Business owners may be interested to learn how supporting good causes can lead not only to positive social impacts but also an increased bottom line. Packaging MEA contributing editor Doaa bin Thabit explains
Have you ever imagined the 80-year-old version of yourself, sitting alone, with your long life passing through your eyes, and you ask yourself: was it a life well-spent? To create change through your work in the field of packaging, to contribute through packaging to making this world a better place, to help in creating an impact; these are all noble investments that we all wish to reward the 80-year-old version of ourselves for. It fills our lives with purpose, it motivates our teams. Surprisingly, however, it turns out that it also helps us make more money! This article aims to share with you how this works.
Experience shows that for many businesspeople, having a clear cause to work towards, with concrete corporate social initiatives contributing to sustainable development goals – health, education, employment, and the environment – often proves to be among the most satisfying chapters of their professional lives.
Strategic CSR
The past decade witnessed a significant increase in corporate giving and a shift from isolated CSR to strategic CSR, whereby the core business is doing well by doing good across its value chain. It’s always pleasant to see brands support great causes through sponsorship or partnership, and packaging is a creative way to emphasise the importance of giving back to society; doing good as a means to expand vertically and horizontally, and raising awareness of the business brand to mobilise top talent as well as green finance.
For instance, many corporations produce limited edition customised packaging to support a cause, coupled with a cause-related marketing campaign and advertising. But besides packaging for a cause, the package itself can create tangible social impact and business revenues. Campbell’s soup is a great example of how packaging for a cause not only makes an impact, but can also boost revenues.
Blue oceanSarah Johnson, a globally renowned researcher who studies the economic and social impact of basic food value chain processes, described the revolutionary social impact of Campbell’s canned soup: “Campbell’s made food that was formerly food of the wealthy people accessible to ordinary people.
“Take, for example, the beef consommé soup, which back in the 19th century would take days to prepare – it would be super labour-intensive and often served as a first course at fancy dinner. However, when Campbell’s introduced the beef consommé, it expanded its reach to middleclass housewives who now could elevate their dinner tables to hold parties at home. “This is a clear example of how canned packaging created a blue ocean with a new segment of customers and a new revenue stream.
Doubled sales
For more than 150 years, Campbell’s has made CSR critical to its brand’s value. Later, it took packaging for a cause to another level by turning its iconic redand- white soup cans pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Can you guess the impact of this move on the bottom line?
Campbell’s doubled sales. What lesson do we learn from this? Doing good to feel good is not only a differentiator that is driving the need for cause packaging. It is pure business play that improves bottom line, top line, and brand value. It helps brands connect with consumers at a much deeper human level.
Consumers need to see that the brands they support are kind, caring, and human. Linking a company or brand to a relevant charity or cause can make to the spirit of the brand. Packaging is a silent salesman. Packaging for a cause creates for your business a new sales pitch, and a call to action. Data from consumer behaviour research shows that 94% of customers stated that when they are presented with two products that are about equal in price and quality, they will go for the one that supports a social issue.
Can I do it?
As you choose your social cause, you will face tough questions, such as:
- How does this cause support our business goals?
- How big of a social prob-lem are we targeting?
- Is the government or someone else handling this issue?
- What will our shareholders think of it?
- Is this something our employees can get excited about, and can we encourage them to support the cause?
- On the flipside, can this cause backfire on us and create a scandal? (For example, the single-use packaging such as sachets at low prices became an environmental scourge, because while this kind of packaging creates a great social impact by offering poorer communities a chance to buy products in small quantities they otherwise could not afford, on the other hand, it is swamping poor countries with waste.)Last but least, the most important question should be:
How will this cause improve our business bottom-line? Raising money for a cause or throwing money into solving a social problem is not always the solution, as research shows. We need to take a step back and improve our focus and co-ordination to achieve this aim in the most cost-effective way. For instance, the lack of co-ordination in breast cancer research and under-coordinated spending led to overlapping studies and huge gaps in research. Of all the money raised, only 15% of it went into research on prevention. So, instead of focusing on input indicators, such as money raised or effort spent, we need to stay focused on outcome indicators, such as treatment outcomes and return on investment.While serving several multilateral development organisations, some of which are UN agencies, I found success to be directly connected to the “impact investment” approach. In fact, my very personal social enterprise, Packageha, is an example of that whereby we empower small business owners and productive families who cannot afford to have professional packaging due to lack of volume of business. Packageha was the first to break into this blue ocean by providing customised branded packaging at very low volumes. Hence, we generate revenue and so do our clients, who are now able to present and sell their products much better.
Furthermore, the crown jewel of this success and the deepest feeling of satisfaction was achieved when I founded the Gift With Love social initiative, where we reached out to well-off school students and encouraged them to repackage their toys and gift them to orphans. The joy of giving is found in its most sincere and pure forms with school students, and the joy of receiving is found in the eyes of the orphans. We drew happiness from giving to orphans but found life in their eyes. The co-branding with AstraZeneca, Red Sea Mall, and many other sponsors boosted the brand value of Packagha.
Conclusion
Doing well by doing good is more than just a catchy phrase. Corporations that apply rigour to creating effective marketing and corporate social initiatives can help build a better world while enhancing their bottom line. I hope this article has left you thinking about the cause that you want your brand to be dedicated to, and we at Packaging MEA would be thrilled to help you with choosing the most appropriate issues, best partners, and highest potential initiatives by offering a free consulting session.Contact us via our website www.packagingforacause. com and be the next success story to tell on how packaging for a cause can make the world a better place.