Q. Give examples of how Procter and Gamble, General Motors, and Indian Oil Corporation have exercised social responsibility.

Answer:

The major arguments for social responsibility include the following:

a. Public expectations.b. Long-run profits.c. Ethical obligation.d. Public image.e. Better environment.f. Discouragement of further government regulation.g. Balance of responsibility and power.h. Shareholder interests.i. Possession of resources.j. Superiority of prevention over cures.

The major arguments against social responsibility include the following:

a. Violation of profit maximization.b. Dilution of purpose.c. Costs.

d. Too much power.

e. Lack of skills.

f. Lack of accountability.

g. Lack of broad public support

Procter & Gamble

“Touching Lives, Improving Life” is the corporate motto which is exemplified intheir 138,000 employees and loyal customers worldwide.The unique organizational structure of Procter and Gamble offers the global scale benefits of an international company and the local focus to be relevant for

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consumers in roughly 180 countries where their brands are sold. The global operations of P&G keep them in touch with their local communities. And their strong governance practices ensure that they conduct their operations with consistently high standards and integrity.

P&G defines the commitment to sustainable development as "ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come."

Improving the lives of consumers worldwide is about more than just great products. It's about taking responsibility for improving communities around the world through the work they do, as a Company and as individuals. P&G has also demonstrated that it is not just in business to maximize shareholders wealth but it’s also a social responsible company. They are always seeking ways to better integrate economic progress, social development and environmental concerns to ensure a better quality of life for future generations.

They demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility by providing products and services that improve consumers' lives, in terms of health, hygiene and convenience. On a smaller scale, they contribute to the economic and social well-being of their employees, their shareholders and the local communities in which they operate. On a larger scale, they are involved in regional, national and international development. P&G contributes to social responsibility both in principle and in action.

The P&G Corporate Cause:

P&G have long made a difference in the causes they support, but they can make a greater, more enduring difference by focusing on a "corporate cause" where the need is great and there is a clear fit with P&G strengths, brands and current programs.

They are committed focusing on charitable contributions and sustainability efforts on a single cause: improving the life for children in need, ages 0-13, through their corporate cause, P&G Live, Learn and Thrive. This is illustrated in its summer camp program that is open to community youth. “We developed our Summer Camp program as a way to seek out the best and brightest. But, it's also a way for us to give these candidates a head start, not only on their schooling, but also their careers”. In fact, because of this focus, they already have helped improve life for more than 40 million children in need around the world.

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Some of their activities include

Children Education & welfare

Help children in need live by helping ensure they get off to a healthy start; Provide children in need with places, tools and programs that enhance their

ability to learn; Give children in need access to programs that help develop the self-esteem

and life skills that they need to thrive.

There are several reasons to concentrate their resources in these activities. Some are as below:

Disadvantaged children are most vulnerable and least able to help themselves.

We have many existing programs in children’s education and development as well as deep expertise in health and hygiene, which will be critical in addressing global needs for children and the world.

Child development is a universal concern across all global stakeholders in both developed and developing countries.

By strengthening current programs, introducing new ones and focusing their expertise and technologies on this critical need, they can improve the future for these children throughout the world.

Haiti Relief

P&G made a huge contribution for Haiti Relief. Product donations total more than $1.2 million with cash and donations from P&G, its employees and retirees, taking the total over $2 million. Product donations include bar soaps, batteries, bleach, diapers, dish detergents, feminine hygiene products, flashlights, laundry detergents, paper towels, shampoos, toilet tissue, tooth brushes, toothpaste, and wipes.

The Children's Safe Drinking Water Program

Program Using a packet of water clarification and disinfectant developed by Procter & Gamble , helped transform cloudy contaminated water into clear, clean drinking water in a matter of minutes in Nigeria. This event marks both a humanitarian triumph and a technological achievement. The Children's Safe Drinking Water Program is a not-for-profit program founded by P&G as part of its

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global cause - Live, Learn and Thrive(TM) - aimed at improving life for children in need. This Live, Learn and Thrive program provides clean drinking water in the developing world. P&G works with more than 30 partners and has committed to provide 2 billion liters of clean drinking water using the PUR water purification packets.

General Motors:

General Motors. is a multinational corporation engaged in socially responsible operations, worldwide. It is dedicated to provide products and services of such quality that customers will receive superior value, while their employees and business partners will share in their success and their stock-holders will receive a sustained superior return on their investment.

GM today employs about 324,000 people around the world. It has manufacturing operations in 32 countries and its vehicles are sold in 200 countries. In 2004, GM sold nearly 9 million cars and trucks globally, up 4 percent and the second-highest total in the company's history.

Today the GM product revolution again is strengthening its brands, with more innovative marketing that better understands the customer. Witness the incredible renaissance of Cadillac, led by all-new cars and trucks that have gone in a unique design direction, and by marketing that really connects with potential buyers.

Company’s view of Corporate Service Responsibility:

Motivation: General Motors recognize that it is by acting responsibly that it can continue to be economically successful.

The company has a long history of supporting the communities where the company does business.

In the late 1960s, it established the auto industry’s first supplier diversity program.

In the late 1970s, the company adopted the Sullivan Principles. The Sullivan Principles are a code of conduct created in the mid-1970s for corporations doing business in South Africa. General Motors was the largest American employer in South Africa

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CSR Strategies:

CSR Focus:

Education Public health Social investment Environment Safety Diversity and human rights

CSR Implementation:

Own projects Own foundation Funding and supporting various non-profit institutions

CSR Integration:

CSR strategy is integrated into:

Company product Company strategy

General Motors is committed to secure the sustainability of the company’s economy’s success by conducting its business in a responsible manner. The company’s approach towards responsibility and sustainability focuses on the mitigation of risk as well as on capturing and creating value for all of its stakeholders.

GM works to cultivate society’s awareness of the need to balance environmental, social and economic issues. For that, the company has been making contributions, both intellectual and monetary, to the education community. The company’s educational initiatives are designed to ensure the involvement of the young minds in a way to help them find workable solutions to future challenges.

GM is dedicated to protect human health, natural resources and the global environment. It also recognizes the impact its products and manufacturing facilities have on the environment. That is why the company is constantly improving the performance of its vehicles and the processes used to manufacture them.

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By engaging in various philanthropic and community related activities, the company maintains its leadership position as a valued, responsible corporate citizen by enhancing the quality of life in the communities where the company does business. The company achieves its commitments towards the community through the activities carried out by the GM Foundation and GM Corporate contributions.

Indian Oil Corporation:

At Indian Oil Corporation, Corporate Social Responsibility has been the cornerstone of success right from inception in the early 1960s. The Corporation’s objectives in this key performance area are: To help enrich the quality of life of the community and preserve ecological balance and heritage through a strong environment conscience.

At Indian Oil Corporation, the representatives have defined a set of core values for themselves – Care, Innovation, Passion and Trust – to guide them in all they do . Public Corporations like Indian Oil are essentially organs of society deploying significant public resources. Therefore, they are aware of the need to work beyond financial considerations and put in that little extra to ensure that they are perceived not just as corporate behemoths that exist for profits, but as wholesome entities created for the good of the society and for improving the quality of life of the communities they serve.

The Corporation respects human rights, values its employees, and invests in innovative technologies and solutions for sustainable energy flow and economical growth. In the past four decades, Indian Oil Corporation has supported innumerable social and community initiatives in India.

As part of Indian Oil's social responsibility Program, it provides scheme for attractive Scholarships to bright students selected on 'merit-cum-means' basis. For each academic year, 450 Scholarships covering the first year students of 10+ / ITI, Engineering, MBBS and MBA, have been formally announced through newspaper advertisements inviting applications under the Indian Oil Scholarships Scheme. As part of the scheme, special encouragement is being given to girl students, physically challenged students, and students from J & K as well as the Northeast States. Distribution of 250 Scholarships for 10+ / ITI will be as under and based on

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location of the School / College / Institute where admission has been taken in the academic year 2009-2010.

Besides primarily focusing on the welfare of economically and socially deprived sections of the society, Indian Oil Corporation also aims at developing techno-economically viable and environment-friendly products and services for the benefit of millions of its customers, while at the same time ensuring the highest standards of safety and environment protection in its operations. IOC recognizes the need for maintaining a cordial relationship with the residents of its operational areas. Despite overwhelming concern to find more oil, IOC has always given top priority towards the upliftment of the less privileged sections of the society in which it operates. The Company earmarks a minimum of 75% of its net profit for CSR initiatives.

Every year, IOC sets aside a fixed portion of its profits for spreading smiles in millions of lives across the country through a comprehensive community welfare and development program.

About ¼ of the community development funds are spent on the welfare of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe beneficiaries. IOC’s community-focused initiatives include allotment of petrol/diesel station dealerships and LPG distributorships to beneficiaries from among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, physically handicapped, ex-servicemen, war widows etc. The Corporation has also unveiled Kisan Seva Kendras as small format retail outlets to reach quality products and services to people in the rural areas.

IOC has concerted social responsibility program to partner communities in health, family welfare, environment protection, providing potable water, sanitation, and empowerment of women and other marginalized groups.

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Q3. A Marketer asked you what type of brand you thought an organization’s new product should carry. What advice would you give? Briefly analyze the branding strategy adopted by cellular operators.

Answer:

Branding Strategy is a plan for the systematic development of a brand to enable to meet its agreed objectives. Today's most successful companies regard brand as the driver for every process in their business. And for good reason, Corporate leaders recognize that a brand carries as much asset equity as personnel, proprietary formulations or capital

Developing a brand strategy can be one of the most difficult steps in the process of marketing plan. Often, it is that element that causes most businesses the biggest challenge, but it is a vital step in creating the company identity. The brand identity will be communicated repetitively, in multiple ways with frequency consistency throughout the life of the business.

The following seven factors continue to rule the day for building leading brands: 

Organization Support

•CEO leadership & support

•Distinctive corporate culture that supports brand promise

•Ability to obtain support from a broad spectrum of employees

•Alignment of brand messages across functions

Brand Presentation

•Strength of brand identity system

•Effective use of visuals/imagery

•Ability to capture the brand in a slogan

If the brand’s team has followed the sequential steps (as per below diagram), there is a high likelihood of there being an integrated brand that is respected by all stakeholder groups. At each stage in this brand building/ strengthening process, decisions have been taken about how the brand should be molded to achieve specified objectives.

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BRAND VISION

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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

BRAND OBJECTIVES

AUDIT BRANDSPHERE BRAND EVALUATION

BRAND ESSENCE

INTERNAL IMPLEMENTATION

BRAND RESOURCING

After launching the new brand, or enacting changes to an existing brand, its acceptability will become apparent over time as customers and other stakeholders respond to it. At the most fundamental level, tracking the brand’s sales and profitability will provide some insight regarding the suitability of the brand. By tracking the brand against a broader set of measures, the brand’s team is in a stronger position to fine-tune the brand.

Branding is an essential part of marketing sub-function of selling. Manufactured goods are standardized in the process of production. These goods are given a definite symbol, mark or slogan so that these goods catch the attention of the consumers. Also, a manufacturer or a seller wants to establish certain definite image in the mind of the public about the quality, durability, shape, fashion and color of his product. He does this by using a brand or trade mark to symbolize his product. Consequently, sales of known brands exceed those of the competing brands which have not created such distinct image. Thus, brands provide the base for selling efforts. Manufacturers and sellers are aware of the fact that branded

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products can be sold more easily and at highest prices than competitive unbranded products. Therefore, branding is invariably used as a method of modern mass selling. The primary objective of branding is to introduce “product differentiation” in the market, i.e., to single out a product from its rivals.

The following factors have made branding necessary:

The growth of competition. The increasing importance of advertising. Significance of packing as an important function of marketing. The growing habit among consumers to buy goods of particular brands.

Branding has become a management technique as it involves considerations of alternatives and choosing the best alternative. Brand managers have to develop a logical order of action in developing brand awareness and ultimately leading to brand loyalty.

The following points have to be considered while suggesting a marketer about the type of brand to be used to carry out his new product:

1. How to define your brand

This is the first step in the process of developing the brand strategy. By defining what your brand is, the marketer can create the foundation for all other components to build on. The brand definition will serve as a measuring stick in evaluating any and all marketing materials and strategies.

2. Determining the brand’s objectives.

Critical to effective brand management is the clear definition of the brand’s audience and the objectives that the brand needs to achieve.

3. Focusing on Target audience.

The power of the brand relies on the ability to focus. That is why defining the target will help to strengthen the brand’s effectiveness.

4. Discovering and Crushing the Brand Barriers.

When creating the brand strategy for a product or service, it is important to

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perform a careful analysis to determine principal barriers that the marketer may come in contact with. These barriers are also known as market conditions that can keep the product or service from achieving success.

5. Brand Packaging and Identity.

Branding is a company’s identity in the marketplace. The appearance of the packing of products describes a lot of the branding strategy of the company.

Branding Strategy adopted by cellular operators:-

Some of the major cellular providers operating at national level are BSNL’s Cellone, Airtel, Reliance, Tata Indicom and Hutch. Reliance and Tata Indicom operate on CDMA technology and others on GSM. Apart from these, there are regional GSM operators like Spice in Karnataka, Aircel in Tamilnadu, MTNL’s Dolphin in Mumbai and Idea in North India etc.

Airtel

"In a service industry like telecom, people live a brand 24X7. It's all about experience; and for Airtel 'brand=customer experience," says Rajan Mittal, joint managing director, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd.

That's now, but when mobile telephony began in India a decade ago, the brand was all about aspiration. That's understandable: a handset cost about Rs 45,000 - the price of a second-hand Fiat - and call charges hovered around Rs 16 a minute.

Naturally, the target customer was clearly defined: elite, up market professionals and entrepreneurs. "We positioned Airtel as an inspirational and lifestyle brand, in a way that trivialized the price in the mind of the consumer. It was pitched not merely as a mobile service, but as something that gave him a badge value," recalls Hemant Sachdev, chief marketing officer (mobility) and director, Bharti Tele-Ventures.

Airtel was on a power trip: the logo was black, uppercase bold lettering; and the baseline was "the power to keep in touch". "From day one, it was decided that the brand should always connote leadership - be it in network, innovations, offerings or services," says Diwan Arun Nanda, CMD, Rediffusion-DY&R, the agency that has created all Airtel ads over the past decade. The taglines emphasized that:

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"Airtel celebrates the spirit of leadership" and "The first choice of the corporate leaders".

This was also a time when customers needed to be educated; interest levels were high, but customers' exposure to the cellular world was limited. Airtel took out full and half-page ads in newspapers, answering queries like "what is roaming?", "what is coverage area?" and "how to make international calls".

In 1999, the rules of the game changed. The New Telecom Policy came into effect, replacing license fees with a revenue-sharing scheme and extending the license period from 10 to 20 years. Now, cellular service operators could drop their prices and target new customer segments. Hence Airtel's communication changed from "power" to "touch tomorrow".

The focus now was on the endless possibilities of technology to make life good and advertising became two-pronged: a product-driven communication that showcased new offerings like the Magic prepaid card, and an emotional communication that showed younger people.

In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer A R Rahman and changed its tune to "Live every moment": Rahman's signature tune for Airtel is, perhaps, the most downloaded ringtone in India. But that was just part of the ongoing communication.

The following year Airtel adopted the "Express yourself" positioning, which is also its current tagline. Now, the emotional angle was predominant - and stark, black and white imagery to stand out in what was becoming a highly commoditized, crowded market.

The latest campaign continues that thought. Only, mobile telephony is now extending to even low-income mass categories. So the first TVCs in Hindi and regional languages are now on air, as are low-priced products, like the Rs 200 recharge coupon.

Communication was just part of the battle: customer service would prove more critical. "We were very clear that Airtel will be a service-led brand," says Mittal.

Accordingly, Airtel was the first cellular service provider to start customer centers (called Airtel connects), where customers could pay their bills, apply for new connections and touch and feel new handset models.

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The way to the future, though, seems to be through product innovations such as easy charge (recharging prepaid connection through SMS), hello tunes, the Blackberry option, stock tickers and M-cheques (mobile credit cards).

The customer care centers, too, are metamorphosing into "relationship centers", one-stop shops where subscribers can not only pay their bills and have their queries answered, they can shop for new phones, surf the net and enjoy a cup of coffee. "What matters is what the customers want," points out Mittal.

Hutch: Color coded

Back in 1995, using "Hello Bombay" as the tagline, and pitted against consumer electronics giant BPL, the campaign for the unknown Max Touch got underway. Says Narayan Kumar, executive creative director, TBWA Anthem, part of Mudra's creative team for Max Touch. “We consciously decided to cultivate the brand personality as foreign."

The international pedigree was underlined by the baseline "World in your pocket", but local relevance was built using celebrities to endorse the brand. Like Airtel, Hutch, too, needed to educate consumers about cellular telephony. So, it also had ads like "Can I call STD?", "Can I use my phone in a lift?" "What is airtime?"

International was believed to be synonymous with sophisticated, and the customer service reflected that. Max Touch introduced Integrated Voice Response systems, and for face-to-face interactions, it had swanky customer spaces with smartly dressed executives who had been trained in customer relationships.

Even as Hutch's communication appealed to the upper class, it was working on innovative product offerings: in 1996, it was the first cellular company to establish national roaming; later that year, it introduced over-the-counter prepaid cards.

And if black proved to be Airtel's winning colour, Max Touch found orange worked for it. The almost accidental use of the colour in an ad campaign - changed at the last minute from green - was fortuitous.

A big success factor was how inspirational overtones in brand imagery stayed, even though price wars had started. Again, the colour orange was a seminal attribute; the brand's slogan was 'The future's bright, the future's orange'.

Later Hutchison announced the creation of an umbrella brand.The new brand name also heralded the arrival of a new mascot, the "Hutch" pug. When Hutch

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launched the Abby-winning "Wherever you go our network will follow'" ad, viewers believed that was Hutch's new slogan, but it was just one brand attribute. Twelve other campaigns followed; each one with a single communication of a value-add, all stylized to be uniquely Hutch.

Value-added services - such as "Privileges" (discount coupon booklets), cricket scores and stock market information - have formed as critical a part of Hutch's marketing efforts as its advertising. Other services like Hutch World (GPRS service), Hutch Alive (non-stop, streaming action) and Hutch4Help, a unique dial-in 'convenience' service, all emphasize the premium attributes of the service.

But now there's Chhota Recharge, small value recharge cards (starting at Rs 10), which will also help mobilize small spenders.

Recently, the country sported the Hutch tristar in a new, vivid pink. At the time, Naveen Chopra, corporate vice president, group marketing, Hutchison Essar, said, "The idea is just to refresh the brand, and inculcate a new 'Hutch spirit'." But the brand makeover had less to do with creating excitement and more with renouncing the Orange brand to Orange Telecom and creating the new pan-Indian Hutch brand.

Like Air tel, Vodafone implemented the celebrity endorsement strategy partially, relying primarily on its creative advertising for the promotion of its brand. BSNL, on the other hand, attracted the consumer through its low cost schemes. Being a state owned player, BSNL could cover rural areas, and this helped it increase its subscriber base. Reliance was another player that cashed on its innovative promotional strategies which included celebrity endorsements and attractive talk time schemes. Idea, relied heavily on its creative media advertising sans celebrities.

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