Touch Points

Good Things Come To Brands That Give

More from the “Giving is becoming Cool” files. SR by Kenneth Hein Brandweek - March 19, 2007 In Kenya , Coca-Cola is helping teach children how to test drinking water for contamination. The company also is providing water-purification systems for some of the country's most poverty-stricken areas. In India , Starbucks is addressing sanitation-related health problems by donating $1 million to WaterAid. On World Water Day (March 22), Coca-Cola and Starbucks took the opportunity to illustrate the good they are doing for the 1.1 billion people who lack access to clean drinking water. Such efforts are applauded not only from a humanitarian standpoint, but also from a branding perspective. Sixty percent of U.S. adults over the age of 18 said "knowing a company is mindful of its impact on the environment and society makes me more likely to buy their products and services," according to findings in the Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability (LOHAS) Consumer Trends Database released this week by the Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, Pa. The company surveyed 2,000 adults via the Web to gauge their perceptions of how companies are dealing with social and environmental issues as well as how those perceptions impact their buying decisions. Fifty-seven percent of consumers said they feel more loyal to companies that are socially responsible and about half (52%) said they were more likely to talk to their friends and families about such mindful corporations. More than a third (38%) said they'd be willing to pay extra for products produced by socially responsible companies and 35% said they were more likely to buy stock in such corporations. "Consumers are more likely to be brand loyal and less likely to be price sensitive," said Steve French, managing partner at the Natural Marketing Institute, which was founded in 1990. Despite that, the study found that many companies who do good, do a bad job of promoting the fact. "There's a big disconnect between what companies are doing and what consumer perceptions are," said French. The NMI combined its findings with investment analyst rankings, provided by KLD, Boston , to create the inaugural LOHAS Index of top 50 companies that are both socially responsible and do a good job communicating it. Of the companies they were familiar with, 50% of consumers surveyed weren't aware of their social or environmental practices. Wal-Mart fared the worst as 62% of respondents were unaware of its recent green initiatives. The mass retailer, which came in at No. 40, has done a poor job touting its green efforts while also battling past workplace diversity and human rights issues, said French. Microsoft topped the rankings, thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's efforts to enhance healthcare and reduce poverty. No. 4 was McDonald's. Said global CMO Mary Dillon: "We have a long history of social responsibility. It's part of our corporate DNA." The index divides the top companies into three tiers. At No. 15, Target rounds out the first tier of companies. The second begins with Ford at No. 16 and ends with Avon at No 29. Dell, which ranked No. 18, could do better in terms of creating more environmentally friendly products, said French. General Electric (No. 25), despite its green-tinged "Ecomagination" campaign, is suffering the ills of its environmental legacy—like the "issue they had with PCBs in the Hudson River ," said French. No. 39 Intel, meanwhile, "has the right elements for a corporate responsibility story; the challenge is to relate it in some sort of meaningful fashion."

What's My Fork?

Baby Crying Behind You on a Jet? Turn a Negative into a Positive
I like this fellow’s choice of attitude. S.R. Written by David J. Pollay   The plane was full. My seat was 22C. To my surprise there was no one beside me and no one behind me. I felt like I had won the lottery of seating charts. You know the feeling. You can spread out. You can recline without bothering anyone. You can even use two tray tables! I was flying to Chicago to run a workshop. I needed to concentrate on editing my presentation. The peace and quiet would be great. The flight attendants were getting ready to close the doors when I started working. And then it happened. I heard a flight attendant say, “You’re in 23C.” And just as I looked up I heard the increasingly loud sound of a baby crying. An upset baby girl and her mother were coming my way. Right behind me was the seat 23C. Five minutes later the baby’s cry turned into a wail and her little legs were kicking my seat. I couldn't work with such distraction. There were no answers to my questions: “Why does the little girl have to kick my seat? Isn’t there a way to stop the baby from crying? And why of all places on the plane do they have to sit right behind me!?” I started searching for what I could say, or what I should do. There was nowhere for me to go. When Your Road Turns Negative Create a Fork in the Path Then I smiled. I realized I actually had a choice. I could either see the situation as a dead-end negative, or I could see the situation in another way. I could find another road out and take it. And I did. In that moment I found another way to look at the situation. I now call it “my fork.” I thought of my own children. I started laughing thinking that Eliana, 4, and Ariela, 3, had done their share of crying and seat kicking in airplanes, as hard as we tried to stop it! So I turned the baby’s crying and seat-kicking into a reminder that I have two wonderful little girls of my own. Each time the little girl cried or kicked my seat, I felt grateful for my two girls. Sure I would have preferred the flight to be quieter, but guess what? I was able to work because I became quieter inside. I replaced the negative emotion I was feeling with gratitude for my own children. Psychologist Barbara Frederickson at the University of North Carolina observed how inducing positive emotions in people following a negative experience loosens the vice grip that the negative event holds psychologically. She also found that people bounced back faster physiologically — their cardiovascular activity slowed. When we landed in Chicago I stood up and turned to look at the mother and her child. She smiled a little nervously at me and started to apologize for her daughter’s crying. I stopped her. I pulled my wallet out of my pocket, opened it, and handed it to her. I pointed to the picture of my two little red-headed daughters. I said, “These are my little girls. They’re wonderful. And they cry too. Your daughter is beautiful. Congratulations.” She smiled and said thank you. I smiled and left the plane feeling good (something I wouldn't have thought possible after the crying began). So the next time a situation seems to be a frustrating dead-end, ask yourself, “What’s my fork?” There’s almost always another road you can take.   David J. Pollay is an internationally sought-after speaker and teacher, a syndicated columnist, and is the founder and president of The Momentum Project. Mr. Pollay holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Economics Degree from Yale University. E-mail him your thoughts and stories at david@themomentumproject.com.

Indifference- The Killer of Business

From the book “How To Talk To Customers,” according to a study conducted by the Rockefeller Corporation of Pittsburgh . They asked 450 business executives to identify the most common reasons why a customer stopped doing business with them. -            Death    - 1 percent -            A move or relocation - 2 percent -            A relationship with a salesperson - 4 percent -            Price and other relevant costs - 11 percent -            Dissatisfaction with the product - 14 percent -            Attitude of indifference from someone representing the company - 68 percent Does that attitude of indifference ever creep into your workplace? If it does, you’re losing customers because of it. I was gobsmacked when I saw that figure. Almost 70 percent of business is lost because of a lack of interest being exhibited by someone. Wow! Time to do something about it. Immediately! How To Talk To Customers by Dianne Berenbaum and Tom Larkin presents a systematic approach to dealing with customers with empathy, honesty and integrity. If everyone used their system, this world would be a much more pleasant place.