Soaps, policies and education – there are many ways of taking responsibility

Today’s consumers expect companies to take responsibility and be purpose-driven. We choose products and services that reflect our personal values. “Do I like this product?” is often a question of: “Do I want to endorse this company?”.

This sets high standards for how brands should communicate their values, their purpose and their social responsibility. The borders between internal and external communication become blurred in an interesting way.

At Story we really appreciate organisations that take their social responsibility seriously and in this article we want to share some examples that inspire us. We will also share some of our reflections and advice.

Spotify

Spotify's internal work with diversity issues, DIB (Diversity Inclusion Belonging), began a couple of years ago and was intensified in connection to BLM. Travis Robinson is in charge of DIB at Spotify on a global level. The Swedish office, where over 100 nationalities work, Faduma Aden has been hired as local DIB expert and there is a collaboration with The Social Few, known for their term perspective density, around a local diversity- and inclusion strategy.

Spotify shows that what is important to their users, is important to them which is the right way to act for a company with this level of impact. We hope that the Swedish office will share their insights from the ongoing DIB-process to inspire others to follow.

AWA by Andeas

Andea’s soap for cleaning clothes, cleans the water in the river that the clothes are being washed in. The soap is tested in Peru where the tradition of washing clothes in the river still is strong. The problem is that the usual soup pollutes the rivers that the population uses for drinking water and food cooking. Andea’s soap solves this problem. It is a great example of impact relations and the purpose-driven accuracy inspires us. The product originated from a will to solve a defined problem and the solution is straight-forward in a brilliantly simple user-friendly way. The idea and product also create assets for powerful storytelling that can be used to address the bigger problem at hand. We often think about AWA and another innovative similar product, Savlon crayons with soap, in our own idea processes.

Berghs School of Communication

Today, Berghs take step by step on a path to a more inclusive communication industry. They have created spaces for conversation about discrimination within the school context in various ways and created a specific course on inclusive communication with Roshanak Fatahian, one of the creators of the network All Of Us. We hope to see more initiatives from Berghs that reflect the school’s intention to take social responsibility.

There are many other inspiring examples of companies and other organizations taking social responsibility - we would love to hear which ones inspire you and why.

Some reflections and advice from Story

Values are created through daily work

Don’t be opportunistic. Credibility and sincerity is key when it comes to social responsibility and impact communication. Keep in mind that value- and purpose-driven communication is based on actual efforts. Identify a problem that is relevant for your organization to help solve and make an action plan. Then share what you are going to do and why.

Find your allies

Important issues unite us and we can achieve more with joined forces. Identify allies who care about the same issues and see how you can support each other.

Respect your target group

Consumers are value-driven and knowledgeable and many critical issues come with painful experiences. Your approach should always be respectful and sincere. Anyone can see through an opportunistic shallow approach and this might very well just lead to a backlash and add to existing problems.

Transparency over perfection

This is worth repeating. Be transparent about your journey. Nobody expects that everything is going to be perfect from the start. Sharing setbacks, obstacles and all the steps on the way are the things that build credibility and relationships.

Last but not least, we want to add that we have seen both small businesses and global giants choose to make a difference and succeed. Everyone can take responsibility in their own way, and should.

We would be happy to talk more with you about social responsibility and communication, send an email if you want to exchange thoughts. And of course we also any other thoughts on this article and topic as well!