The Public Relations BlogPublic RelationsInvestor Relations (IR)Your CSR is Boring—You Are Picking the Wrong Fights

Your CSR is Boring — You Are Picking the Wrong Fights

Brands must take real risks for their CSR to be taken seriously.

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

tl:dr;
If an organisation expects goodwill to emanate from their CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities, they must go up against a powerful enemy (“stupid majority”) and they must be willing to add substantial stakes to their endeavour. Because if the organisation isn’t doing something truly brave, why should anyone part with their admiration?
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Your CSR activ­it­ies are boring.

Zzz. Wait, what? Did any­one say “cor­por­ate social responsibility”?

CSR is when brands con­trib­ute to the great­er good of soci­ety — even though they tech­nic­ally don’t have to do it. 

Typical examples could be:

Planting rain­forest in the Amazon.
Drilling for fresh water in Africa.
Donating funds to dis­aster relief.

All good causes, for sure. 

But, as PR pro­fes­sion­als, we know this too well: get­ting pub­lic recog­ni­tion for CSR activ­it­ies is challenging. 

Where’s all that sweet goodwill?

When 1,000 People Agree With You

As a com­pany serving the great­er good through vari­ous CSR activ­it­ies, in the­ory, you should be reap­ing at least some busi­ness rewards for doing good.

A glob­al brand could alloc­ate mil­lions of dol­lars for good causes without earn­ing so much as a headline. 

  • Doing good is extraordin­ary — but not news­worthy by default.

But pub­li­city is one thing. What about goodwill?

Most people find CSR activ­it­ies to be both import­ant and noble. Commendable, even. 

But inter­est­ing? Not so much.

Imagine going out on a busy street to ask 1,000 by-pass­ers what they think about sav­ing the rain­forest. It’s not unthink­able that you would col­lect 1,000 “yes, that’s import­ant” answers.

In short: People favour your CSR endeav­our, which makes it unin­ter­est­ing from a media perspective.

It’s coun­ter­in­tu­it­ive, but people engage less with major­ity positions.

Enter: The Conversion Theory

In sci­entif­ic lit­er­at­ure, less engage­ment for major­ity pos­i­tions is known as the Conversion Theory. 

The social psy­cho­lo­gist Serge Moscovici found that we become more engaged if we belong to a mis­rep­res­en­ted minor­ity.

If 99,9% of your peers think that the rain­forest is worth sav­ing and you agree, you don’t feel you belong to a wronged minor­ity and are less likely to engage.

However, most CSR issues tend to be backed by “mor­al” majorities.

Planting rain­forest in the Amazon.
Drilling for fresh water in Africa.
Donating funds to dis­aster relief.

Sorry. People engage with less intens­ity in major­ity positions.

Regarding the PR effect, the con­ver­sion the­ory is why CSR activ­it­ies work best when a brand finds an intel­li­gent minor­ity to liaise with — against a stu­pid majority.

The Conversion Theory

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The Conversion Theory: The Powerful Minority

The dis­pro­por­tion­al power of minor­it­ies is known as the con­ver­sion the­ory. 1Conversion the­ory of minor­ity influ­ence. (2021, February 12). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​_​o​f​_​m​i​n​o​r​i​t​y​_​i​n​f​l​u​e​nce

How does it work?

The social cost of hold­ing a dif­fer­ent view than the major­ity is high. This increased cost explains why minor­it­ies often hold their opin­ions more firmly. It takes determ­in­a­tion to go against the norm. 2Moscovici, S. (1980). Toward a the­ory of con­ver­sion beha­viour. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 209 – 239. New York: Academic Press

In con­trast, many major­ity mem­bers don’t hold their opin­ions so firmly. They might belong to the major­ity for no oth­er reas­on than that every­one else seems to be. 3Chryssochoou, X. and Volpato, C. (2004). Social Influence and the Power of Minorities: An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto, Social Justice Research, 17, 4, 357 – 388

In groups, the minor­ity can have a dis­pro­por­tion­ate effect, con­vert­ing many ‘major­ity’ mem­bers to their own cause. This is because many major­ity group mem­bers are not strong believ­ers in its cause. They may be simply going along because it seems easi­er or that there is no real altern­at­ive. They may also have become dis­il­lu­sioned with the group pur­pose, pro­cess, or lead­er­ship and are seek­ing a viable altern­at­ive.”
Source: Changingminds​.org 4Conversion Theory. (2023). Changingminds​.org. https://​chan​ging​minds​.org/​e​x​p​l​a​n​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​t​h​e​o​r​i​e​s​/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​.​htm

According to con­ver­sion the­ory, while major­it­ies often claim norm­at­ive social influ­ence, minor­it­ies strive for eth­ic­al high ground. 

Given the power of norm­at­ive social influ­ence, minor­it­ies must stick togeth­er in tight-knit in-groups that can verb­al­ise the same mes­sage repeatedly.

Learn more: Conversion Theory: The Disproportionate Influence of Minorities

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How To Make Your CSR Less Boring

Brands are gen­er­ally per­ceived as both power­ful and wealthy.

To be accep­ted as the under­dog, the brand must be vul­ner­able to deserve pub­lic acknowledgement.

1. There must be a clearly defined enemy; the more potent the enemy, the more interesting the story.

If you want people to act­ively sup­port your brand, they need to know who and what you’re up against and that the brand is put­ting itself at risk by tak­ing this position.

From a PR per­spect­ive, com­pan­ies cut­ting down rain­forests are weak. And tak­ing a stand on behalf of the rain­forest is risk-free for the brand.

Is there a clearly defined enemy backed by a stu­pid major­ity?
Does a smart minor­ity back you in tak­ing down this enemy?

2. There must be obstacles and stakes to keep the brand accountable and the audience engaged.

CSR, too, obeys the fun­da­ment­al laws of storytelling; you need a strong enemy and must also accept a hero’s journey. 

You can’t expect people to trust or respect you if you don’t harm your brand for what it believes in. 

There must be some­thing “at risk,” some­thing tan­gible for the brand’s bot­tom line. The brand must make enemies.

What’s at stake for your com­pany?
In what way is the out­come for your busi­ness uncertain?

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Thanks for read­ing. Please sup­port my blog by shar­ing art­icles with oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tions and mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­als. You might also con­sider my PR ser­vices or speak­ing engage­ments.

PR Resource: The Stupid Majority

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The Stupid Majority

From what con­ver­sion the­ory tells us, minor­it­ies tend to hold their opin­ions more firmly. This is reas­on­able since going against the major­ity comes at a high­er social cost. 5Silfwer, J. (2017, June 13). Conversion Theory — Disproportionate Minority Influence. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​-​t​h​e​o​ry/

But some minor­it­ies have an addi­tion­al advantage:

Smart Minority = a minor­ity of today that will grow into a new major­ity of tomorrow.

In con­trast, some major­it­ies have an addi­tion­al disadvantage:

Stupid Majority = a major­ity of today that will stead­ily decline into a minor­ity of tomorrow.

Examples of Stupid Majorities

Stupid Majorities are to be found everywhere:

Riding a skate­board isn’t a real sport!”
(Stupid Majority vs Red Bull)

Computing is about bits and bytes, not design!”
(Stupid Majority vs Apple)

Websites and apps can­’t pro­duce movies and tele­vi­sion shows!”
(Stupid Majority vs Netflix)

Electric cars can­’t com­pete with gas cars!”
(Stupid Majority vs Tesla Motors)

Hotels must have hotel rooms!”
(Stupid Majority vs AirBnB)

Taxi com­pan­ies must have tax­is!”
(Stupid Majority vs Uber)

Media com­pan­ies must pro­duce media!”
(Stupid Majority vs Facebook)

Identifying a Stupid Majority (and sid­ing with a Smart Minority) will cla­ri­fy your core mes­sage and attract highly engaged minor­ity supporters.

Since time’s by your side (the Stupid Majority will be gone no mat­ter what), tar­get­ing a Stupid Majority might become your career­’s most influ­en­tial PR strategy.

Read also: The Stupid Majority PR Strategy: How Underdogs Dominate

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PR Resource: Cosmetic Sustainability

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Types of Cosmetic Sustainability

In pub­lic rela­tions, cos­met­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity refers to giv­ing the impres­sion of being envir­on­ment­ally friendly or socially con­scious without imple­ment­ing sub­stant­ive, mean­ing­ful changes. 

Here are some examples of cos­met­ic sustainability:

  • Greenwashing. Organisations give the impres­sion of being envir­on­ment­ally friendly without provid­ing any pos­it­ive impact of substance.
  • Bluewashing. Organisations claim to be envir­on­ment­ally respons­ible by asso­ci­at­ing them­selves with ocean and water con­ser­va­tion efforts without sig­ni­fic­ant actions to sup­port those claims.
  • Socialwashing. Organisations present them­selves as cham­pi­ons of social causes or cor­por­ate social respons­ib­il­ity (CSR) ini­ti­at­ives without genu­inely invest­ing in or address­ing those issues.
  • Pinkwashing. The use of LGBTQ+ rights and causes to mar­ket products or improve an organ­isa­tion’s image while not sup­port­ing these com­munit­ies meaningfully.
  • Brownwashing. Portraying an organ­isa­tion as sup­port­ive of racial justice and diversity ini­ti­at­ives without real com­mit­ment or sys­tem­ic change with­in the organisation.
  • Cleanwashing. Marketing products as “clean” or “non-tox­ic” when the terms are not clearly defined or reg­u­lated and without sig­ni­fic­ant evid­ence to sup­port the safety and envir­on­ment­al bene­fits of the products.
  • Localwashing. Organisations emphas­ise loc­al sourcing or com­munity engage­ment to appeal to con­sumers while not genu­inely con­trib­ut­ing to the loc­al eco­nomy or environment.
  • Wokewashing. Adopting pro­gress­ive val­ues or stances on social issues super­fi­cially to attract socially con­scious con­sumers without genu­inely address­ing these issues with­in the organisation.
  • Healthwashing. Organisations mar­ket products as health­i­er than they are by high­light­ing minor bene­fi­cial ingredi­ents or prac­tices while ignor­ing harm­ful com­pon­ents or practices.
  • Labourwashing. Claiming eth­ic­al prac­tices in areas like labour rights, sourcing, and man­u­fac­tur­ing without adher­ing to rig­or­ous stand­ards or mak­ing sig­ni­fic­ant improvements.
  • Charitywashing. Promoting char­it­able dona­tions or part­ner­ships to improve brand image, where the con­tri­bu­tions are min­im­al, or the focus is more on the pub­li­city than the impact.

Each of these types of cos­met­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity involves a dis­crep­ancy between the com­pany’s pub­lic image and its actu­al prac­tices, often mis­lead­ing con­sumers and stake­hold­ers about their true impact and intentions.

Greenwashing is more likely when firm stock volat­il­ity is low, cost of cap­it­al is high, pri­cing power is strong, and inform­a­tion asym­metry is high, but cur­rent returns to gre­en­wash­ing are lim­ited without a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of inform­a­tion asym­metry.“
Source: Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment 6Gregory, R. (2020). When is gre­en­wash­ing an easy fix? Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 13, 919 — 942. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​2​0​4​3​0​7​9​5​.​2​0​2​1​.​1​9​0​7​091

Learn more: Cosmetic Sustainability and Public Relations

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ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1 Conversion the­ory of minor­ity influ­ence. (2021, February 12). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​_​o​f​_​m​i​n​o​r​i​t​y​_​i​n​f​l​u​e​nce
2 Moscovici, S. (1980). Toward a the­ory of con­ver­sion beha­viour. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 209 – 239. New York: Academic Press
3 Chryssochoou, X. and Volpato, C. (2004). Social Influence and the Power of Minorities: An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto, Social Justice Research, 17, 4, 357 – 388
4 Conversion Theory. (2023). Changingminds​.org. https://​chan​ging​minds​.org/​e​x​p​l​a​n​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​t​h​e​o​r​i​e​s​/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​.​htm
5 Silfwer, J. (2017, June 13). Conversion Theory — Disproportionate Minority Influence. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​-​t​h​e​o​ry/
6 Gregory, R. (2020). When is gre­en­wash­ing an easy fix? Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 13, 919 — 942. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​2​0​4​3​0​7​9​5​.​2​0​2​1​.​1​9​0​7​091
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.
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