The Cone/Roper Cause-Related Trends Report is a long-term (five year) study on companies, consumers and causes. Recently 2000 Americans were questioned in person by Roper Starch for the 1999 version of the report.
According to their data, 8 in 10 Americans have more positive image of companies with causes, and two-thirds will switch brands because of that.
WALLY'S COMMENT ... When I read the news release on this, I was reminded of an incident several years ago. I was at a church convention where I was a delegate but arrived late because I was coming from a business trip. As I was walking toward the convention, I met a friend of mine, Rev. Richard Wallace. He was just leaving the conference area so I asked him if I'd missed anything. "No," he said, "we just voted for good and against evil."
I thought of that when I read the news release because the results reported at the top of the release sound very much like the kind of BS people tell you when you ask them if they're for good things and against bad things.
Being a dedicated researcher myself, I decided to do a quick survey on my next trip to the supermarket. I was interested in knowing, not if people were in favor of businesses doing good things, but whether they had a clue about what businesses stood for. It was my intent to interview several people but I stopped with the first one. Here's how the interview went.
ME: "Do you know what that company stands for?"
HER: "They make salad dressing."
ME: "Well, do you know what else they stand for?"
HER: "Sure, they make cheese and all kinds of foods."
ME: "Actually, I was wondering about whether you knew about the social causes that they're in favor of."
HER: "Social causes? (long pause) I guess they want to make money."
The 1999 Cone/Roper Cause Related Trends Report gives some data on issues most important to Americans based on interviews with 2000 folks.
In 1993, when the first of these surveys was completed, crime, the environment, and homelessness were the top three issues consumers most wanted business to work to solve. Now, in 1999, crime has been replaced at the top of the list by public education, crime is in second place, and the environment comes in at number 3.
The survey reports that child care is the most rapidly growing issue that consumers want business to focus on. It's moved from 14th place in 1993 to 7th place today. According to Cone/Roper, the significant increase of child care as an issue is part of a concern about early childhood development and the challenges faced by working parents.
WALLY'S COMMENT ... I confess that the whole tone of this bothers me. I'm not sure what businesses are supposed to do to "solve" crime. I understand what they can do about safety for their own people.
Then I read the stuff about increasing concern about early childhood development. I don't think that's it at all. I think that the reason this stuff is showing up in surveys is that we've got lots more working parents trying to juggle everything in their lives including child care as the baby boomlets sweep through the child care ages.
I also wonder what's supposed to happen when things change. In six years, homelessness has been swept from the top three, to be replaced by public education. Are we to assume that it's a good idea for businesses to cancel programs related to homelessness and start programs related to public education?
I don't know. I'm not against businesses being good citizens, I think that's true for individual citizens and business citizens alike, but I have a real problem when we start looking to businesses to solve problems whose major responsibility lies elsewhere.
Let me put it this way. I'd love to see businesses help on public education issues, but I'd much more like to see my local school district address the issues such as the astoundingly high number of administrators compared to classroom teachers. I'd like the schools to make sure they had good textbooks, qualified teachers, and security to allow the teachers and students to do their jobs.
I worry that looking to businesses, or other groups, diverts us from grabbing the people responsible for issues like public education and holding their feet to the fire.
Reviewed: 2/15/03
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