CSR has moved on from tokenism. FMCG companies are
increasingly integrating brand and business objectives with social
responsibility programmes to make them commercially viable and sustainable
The country's largest fast moving consumer goods (
FMCG) company, Hindustan Unilever (
HUL), has just kicked off Project Sunlight, simultaneously
with Unilever's other markets, to compile the social missions of its many brands.
It is an attempt to invite consumers to get involved in doing small things to
help their own families, others and the planet. In India, HUL will highlight
brands such as Lifebuoy (cleanliness), Dove (improving women's self esteem) and
Knorr (work with farmers).
It is a
manifestation of how brands are combining
CSR with business objectives.
HUL has been scaling up initiatives for social good across brands. Its recent
Domex Toilet Academy, for example, has the objective of building 24,000 toilets
by 2015 in areas where there is lack of sanitation. The motivation came from
the increasing importance its parent Unilever is giving to the cause of social
good as espoused in its "Sustainable Living Plan" flagged off three
years ago.
Besides specific sustainability targets, managers at HUL were asked to
interpret a social purpose in the local context. The lack of basic sanitation
afflicts Indians is well-known in a country which accounts for almost 60 per
cent of open defecation in the world.
HUL saw an opportunity to plug its brand Domex, a toilet cleaner competing with
Harpic from Reckitt Benckiser. Hemant Bakshi, executive director, home &
personal care, HUL, says, "We realise the importance of the need for safe
and hygienic sanitation practices. We have an important role to play to help
make our communities free of open defecation. As a brand, Domex can make
toilets free of disease and safe to use."
Under Lifebuoy, the company has been running a large school contact programme
to help sensitise children to the need to wash their hands. Experts say, it is
a clever marriage of social and business objectives. By targeting children and
instilling in them the need to use a soap to wash hands, HUL is playing a good
corporate citizen, even as it creates a ready market in the schools and among
the parents of the students.
Tanishq and Havells, through their recent ad campaigns, have been questioning
so-called taboos. Tanishq's on-going campaign for its bridal collection, where
it portrays remarriage of a woman with a child, has been noted as a
break-through by pundits on social media (though, a similar trope had appeared
in a Femina ad in 2001).
Havells, the electrical components and appliances brand, touched on issues such
as inclusivity (a domestic help being asked to join her employer-family for
dinner at the table) and women's rights (a husband's decision to adopt his
wife's surname) in its summer campaign this year. Vijay Narayananan,
vice-president, marketing, Havells, admits the campaign did stir people enough,
making them sit up and take notice of the brand. Launched at a time when the
clutter is high on television, Narayanan says the campaign induced recall in a
low-involvement category such as fans.
Tata Tea's Jaago Re campaign, meanwhile, has evolved into a viable platform for
change. Jaago Re's current edition, coinciding with the relaunch of Tata Tea
Gold, dwells on how women should not be ignored by politicians since they
constitute 49 per cent of the voter base. Harish Bhat, MD, Tata Global
Beverages, says, "At a time when the country is gearing up for elections,
it made perfect sense to dwell on this aspect."
As corporate
social responsibility (CSR) becomes mandatory for Indian
companies, the seriousness with which most are approaching it has increased.
Gautam Chemburkar, partner, KPMG, says, "From something that was tracked
by a small team, CSR has moved up as a key item on the CEO's list. By making it
mandatory for companies to disclose what they've done with the two per cent of
profits they now have to set aside for CSR activities, companies will track
where the money will go, since it will form part of their distributable
profits."
According to industry estimates, the likely obligation arising out of the
CSR Bill, which comes into force next fiscal, will be $2
billion (or Rs 12,400 crore). This is if the cumulative profit of India Inc
will be $100 billion (or Rs 6.2 lakh crore) by then.
Chemburkar says the Indian corporations can't afford to ignore such an amount.
"If earlier companies paid lip-service to CSR, restricting their efforts
to communities around their factories, today the scope of their operations has
increased," Alpana Parida, president, DY Works, a Mumbai-based brand
consultant, says.
Beauty major L'Oreal has just announced its commitment to transform the way it
does business by 2020, spanning the entire value chain from manufacturing,
marketing to business development. L'Oreal, like Unilever, hopes to touch
consumer lives with not only sustainable products, but also initiatives that
can help make a difference.
