palmer, editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, told The Post. “He saw the products he was making as a contribution to society.”

Charitable giving by America’s corporations grew 4% in 2011, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the recent inaugural Global Corporate Reputation Index, from Burson-Marsteller and partners highlights the top 25 companies with the best corporate reputation.

Based on 40,000 consumer interviews and 6,000 companies in six countries, those excelling in good corporate citizenship and market performance include not only Apple, but also Adidas, Avon, Bosch, Canon, Coca-Cola, Danone, Electrolux, Ford, Google, Heinz, Honda, Lego, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Nestle, Nike, Nokia, Philips, Puma, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Visa, and Volkswagen.

“If you’re not a good corporate citizen, you’re doing it wrong,” notes FastCoExist.com. “Consumers are no longer fooled by false corporate social responsibility — and they’re starting to care.”

The study defines corporate citizenship in part as "the less tangible aspects of a company’s reputation," and “unsurprisingly, the banking and oil and gas industries perform the worst in the citizenship category, while the tech industry leads the pack. The auto industry is up at the top, too, revealing that the big auto companies have rebounded in the public consciousness from bankruptcy,” writes Fast Co. “Consumers don’t ask for perfection. They just want to see some effort. And they’ll reward it.”

The $100 million donation from Apple is less than half donated to charity by Chevron and Walmart, both with market caps less than half of Apple’s $632 billion value. “Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is No. 1 by donation size, trailed by No. 2 Walmart and Exxon Mobil at No. 3. Buffett, one of the world’s most generous donors, handed over $1.5 billion last year,” reports the Post, while, “in his lifetime, Jobs accumulated an estimated $8.3 billion fortune. There’s no public record of him donating any of this to charity.”

Kudos to Cook for making charity part of the Apple portfolio and for all those companies defining corporate citizenship in a world increasingly in need of the model and the money.