Global corporations DO care about us…and I can prove it

My dear friend Tom has a big job at Coca Cola: as their global director of Human and Cultural Insights. His big job is to understand what’s going on in the world, if it matters to Coca-Cola’s global portfolio of brands, and what they are going to do about it.
He is also an ambassador for change in the marketing industry at large: giving talks to groups and corporations all over the world on the importance of and responsibility of global brands to “get with the program” on making the world a better place.

Here is a post he asked if he could share in my Brand Sherpa Blog. I thought I would share it here too. A solid perspective on the role for businesses in helping improve human life:

THE NEW LOGIC FOR HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS

The overall environment in which business is operating is changing in a very simple way. Civil society is becoming more and more empowered every day. This is caused by a lot of things, particularly the internet which provides a ton of information and social media which allows them to share how they feel about that information. Social media also empowers them to do something about it. Smart businesses realize this trend will only continue. If it is not already the dominant force in your industry, it will be by 2020.

This is not a problem for companies that civil society likes. Which ones do they like? The ones that demonstrate that they “care and want for the wellbeing of others as they do their own.”

Business has always been about making money and it still is. What is now becoming increasingly clear is that the best strategy for making money is to be an ally with civil society. When everything a company does and says conveys that they “care and want for the wellbeing of others as they do their own” they are simply employing the most effective strategy for doing what they want to do – make money.

Alexis de Tocqueville called it “self-interest properly understood” by which he meant that you pursue your own self-interest in a way that does not impede others from pursuing their self-interests. Nobody wants to deny companies the right to pursue their own self-interest – they just have to do in a way that does not harm others. Simple.

So do people believe that your firm does indeed “care and want for the wellbeing of others as they do their own?” I hope so, because this is how your company will thrive! When consumers find a company that “cares and wants for the wellbeing of others as they do their own” they flock to it, they Tweet and Facebook about it, they become loyal to it. They recommend and love it.

This is the new logic for how to succeed in business.

 

Related articles

• Coca-Cola Africa Foundation giving hope to needy children, women (times.co.zm)
• Coca-Cola’s Content Strategy: 3 Lessons for B2B Marketers (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
• Has Coca-Cola Become the Perfect Stock? (fool.com)
• Mobile ‘Happiness’: Coca-Cola’s Secrets of Mobile Marketing Success – Mobile Roundtable (Pt 2) (mathieson.typepad.com)