HYPERLINK "http://www.forbes.com/sites/allenadamson/2014/09/22/what-dogs-can-teach-us-about-corporate-social-responsibility/" http://www.forbes.com/sites/allenadamson/2014/09/22/what-dogs-can-teach-us-about-corporate-social-responsibility/
What Dogs Can Teach Us About Social Responsibility
This article calls attention to a recent Ikea promotion called “Home for Hope”, that aims to raise awareness for the adoption of animals and to promote their adoption. The author uses this Ikea promotion to question the motives a company must have to run such a promotion, such as, “Does the company think it (the promotion) will fundamentally change how consumer think about its brand?” This line of questions offers the author a nice segue into the primary topic of the article, which is to compare characteristics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a business model to CSR as a promotional one-off.
CSR as a business model is defined as a company whose bottom line is based as much on creating quality products, as it is doing good things for the world. Tom’s Shoes offers to donate one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair a customer purchases. Patagonia clothing only manufactures clothing and gear from sustainable resources. The overarching theme of these “CSR as a business model” examples is that CSR is just as much a part of the brand as the products that these company’s offer.
CSR as a promotion tool is more of a tactical, short-term option that should be