Do you think M&S is sustainable?

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JCCR752

All large corporations have to be sustainable / enviro and socially friendly these days, otherwise they'll have bunch of hippy humanities majors staging protests in front of their stores and ruining their reputation.

Reply 2

fashionrsrcher

Original post by Black Cobra

Thats a fair point, do you think sustainability can ever loose its hippie reputations?

Reply 3

Reue

Original post by Black Cobra

They really don't. Plenty of companies have strong enough USPs that they can ignore other considerations like corporate social responsibility. Ryanair is an excellent example of a company that has achieved massive success while being infamous for their lack of social policy!

Reply 4

fashionrsrcher

Do you think cost is more important then? Ultimately will people sacrifice ethics, morals or sustainability for a cheaper flight, t-shirt or product? Forgetting the hippie vibes that come with these sorts of ideas usually, if you could have both why would you not?

Original post by Reue

Reply 5

Black Cobra

Original post by Reue

Ryanair is the exception, and there are exceptions to every rule. Ryanair can only get away with not giving a chit about CSR, because not giving a chit is their entire corporate strategy. I mean their CEO even suggested removing seats out of airplanes and making people stand on flights, so they could pack more people in and earn more money. Nobody expects anything good to come out of Ryanair, but they still use the service because its very cheap.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Reue

Original post by Black Cobra

Plenty of others with either strong enough brands or value which overrides poor Customer service and social responsibility:

Kraft
Tesco
Neastle
PayPal
BP

All have a pretty poor public image yet have been successful.

Reply 7

Black Cobra

Original post by Reue

Another misstep there mate. Firstly, Do not confuse customer service with social responsibility. They are very different things.

Firstly you are making it seem like these companies dont have CSR policies or dont care about CSR. In fact they all do have CSR policies, and secondly incidents in the past that have created negative perceptions about their brand have actually made these companies put more effort into their CSR policies and building/restoring brand value (especially BP).

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, you exaggerate how badly these companies are perceived. The average joe on the street would not have negative perceptions about any of those companies you mentioned above apart from BP (due to all the oil spills)

Reply 8

Reue

Original post by Black Cobra

Another misstep there mate. Firstly, Do not confuse customer service with social responsibility. They are very different things.

Hence why I put 'Customer service and social responsibility'

Original post by Black Cobra

Firstly you are making it seem like these companies dont have CSR policies or dont care about CSR.

Not at all. I was pointing out that they don't appear to have particularly strong policies, or at least not ones which have been effective in boosting their public images.

Original post by Black Cobra

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, you exaggerate how badly these companies are perceived. The average joe on the street would not have negative perceptions about any of those companies you mentioned above apart from BP (due to all the oil spills)

I suspect you're wrong there. There has been alot of recent negative publicity in mainstream media with regards to Kraft. Nestle has had an ongoing boycott for many years now. Tesco has seen profits nose-dive primarily as a result of consumers making an active choice to switch. Paypal continue to have pretty regular streams of negative publicity.

Reply 9

Black Cobra

Original post by Reue

Hence why I put 'Customer service and social responsibility'.

But this thread is about CSR. It has nothing to do with Jim calling up Paypal one time and the guy on the phone being a c*** to him.

Original post by Reue

Not at all. I was pointing out that they don't appear to have particularly strong policies, or at least not ones which have been effective in boosting their public images.

Name some companies who do have strong CSR policies then? Because CSR is not something the average consumer has much knowledge of or pays much attention to any way. I feel you are confusing a bit of bad press with weak CSR.

Original post by Reue

You neglect a key thing. I said "the average consumer". You're aware of the bad press these companies have faced, but being an active poster on a site like this, you are likely significantly more informed than the average consumer.

You go up to the average Joe or Jane in the street and ask them "what are your thoughts on Kraft/Nestle/Tesco/Paypal" - they are not going to say we should boycott these companies, and their perceptions would not be mostly negative.

Also, the point you made about Tesco is irrelevant. Poepple have being leaving Tesco because low cost competitors like Lidl and Aldi have increased their UK presence - not because of factors related to how customers perceive Tesco in the context of CSR.