Recent market research has proven that consumers respond to corporate social media. Studies show consumers are willing to pay more for a product if the proceeds will benefit a social advocacy issue.

Corporations, both large and small, are joining the corporate responsibility trend. However, some talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. This could create more distrust between companies and consumers, as well as putting other companies under scrutiny.

During the recent recession, a select group of companies received government bailout funding to keep them from bankruptcy. However, even though these companies survived solely from government intervention, they continue to give enormous executive bonuses and disregard the welfare of the company.

Granted executive bonuses, no matter how outlandish, don’t directly relate to corporate social responsibility, it directly affects consumers’ trust. It also begs the question of whether these companies, who claim to give back, actually contribute to things other than their executive’s bank account.

How is America supposed to feel about this situation? How should these companies feel? Where was the Public Relations professional, whose job is to portray their clients in a positive and friendly manner?

If this was your client, how would you advise the company to handle bad press and recover the trust of consumers.

Tags: Corporate social responsibility, marketing, pr, PR Scoup, public relations, Social Media Issues, Social Responsibility

This entry was posted on October 24, 2009 at 4:21 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Corporate Social Responsibility Public Relations Social Media Issues Social Responsibility by Gabe Chesman View Comments