CSR – The New Age Mantra
By Madhavi Mukherjee on Jan 21, 2008 in CSR
CSR – The New Age Mantra
With the Standard Chartered Greatest Race just over, it won’t be a bad idea to delve into CSR and PR…Say wot? Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is the most discussed topic in the alleys and crossroads of communication these days…and why not? Most organizations one knows is indulging in some CSR activity of some scale. Be it for customers, employees, shareholders, communities and environment for that matter. CSR is becoming a way of life with many Corporates across the globe and it is not just for the sake of earning brownies. While I would like to leave behind the debate of whether it is ethical or whether it is just another ways of manipulating the audience, I would like to believe that most people are doing it with a sense of larger responsibility and contribution towards the society. And even if it weren’t, just the act is good enough since it does affect the beneficiary positively.
As PR professionals we work on integrated communication strategies and it is almost imperative these days to add an element of CSR in strategies and how we could maximize media visibility for the same. I do not see any erring in that intention. The good thing of propagating CSR could help in influencing many more Corporates who haven’t yet joined the bandwagon and do some more good for the society. Some CSR initiatives like the Standard Chartered Marathon or Infosys Library for every school achieve enormous scale and that is great news for society.
How does PR help? PR helps in not just to publicize the initiative but actually helps in leveraging someone else’s initiatives to mobilize the masses to join hands for similar causes. I love the way PR acts behind the scenes to drive Corporates towards the humanitarian goals. I know of PR professionals and Agencies that have consulted their Clients and convinced them to take up larger issues of concern and set aside budget for a cause and work relentlessly towards the betterment of a larger mass-scape.
I have worked with a couple of Clients who have been working silently towards causes not necessarily very large ones, but they have been consistently working towards uplifting the situations of senior citizens and children, or towards literacy or even for recognizing good talent. And in all these Clients’ initiatives PR helped in garnering support from the common masses to join in and get encouragement for taking up the initiative in a larger way. When we are devising a human chain for some cause, it delights me when people have read about the cause to have known about it and come and volunteered to be a part of the cause.
The only thing that we could do more with is the support from media on CSR issues. Media sometimes does restrict causes to specific days like AIDS Day, Women’s Day, Children’ Day and would not want to spend ink and space in writing for the cause at other times. I say, let’s all get together, forget about days and dates and advocate for the cause. Advocate for the cause in the larger interest and not take things too seriously in terms of whether the organization is manipulating et al.
Be it Standard Chartered Marathon, Hindustan Lever’s Shakti, or the various other CSR programmes, they are all well conceptualized and structured way of reaching out to the public at large. No community work is created to get PR mileage. PR or no PR, people will continue to do good work and CSR will continue to be the new age mantra…and I couldn’t be happier!
CheersMadhavi.
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On Jan 22, 2008, Palin Ningthoujam said:
Hi, nowadays CSR is also looked at by corporates as en extension of their branding efforts. Therefore they go for those activities that will support in some way their brands, messaging, etc. Do you agree? Do most PR agencies work on CSR ideation based on this principle?
On Jan 22, 2008, Madhavi Mukherjee said:
Sure, they do. Although some do base their CSR strategies on recall and audience attention, and if the cause and the brand relate to each other in value systems, the audience connects.
Yesterday I was talking to a Client and he was explaining the entire process of brand building. And how in the good old days, of only television the process of reaching out to audiences was ‘One to Many’. But today with a pluralistic media society, the process is ‘Many to One’. Do all you can to reach that one relevant audience. And if CSR can help achieve that, I think it;s great
On Feb 29, 2008, Ganesh said:
I think, CSR is nothing but its part of advertisement and brand building….
Who is spending on CSR?….. ultimate answer is enduser… so, is there need to borrow from end user’s pocket and spend it on particular society as CSR… coz if we see CSR program running by the corporates does not reach to mass …
Can we say IT paid by the companies is CSR? Yes coz it reach to whole society of country.
On Sep 15, 2008, Vijay Kapur said:
Hi
I am doing my dissertation on CSR,from the University of Nottingham. I happen to chance upon this article. CSR is not for brand recall, or for some extra media mentions. It is a ‘good management practice’ that is embedded in the company and not ‘bolted upon’. I feel that before giving CSR advice to companies, bordering on philanthropy which is a very small part of CSR activities, one needs to get aware of how it helps in building competitive advantage.
On Nov 20, 2009, o-buscador said:
interesting article…
On Nov 20, 2009, o-buscador said:
Had no knowledge about CSR.
On Nov 20, 2009, o-buscador said:
I hope to make public more articles on CSR.