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1. Executive Summary
Communicating Social Values Improves Brand
Fortune 500 companies have recognized significant benefits by successfully
promoting civic virtues such as Sustainability, Community, Sponsorship, Charity, and
Environment. Although benefits like improved brand integrity are intangible, they can
have a significant impact on a company's long-term success. Increase brand value
by developing a communication plan for the organization's social values.
What is Social Value Messaging?
Social Value Messaging demonstrates alignment of corporate goals with those of the
organizations key stakeholders such as customers, employees, and partners. Social
Value Messaging programs are not sunk costs, but rather, should be viewed as
investments in corporate health.
Following are categories of Social Value Programs:
Sustainability
Community
Sponsorship
Charity
Environment
Examples of Social Value Messaging programs are abundant. On January 18, 2006,
Frito-Lay's brand, SunChips, partnered with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer
Foundation by officially sponsoring the Komen Race for the Cure® Series National
Volunteer Recognition Program. SunChips Crunch for the Cure is an integrated,
multi-channel campaign comprised of event marketing, promotions, online, and
affiliate & channel marketing.
Benefits of Social Value Messaging:
• Improved Recruitment & Retention - employees prefer to work for
socially conscious organizations that effect positive social change.
• Increased Revenues - in competitive markets, social values can mean the
difference between a customer choosing you or the other guy.
• Growth of Brand Equity - this includes brand awareness and increased
brand integrity as customers can identify with what your brand stands for.
• Positioning as Industry Leader - social values were initially competitive
advantages before these programs became mainstream. Be a leader.
© 2009 Demand Metric Research Corporation

2. Executive Summary
Action Plan:
1. Align Company Values with the Communication Plan - review your
organizations Mission, Vision, Values, Goals & Objectives. If no document
containing this information exists, hold informal interview sessions with key
executives. Determine which values will resonate with internal and external
stakeholders and make a list of projects that will best promote them.
2. Obtain Senior Management Approval - communicate with key members of
your management team the values you want to promote using social value
messaging. Do not forget to identify & leverage areas where your company is
already being a good Corporate Citizen.
3. Prioritize & Develop a Strategy - many social value campaigns fail because
the communication plan is too ambitious. Start with Sustainability as a hot
example and build upon your success over a longer-term period. There are
firms dedicated to the relationship between customers, sustainability, and
brands; check out innovative brand consultancy Conscientious Innovation.
4. Communicate Values Internally & Externally - work with the Web master
to put your values on the corporate website. Add these programs to general
marketing collateral. Additionally, work with Human Resources to incorporate
your social values into training packages for new employees.
5. Measure Results - obtaining a hard Return on Investment is difficult for
programs such as this. Instead consider the Social Return on Investment
model developed by the London Benchmarking Group to assess your results.
Bottom Line:
Being a good corporate citizen makes business sense. Drive brand value and improve
customer and employee loyalty by capturing and communicating corporate social
values.
© 2009 Demand Metric Research Corporation