Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is defined as any communicative transaction which occurs through the use of two or more networked computers.[1] While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats (i.e., instant messages, e-mails, chat rooms) it has also been applied to other forms of text-based interaction such as text messaging. [2] Research on CMC focuses largely on the social effects of different computer-supported communication technologies. Many recent studies involve Internet-based social networking supported by social software.
Scope of the field
Scholars from a variety of fields study phenomena that can be described under the umbrella term of CMC (see also Internet studies). For example, many take a sociopsychological approach to CMC by examining how humans use "computers" (or digital media) to manage interpersonal interaction, form impressions and form and maintain relationships.[3][4] These studies have often focused on the differences between online and offline interactions, though contemporary research is moving towards the view that CMC should be studied as embedded in everyday life .[5] Another branch of CMC research examines the use of paralinguistic features such as emoticons; pragmatic rules such as turn-taking[6] and the sequential analysis and organization of talk;[7][8] and the various sociolects, styles, registers or sets of terminology specific to these environments (see Leet). The study of language in these contexts is typically based on text-based forms of CMC, and is sometimes referred to as "computer-mediated discourse analysis".[9]
The way humans communicate in professional, social, and educational settings varies widely, depending upon not only the environment but also the method of communication in which the communication occurs (which, in this case, is through computers or other ICTs). The study of communication to achieve collaboration - common work products - is termed computer-supported collaboration and includes only some of the concerns of other forms of CMC research.
Popular forms of CMC include e-mail, video, audio or text chat (text conferencing including "instant messaging"), bulletin boards, list-servs and MMOs. These settings are changing rapidly with the development of new technologies. Weblogs (blogs) have also become popular, and the exchange of RSS data has better enabled users to each "become their own publisher."
Characteristics
Communication occurring within a computer-mediated format has an effect on many different aspects of an interaction. Some of these that have received attention in the scholarly literature include impression formation, deception and lying behavior, group dynamics, disinhibition and especially relationship formation.
CMC is examined and compared to other communication media through a number of aspects thought to be universal to all forms of communication, including (but not limited to) synchronicity, persistence or "recordability", and anonymity. The association of these aspects with different forms of communication varies widely. For example, instant messaging is prototypically synchronous, but rarely persistent since one loses all the content when one closes the dialog box unless one has a message log set up or has manually copy-pasted the conversation. E-mail and message boards are similar; both are prototypically low in synchronicity since response time varies, but high in persistence since messages sent and received are saved. Properties that separate CMC from other media also include transience, its multimodal nature, and its relative lack of governing codes of conduct.[10] CMC is able to overcome physical and social limitations of other forms of communication and therefore allow the interaction of people who are not physically sharing the same space.
Anonymity and in part privacy and security depends more on the context and particular program being used or web page being visited. However, most researchers in the field acknowledge the importance of considering the psychological and social implications of these factors alongside the technical "limitations."
Types
CMC can be divided into synchronous and asynchronous modes. In synchronous communications all participants are online at the same time, while asynchronous communications occurs without time constraints.
Language learning
CMC is widely discussed in language learning because CMC provides opportunities for language learners to practice their language.[11] For example, Warschauer[12] conducted several case studies on using email or discussion board in different language classes. Warschauer[13] claimed that information and communications technology, “bridge the historic divide between speech … and writing”. Thus, considerable concern has arisen over the reading and writing research in L2 due to the booming of Internet.
Quoted from Wikipedia
Tampilkan postingan dengan label communication. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label communication. Tampilkan semua postingan
Sabtu, 23 Mei 2009
Sabtu, 28 Februari 2009
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business and corporate social opportunity[1] is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure their adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms. Business would embrace responsibility for the impact of their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. Furthermore, business would proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public sphere, regardless of legality. Essentially, CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit.
The practice of CSR is subject to much debate and criticism. Proponents argue that there is a strong business case for CSR, in that corporations benefit in multiple ways by operating with a perspective broader and longer than their own immediate, short-term profits. Critics argue that CSR distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses; others argue that it is nothing more than superficial window-dressing; others argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations.
Development
Business ethics is one of forms of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment.
In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism) is increasing. Simultaneously, pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics through new public initiatives and laws (e.g. higher UK road tax for higher-emission vehicles).
Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia, descriptive approaches are also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree to which business is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. Historically, interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporate websites lay emphasis on commitment to promoting non-economic social values under a variety of headings (e.g. ethics codes, social responsibility charters). In some cases, corporations have re-branded their core values in the light of business ethical considerations (e.g. BP's "beyond petroleum" environmental tilt).
The term CSR came in to common use in the early 1970s although it was seldom abbreviated. The term stakeholder, meaning those impacted by an organization's activities, was used to describe corporate owners beyond shareholders from around 1989.
Whilst there is no recognized standard for CSR, public sector organizations (the United Nations for example) adhere to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). It is widely accepted that CSR adheres to similar principals but with no formal act of legislation.
Approaches
Some commentators have identified a difference between the Continental European and the Anglo-Saxon approaches to CSR.[2] And even within Europe the discussion about CSR is very heterogeneous.[3]
An approach for CSR that is becoming more widely accepted is community-based development projects, such as the Shell Foundation's involvement in the Flower Valley, South Africa. Here they have set up an Early Learning Centre to help educate the community's children, as well as develop new skills for the adults. Marks and Spencer is also active in this community through the building of a trade network with the community - guaranteeing regular fair trade purchases. Often alternative approaches to this is the establishment of education facilities for adults, as well as HIV/AIDS education programmes. The majority of these CSR projects are established in Africa. A more common approach of CSR is through the giving of aid to local organizations and impoverished communities in developing countries. Some organizations[who?] do not like this approach as it does not help build on the skills of the local people, whereas community-based development generally leads to more sustainable development.[clarification needed Difference between local org& community-dev? Cite]
Source :
The practice of CSR is subject to much debate and criticism. Proponents argue that there is a strong business case for CSR, in that corporations benefit in multiple ways by operating with a perspective broader and longer than their own immediate, short-term profits. Critics argue that CSR distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses; others argue that it is nothing more than superficial window-dressing; others argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations.
Development
Business ethics is one of forms of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment.
In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism) is increasing. Simultaneously, pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics through new public initiatives and laws (e.g. higher UK road tax for higher-emission vehicles).
Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia, descriptive approaches are also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the degree to which business is perceived to be at odds with non-economic social values. Historically, interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporate websites lay emphasis on commitment to promoting non-economic social values under a variety of headings (e.g. ethics codes, social responsibility charters). In some cases, corporations have re-branded their core values in the light of business ethical considerations (e.g. BP's "beyond petroleum" environmental tilt).
The term CSR came in to common use in the early 1970s although it was seldom abbreviated. The term stakeholder, meaning those impacted by an organization's activities, was used to describe corporate owners beyond shareholders from around 1989.
Whilst there is no recognized standard for CSR, public sector organizations (the United Nations for example) adhere to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). It is widely accepted that CSR adheres to similar principals but with no formal act of legislation.
Approaches
Some commentators have identified a difference between the Continental European and the Anglo-Saxon approaches to CSR.[2] And even within Europe the discussion about CSR is very heterogeneous.[3]
An approach for CSR that is becoming more widely accepted is community-based development projects, such as the Shell Foundation's involvement in the Flower Valley, South Africa. Here they have set up an Early Learning Centre to help educate the community's children, as well as develop new skills for the adults. Marks and Spencer is also active in this community through the building of a trade network with the community - guaranteeing regular fair trade purchases. Often alternative approaches to this is the establishment of education facilities for adults, as well as HIV/AIDS education programmes. The majority of these CSR projects are established in Africa. A more common approach of CSR is through the giving of aid to local organizations and impoverished communities in developing countries. Some organizations[who?] do not like this approach as it does not help build on the skills of the local people, whereas community-based development generally leads to more sustainable development.[clarification needed Difference between local org& community-dev? Cite]
Source :
Sabtu, 24 Mei 2008
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a multifaceted process, mediated by a set of information technologies, that focuses on creating two-way exchanges with customers so that firms have an intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns. In this way, CRM helps companies understand, as well as anticipate, the needs of current and potential customers.[1] Functions that support this business purpose include sales, marketing, customer service, training, professional development, performance management, human resource development, and compensation. Many CRM initiatives have failed because implementation was limited to software installation without alignment to a customer-centric strategy.[2]
Overview
There are many aspects of CRM which were mistakenly thought to be capable of being implemented in isolation from each other. [3]
From the outside of the organization, a customer experiences the business as one entity operating over extended periods of time. Thus piecemeal CRM implementation can come across to the customer as unsynchronized where employees and web sites and services are acting independently of one another, yet together represent a common entity.
CRM is the philosophy, policy and coordinating strategy connecting different players within an organization so as to coordinate their efforts in creating an overall valuable series of experiences, products and services for the customer.
The different players within the organization are in identifiable groups:
Customer Facing Operations - The people and the technology support of processes that affect a customer's experience at the frontline interface between the customer and the organization. This can include face to face, phone, IM, chat, email, web and combinations of all media. Self-service kiosk and web self-service are doing the job of vocals and they belong here.
Internal Collaborative Functional Operations - The people and technology support of processes at the policy and back office which ultimately affect the activities of the Customer Facing Operations concerning the building and maintaining of customer relationships. This can include IT, billing, invoicing, maintenance, planning, marketing, advertising, finance, services planning and manufacturing.
External Collaboration functions - The people and technology support of processes supporting an organization and its cultivation of customer relationships that are affected by the organization's own relationship with suppliers/vendors and retail outlets/distributors. Some would also include industry cooperative networks, e.g. lobbying groups, trade associations. This is the external network foundation which supports the internal Operations and Customer facing Operations.
Customer Advocates and Experience Designers - Creative designers of customer experience that meet customer relationship goals of delivering value to the customer and profit to the organization (or desired outcomes and achievement of goals for non-profit and government organizations)
Performance Managers and Marketing Analysts - Designers of Key Performance Indicators and collectors of metrics and data so as to execute/implement marketing campaigns, call campaigns, Web strategy and keep the customer relationship activities on track. This would be the milestones and data that allow activities to be coordinated, that determine if the CRM strategy is working in delivering ultimate outcomes of CRM activities: market share, numbers and types of customers, revenue, profitability, intellectual property concerning customers preferences.
Customer and Employee Surveyors and Analysts - Customer Relationships are both fact driven and impression driven - the quality of an interaction is as important as the information and outcome achieved, in determining whether the relationship is growing or shrinking in value to the participants.
Technology considerations
The basic building blocks:
A database for customer lifecycle (time series) information about each customer and prospect and their interactions with the organization, including order information, support information, requests, complaints, interviews and survey responses.
Customer Intelligence - Translating customer needs and profitability projection into game plans for different segments or groups of customers, captured by customer interactions (Human, automated or combinations of both) into software that tracks whether that game plan is followed or not, and whether the desired outcomes are obtained.
Business Modeling Customer Relationship Strategy, Goals and outcomes: Numbers and description of whether goals were met and models of customer segments and game plans worked as hypothesized.
Learning and Competency Management Systems - Customer Capacity and Competency Development - Training and improving processes and technology that enable the organization to get closer to achieving the desired results. Complex systems require practice in order to achieve desired outcomes, especially when humans and technology are interacting. Iteration is the key to refining, improving and innovating to stay ahead of the competition in Customer Relationship Management. (Successful tools, technology and practices will be copied by the competition as soon as they are proven successful.)
The building blocks can be implemented over time separately, but eventually need to be dynamically coordinated. The ongoing alignment of the basic building blocks distinguishes an elegant seamless CRM implementation which successfully builds mutually valuable relationships.
Types of CRM
There are several different approaches to CRM, and at present there is no one software package that allows all of these approaches to be applied. When companies consider implementing a CRM strategy, they usually talk about either Campaign Management or Sales Force Automation. Although CRM is much more than either of those parts, software packages are usually based around one or the other idea (with SFA being the most popular).
Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database when necessary.
One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact channels in a company over time without having to describe the history of their interaction each time.
Consequently, many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call center agents.
Operational CRM processes customer data for a variety of purposes:
Managing Campaigns
Enterprise Marketing Automation
Sales Force Automation
Sales Force Automation (SFA)
Sales Force Automation is a type of Operational CRM that is designed to automate sales-force-related activities, such as lead tracking. Software products perform such tasks as:
Keeping lists of leads
Assigning list segments to salespeople
Allowing list contacts to be called or e-mailed
Tracking responses
Generating reports
Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:
Design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimize marketing effectiveness
Design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention
Analysis of customer behavior to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)
Management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
Prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn analysis)
Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of data mining.
Campaign Management
Campaign management software is marketing-oriented CRM software that combines elements of Operational and Analytical CRM and allows campaigns to be run on an existing client base. Campaign Management is used when you need to create personalized offers when it is prohibitively expensive to personally contact each client. Campaign management software functions include:
Choosing campaign recipients from the client base according to selected criteria
Development of a campaign offer (this is often done "out-of-the-system" and is not automated)
Assigning specific campaign offers to selected recipients
Automatically sending offers to the selected clients via selected channels (either directly, via channels such as e-mail, or indirectly, by creating lists for use in channels such as direct mail)
Gathering, storing, and analyzing campaign results (including tracking responses and analyzing propensities)
Collaborative CRM
The function of the Customer Interaction System or Collaborative Customer Relationship Management is to coordinate the multi-channel service and support given to the customer by providing the infrastructure for responsive and effective support to customer issues, questions, complaints, etc.
Collaborative CRM aims to get various departments within a business, such as sales, technical support and marketing, to share the useful information that they collect from interactions with customers. Feedback from a technical support center, for example, could be used to inform marketing staffers about specific services and features requested by customers. Collaborative CRM's ultimate goal is to use information collected from all departments to improve the quality of customer service.[4]
Geographic CRM
Geographic CRM (GCRM) is a customer relation management information system which collaborates geographic information system and traditional CRM.
gCRM combines data collected from route of movement, types of residence, ambient trading areas and other customer and marketing information which are matched with relevant road conditions, building formations, and a floating population. Such data are conformed with a map and is regionally analyzed with OLAP(On-Line Analytical Processing) for visualization. This enables a company to examine potential customers and manage existing customers in the region.
Strategy
Several commercial CRM software packages are available which vary in their approach to CRM. However, as mentioned above, CRM is not just a technology but rather a comprehensive customer-centric approach to an organization's philosophy in dealing with its customers. This includes policies and processes, front-of-house customer service, employee training, marketing, systems and information management. Hence, it is important that any CRM implementation considerations stretch beyond technology, towards the broader organizational requirements.
The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its customers' needs and expectations. Information gained through CRM initiatives can support the development of marketing strategy by developing the organization's knowledge in areas such as identifying customer segments, improving customer retention, improving product offerings (by better understanding customer needs), and by identifying the organization's most profitable customers.[5]
CRM strategies can vary in size, complexity and scope. Some companies consider a CRM strategy to only focus on the management of a team of salespeople. However, other CRM strategies can cover customer interaction across the entire organization. Many commercial CRM software packages that are available provide features that serve sales, marketing, event management, project management and finance.
Successes
While there are numerous reports of "failed" implementations of various types of CRM projects,[6] these are often the result of unrealistic high expectations and exaggerated claims by CRM vendors.
Many of these "failures" are also related to data quality and availability. Data cleaning is a major issue. If the company CRM strategy is to track life-cycle revenues, costs, margins and interactions between individual customers, this must be reflected in all business processes. Data must be extracted from multiple sources (e.g., departmental/divisional databases, including sales, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, finance, service, etc.), requiring an integrated, comprehensive business processing system to be in place with defined structures and data quality. If not, interfaces must be developed and implemented to extract data from different systems. This creates a demand far beyond customer satisfaction to understand the full business-to-business relationship. For this reason, CRM is more than a sales or customer interaction system.
The experience from many companies[who?] is that a clear CRM requirement with regard to reports (e.g., input and output requirements) is of vital importance before starting any implementation.[citation needed] With a proper demand specification, a great deal of time and money can be saved based on realistic expectations of systems capability.[citation needed] A well operating CRM system can be an extremely powerful tool for management and customer strategies.
Privacy and data security
One of the primary functions of CRM software is to collect information about customers. When gathering data as part of a CRM solution, a company must consider customer privacy and data security with respect to legal and cultural environments. Some customers prefer assurance that their data is not shared with third parties without their consent and that it cannot be illicitly accessed by third parties.
Overview
There are many aspects of CRM which were mistakenly thought to be capable of being implemented in isolation from each other. [3]
From the outside of the organization, a customer experiences the business as one entity operating over extended periods of time. Thus piecemeal CRM implementation can come across to the customer as unsynchronized where employees and web sites and services are acting independently of one another, yet together represent a common entity.
CRM is the philosophy, policy and coordinating strategy connecting different players within an organization so as to coordinate their efforts in creating an overall valuable series of experiences, products and services for the customer.
The different players within the organization are in identifiable groups:
Customer Facing Operations - The people and the technology support of processes that affect a customer's experience at the frontline interface between the customer and the organization. This can include face to face, phone, IM, chat, email, web and combinations of all media. Self-service kiosk and web self-service are doing the job of vocals and they belong here.
Internal Collaborative Functional Operations - The people and technology support of processes at the policy and back office which ultimately affect the activities of the Customer Facing Operations concerning the building and maintaining of customer relationships. This can include IT, billing, invoicing, maintenance, planning, marketing, advertising, finance, services planning and manufacturing.
External Collaboration functions - The people and technology support of processes supporting an organization and its cultivation of customer relationships that are affected by the organization's own relationship with suppliers/vendors and retail outlets/distributors. Some would also include industry cooperative networks, e.g. lobbying groups, trade associations. This is the external network foundation which supports the internal Operations and Customer facing Operations.
Customer Advocates and Experience Designers - Creative designers of customer experience that meet customer relationship goals of delivering value to the customer and profit to the organization (or desired outcomes and achievement of goals for non-profit and government organizations)
Performance Managers and Marketing Analysts - Designers of Key Performance Indicators and collectors of metrics and data so as to execute/implement marketing campaigns, call campaigns, Web strategy and keep the customer relationship activities on track. This would be the milestones and data that allow activities to be coordinated, that determine if the CRM strategy is working in delivering ultimate outcomes of CRM activities: market share, numbers and types of customers, revenue, profitability, intellectual property concerning customers preferences.
Customer and Employee Surveyors and Analysts - Customer Relationships are both fact driven and impression driven - the quality of an interaction is as important as the information and outcome achieved, in determining whether the relationship is growing or shrinking in value to the participants.
Technology considerations
The basic building blocks:
A database for customer lifecycle (time series) information about each customer and prospect and their interactions with the organization, including order information, support information, requests, complaints, interviews and survey responses.
Customer Intelligence - Translating customer needs and profitability projection into game plans for different segments or groups of customers, captured by customer interactions (Human, automated or combinations of both) into software that tracks whether that game plan is followed or not, and whether the desired outcomes are obtained.
Business Modeling Customer Relationship Strategy, Goals and outcomes: Numbers and description of whether goals were met and models of customer segments and game plans worked as hypothesized.
Learning and Competency Management Systems - Customer Capacity and Competency Development - Training and improving processes and technology that enable the organization to get closer to achieving the desired results. Complex systems require practice in order to achieve desired outcomes, especially when humans and technology are interacting. Iteration is the key to refining, improving and innovating to stay ahead of the competition in Customer Relationship Management. (Successful tools, technology and practices will be copied by the competition as soon as they are proven successful.)
The building blocks can be implemented over time separately, but eventually need to be dynamically coordinated. The ongoing alignment of the basic building blocks distinguishes an elegant seamless CRM implementation which successfully builds mutually valuable relationships.
Types of CRM
There are several different approaches to CRM, and at present there is no one software package that allows all of these approaches to be applied. When companies consider implementing a CRM strategy, they usually talk about either Campaign Management or Sales Force Automation. Although CRM is much more than either of those parts, software packages are usually based around one or the other idea (with SFA being the most popular).
Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database when necessary.
One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact channels in a company over time without having to describe the history of their interaction each time.
Consequently, many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call center agents.
Operational CRM processes customer data for a variety of purposes:
Managing Campaigns
Enterprise Marketing Automation
Sales Force Automation
Sales Force Automation (SFA)
Sales Force Automation is a type of Operational CRM that is designed to automate sales-force-related activities, such as lead tracking. Software products perform such tasks as:
Keeping lists of leads
Assigning list segments to salespeople
Allowing list contacts to be called or e-mailed
Tracking responses
Generating reports
Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:
Design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimize marketing effectiveness
Design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention
Analysis of customer behavior to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)
Management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
Prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn analysis)
Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of data mining.
Campaign Management
Campaign management software is marketing-oriented CRM software that combines elements of Operational and Analytical CRM and allows campaigns to be run on an existing client base. Campaign Management is used when you need to create personalized offers when it is prohibitively expensive to personally contact each client. Campaign management software functions include:
Choosing campaign recipients from the client base according to selected criteria
Development of a campaign offer (this is often done "out-of-the-system" and is not automated)
Assigning specific campaign offers to selected recipients
Automatically sending offers to the selected clients via selected channels (either directly, via channels such as e-mail, or indirectly, by creating lists for use in channels such as direct mail)
Gathering, storing, and analyzing campaign results (including tracking responses and analyzing propensities)
Collaborative CRM
The function of the Customer Interaction System or Collaborative Customer Relationship Management is to coordinate the multi-channel service and support given to the customer by providing the infrastructure for responsive and effective support to customer issues, questions, complaints, etc.
Collaborative CRM aims to get various departments within a business, such as sales, technical support and marketing, to share the useful information that they collect from interactions with customers. Feedback from a technical support center, for example, could be used to inform marketing staffers about specific services and features requested by customers. Collaborative CRM's ultimate goal is to use information collected from all departments to improve the quality of customer service.[4]
Geographic CRM
Geographic CRM (GCRM) is a customer relation management information system which collaborates geographic information system and traditional CRM.
gCRM combines data collected from route of movement, types of residence, ambient trading areas and other customer and marketing information which are matched with relevant road conditions, building formations, and a floating population. Such data are conformed with a map and is regionally analyzed with OLAP(On-Line Analytical Processing) for visualization. This enables a company to examine potential customers and manage existing customers in the region.
Strategy
Several commercial CRM software packages are available which vary in their approach to CRM. However, as mentioned above, CRM is not just a technology but rather a comprehensive customer-centric approach to an organization's philosophy in dealing with its customers. This includes policies and processes, front-of-house customer service, employee training, marketing, systems and information management. Hence, it is important that any CRM implementation considerations stretch beyond technology, towards the broader organizational requirements.
The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its customers' needs and expectations. Information gained through CRM initiatives can support the development of marketing strategy by developing the organization's knowledge in areas such as identifying customer segments, improving customer retention, improving product offerings (by better understanding customer needs), and by identifying the organization's most profitable customers.[5]
CRM strategies can vary in size, complexity and scope. Some companies consider a CRM strategy to only focus on the management of a team of salespeople. However, other CRM strategies can cover customer interaction across the entire organization. Many commercial CRM software packages that are available provide features that serve sales, marketing, event management, project management and finance.
Successes
While there are numerous reports of "failed" implementations of various types of CRM projects,[6] these are often the result of unrealistic high expectations and exaggerated claims by CRM vendors.
Many of these "failures" are also related to data quality and availability. Data cleaning is a major issue. If the company CRM strategy is to track life-cycle revenues, costs, margins and interactions between individual customers, this must be reflected in all business processes. Data must be extracted from multiple sources (e.g., departmental/divisional databases, including sales, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, finance, service, etc.), requiring an integrated, comprehensive business processing system to be in place with defined structures and data quality. If not, interfaces must be developed and implemented to extract data from different systems. This creates a demand far beyond customer satisfaction to understand the full business-to-business relationship. For this reason, CRM is more than a sales or customer interaction system.
The experience from many companies[who?] is that a clear CRM requirement with regard to reports (e.g., input and output requirements) is of vital importance before starting any implementation.[citation needed] With a proper demand specification, a great deal of time and money can be saved based on realistic expectations of systems capability.[citation needed] A well operating CRM system can be an extremely powerful tool for management and customer strategies.
Privacy and data security
One of the primary functions of CRM software is to collect information about customers. When gathering data as part of a CRM solution, a company must consider customer privacy and data security with respect to legal and cultural environments. Some customers prefer assurance that their data is not shared with third parties without their consent and that it cannot be illicitly accessed by third parties.
Minggu, 23 September 2007
a good ads usually full fill this
- A good ad must stop the reader from turning the page.
- Sells a product’s benefits rather than its features: People buy based on what the product does for them not on what ingredients it has.
- Promotes the name of the store or brand while visually creating an image for it.
- Speaks to a specific group of people.
- Provides all the facts a reader needs without providing too many.
- Conveys its message simply. It is believable and honest.
- Is news: Readers say advertising in newspapers is as important as the news. It is in fact a primary reason that people seek out advertising in newspapers.
- Sells answers to consumer’s current needs. Advertising sells to people’s wants and not just needs. If people need transportation, they want a Mercedes. If they need clothing, they want Polo.
- A good ad uses white space. Crammed ads get poor results because readers don’t want to work that hard.
- A good ad has a sense of urgency. It tells the reader to do something.
Sabtu, 15 September 2007
strategies to makes ads works
Use tried and true advertising methods to bring in and keep valuable customers.
A Patient wakes up in a hospital room after an operation. She looks around and asks, "Where am I?" She doesn't ask, "How am I?" which you might think would be the normal reaction. Her first words are directed to a desire to be in a familiar situation.
Being in a familiar place is one of the basic messages that works for success in business. In fact, it is "one of the five ways advertising works" as determined more than 50 years ago by James Webb Young, a director of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and recognized by many as a dean of American advertising. Check your advertising to see if it meets one or more of his criteria:
1. Is it familiar?
2. Is it a reminder?
3. Is it newsworthy?
4. Does it stimulate action?
5. Does it add value to the product?
Let's look at these criteria one-by-one and examine how they'll work for your gallery or frame shop.
Be Familiar. People want to be in a familiar setting and/or buy a familiar product. Once buying habit patterns are set, they are difficult to change.
A readership survey revealed that people who owned or purchased a product were twice as apt to read an advertisement of the product than someone who never bought the product. Proof: When you send your direct mailer to your present customers, the response rate will be five to 20 times greater than when the same piece is mailed to people who have never bought from you.
Advertisement
Friends like to take you to a restaurant they enjoy, have you buy a car they like and suggest you purchase a book they have read. When people decide to buy art for their home or want a keepsake or favorite photo framed, do they look in the Yellow Pages for the place to go? Perhaps, but a stronger, more powerful choice is the one recommend by a neighbor or friend.
What you're trying to achieve is the answer for a game we played as children called "association." I say a word and they answer by saying the first word that comes into their mind. I say, "peanut butter;" they say, "jelly." I say, "art and framing;" they say the name of your shop.
That's also the reason you see commercials which repeat the name of the product over and over. The advertiser wants to implant the name in your subconscious so when you see it in the marketplace you respond with, "Oh yes, that name is familiar to me."
Be a Reminder. A few weeks before an election you are reminded to vote. Your shoe store sends notes to remind you the time has arrived for your children's new shoes. Your dentist or physician mails you a reminder note to call for your next appointment.
Much of today's advertising is not directed to purchasing a product as much as to remind you the product is waiting for you to come and buy it.
Look at the calendar. Every month has several holidays. Most offer a reason for buying something. Holidays are great opportunities to remind customers about the unusual, different and lasts-a-lifetime gifts in your store. Suggest an appropriate illustration for a customer's child's room in place of one of the many toys grandchildren receive on birthdays or holidays that are often forgotten or broken a few days later.
Be Newsworthy. Notice how many times you see the word "new" on soap and cereal products. That's because "new" is "news." Caution: Just because it is new does not mean sales will automatically increase. Only a tiny percentage of "new" products introduced every year succeed. The product or service must not only be new, but must also supply a need or be an improvement over a comparable product already on the market.
Opening a new department in your gallery? Carrying a new artist? Offering a "Frequent Framer" promotion? Having an early opening or later closing hours? Running a special promotion or sale you want your regular customers to know about before anyone else?
All these events are newsworthy. Give customers reasons to buy.
Stimulate Action. Young once ran a mail-order color page in Life magazine. The ad received a Starch "read most" rating of 20 percent of the circulation. But the response in orders was only one-tenth of one percent of the circulation.
What happened? People read the ad, but only a small percentage "acted" on the ad. The bottom line of good advertising is not how many awards are won at ceremonies but how much money comes into the register. It's desirable to give customers reasons to buy, but nothing happens if no sale takes place.
The average newspaper has less than 100 editorial stories and two to three times as many ads. How do you motivate readers of your advertising to the point when they come to your store?
The desire to act is there deep inside the consumer. How do we overcome inertia? Listing impressive numbers ("Look how many we sold of this artist's previous limited-edition print") is ho-hum. You must offer specific benefits.
Sometimes the choice of words will help. In England and Australia, "life assurance" is sold instead of life insurance. That has a different sound. If insurance pays when I leave, does life assurance mean I'm going to be around a while longer?
Ask yourself, "What am I doing today to sell my merchandise?"
A speaker at a marketing seminar asked his audience, "what are you going to do tomorrow?"
The real estate agent said he was going to show some houses. The insurance salesperson said he would line up some medical examinations for customers. The gallery salesperson said he was going to show some art.
No one in the audience said, "I'm going to make a sale."
Stimulate action. It works to make the customer buy.
Add Value. Refrigerators all over America have boxes of baking soda in them to make them smell nicer. But isn't baking soda supposed to be used for baking? Yes, but the company came up with an additional reason to buy the product. They practiced "line extension." If you own a share of the market with what you presently sell, how can you add a new reason to buy your product and capture additional business? Answer: Create added value.
Shake `n' Bake advertises their product as a base for pies as well as a coating for chicken. L'Eggs mails a catalog to nurses that offers only white panty hose. Hershey's chocolate is a winner when it markets chocolate milk in a candy bar look-alike container.
If an artist you carry authors a new book, designs a tie or develops a jigsaw puzzle it adds prestige to his art work in your gallery. Prestige is also "added value." Consider the Polo horse on your shirt, the CM for Countess Mara on your tie, the package from Tiffany's for a wedding present, the Steuben glass, the Rosenthal china and the well-known artist that is yours alone in your community.
this article was quoted from findarticles.comSabtu, 08 September 2007
definisi definisi kata dalam public relations
- The business of generating goodwill toward an individual, cause, company, or product.
www.motto.com/glossary.html - The acts of communicating what you are to the public. This is not to be confused with publicity, which is just one of the methods used in communicating the image.
www.nejaycees.org/about/jargon.asp
www.hispaniola.com/site/advertise.php- activity, communications, or press coverage that is designed to enhance the prestige or goodwill of a company.
rdsweb2.rdsinc.com/help/bi_ct_expdef.html - any activities or events that help promote a favorable relationship between a company and its customers and prospects; activities used to influence the press to print stories that promote a favorable image of a company and its products or services.
www.garyeverhart.com/glossary_of_advertising_terms.htm - The promotion of a person, company, idea, public body etc.Pictures may be used to assist in this.
ikjeld.com/info/glossary/glossaryP.html - Communication with various sectors of the public to influence their attitudes and opinions in the interest of promoting a person, product, or idea. (UT)
fourps.wharton.upenn.edu/advertising/dictionary/p.htm - An activity meant to improve the project organization’s environment in order to improve project performance and reception.
www.mccombs.utexas.edu/faculty/Linda.Bailey/glossary.htm - Marketers engage in public relations to develop a favourable image of their organizations in the eyes of public –public at large, customers, suppliers government, media, competitors, shareholders, employees and the society.
www.indiainfoline.com/bisc/jmam.html - A committee whose primary task is to promote Guiding. All members of Guiding are asked to participate in promoting Guiding.
www.albertagirlguides.com/Training_Glossaryp.html - A professional services in promoting products by arranging opportunities for exposure in the media.
freespace.virgin.net/brendan.richards/glossary/glossary.htm - a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to institute and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics (
wps.pearsoned.co.uk/wps/media/objects/1452/1487687/glossary/glossary.html - a promotion intended to create goodwill for a person or institution
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn - Public relations (PR) deals with influencing public opinion, through the presentation of a client's image, message, or product.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations
- (city) Public Affairs is a city office that usually handles communication between the city and the media and/or the public. The public affairs office may publicize events and provide information to media outlets, police staff or other city agencies. They also respond to queries from groups, organizations, and individuals.
www.datacenter.org/research/cjca/cjca9.htm - (joint) Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in DOD. (JP 3-61)
https://atiam.train.army.mil/soldierPortal/atia/adlsc/view/public/6903-1/fm/3-13/glos.htm - Public affairs is a catch-all term that includes public policy as well as public administration, both of which are closely related to and draw upon the fields of political science as well as economics.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_affairs
public affairs di Web dalam bahasa Inggris:
- (city) Public Affairs is a city office that usually handles communication between the city and the media and/or the public. The public affairs office may publicize events and provide information to media outlets, police staff or other city agencies. They also respond to queries from groups, organizations, and individuals.
www.datacenter.org/research/cjca/cjca9.htm - (joint) Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in DOD. (JP 3-61)
https://atiam.train.army.mil/soldierPortal/atia/adlsc/view/public/6903-1/fm/3-13/glos.htm - Public affairs is a catch-all term that includes public policy as well as public administration, both of which are closely related to and draw upon the fields of political science as well as economics.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_affairs
publicity di Web dalam bahasa Inggris:
- promotion: a message issued in behalf of some product or cause or idea or person or institution; "the packaging of new ideas"
- the quality of being open to public view; "the publicity of the court room"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn - Publicity is one of the variables that comprise the promotional mix. The other components of promotions are advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling. Promotion is one of the variables that comprise the marketing mix. The other three are product management, pricing, and distribution.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicity - the department within a publishing house which organises ‘free’ promotion of titles published, often through the sending out of review copies or soliciting coverage in the broadcast media; often nowadays in larger firms a part of the marketing department.
www.osi.hu/cpd/resources/paglossary.htm - The dissemination of promotional material to draw interest or generate sales.
www.motto.com/glossary.html - A marketing technique using free advertising outlets such as press releases.
aalbc.com/writers/publishing_glossary.htm - instead of adverstisement
www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/European-English - a news item or story which conveys information of interest to the readers of a publication.
www.garyeverhart.com/glossary_of_advertising_terms.htm - Non-paid, non-personal communication to promote the products, services, or image of the company.
www.crfonline.org/orc/glossary/p.html - Licensee agrees not to use the name and/or logos and/or other intellectual property rights of the HHOF in the advertising or promoting of the event without first gaining written approval from HHOF. The HHOF will provide the format and design which Licensee must use for all the advertising of the facility using the name and/or logos and/or other proprietary rights of the HHOF and/or the likeness of the facility. ...
www.hhof.com/html/ss05900.shtml - Non-personal stimulation of demand for a product/service or business organisation as a whole by putting commercially significant news in media to create a favourable image. It is not paid for by the sponsor.
www.indiainfoline.com/bisc/jmam.html - Neither RHE (in relation to the Customer) nor the Customer (in relation to RHE) shall use the name of the other party in any press release or product advertising, or for any other commercial purpose, without the prior written consent of the other(s); provided, however, that (i) publication of the collaboration with the Customer in the Annual Reports and similar publications of RHE, the College, and the University of London, and (ii) reference to the collaboration with Dr Pincus, RHE or the ...
www.dapos.org/profit.html - a tool of public relations focused on generating editorial media coverage for an organisation and/or its products.
wps.pearsoned.co.uk/wps/media/objects/1452/1487687/glossary/glossary.html
advertising dalam bahasa inggris
ADVERTISING is a paid form of communicating a message by the use of various media. It is persuasive, informative, and designed to influence purchasing behavior or thought patterns.
· political campaign: a race between candidates for elective office; "I managed his campaign for governor"; "he is raising money for a Senate run"
· run, stand, or compete for an office or a position; "Who's running for treasurer this year?"
· a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end; "he supported populist campaigns"; "they worked in the cause of world peace"; "the team was ready for a drive toward the pennant"; "the movement to end slavery"; "contributed to the war effort"
· several related operations aimed at achieving a particular goal (usually within geographical and temporal constraints)
· crusade: exert oneself continuously, vigorously, or obtrusively to gain an end or engage in a crusade for a certain cause or person; be an advocate for; "The liberal party pushed for reforms"; "She is crusading for women's rights"; "The Dean is pushing for his favorite candidate"
· an overland journey by hunters (especially in
· go on a campaign; go off to war
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
· a series of related military operations aimed at accomplishing a strategic or operational objective within a given time and space (JP 3-0)
www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-06/gloss.htm
· a connected series of military operations forming a distinct phase of war
www.nps.gov/gett/getteducation/cwsvocab.htm
· A contracted agreement between an advertiser or agency and the HomewithGod Network The campaign is defined by a number of variables, including the advertising creative, the duration, and the pricing structure.
homewithgod.com/adv/adv_glossary.shtml
· a series of political actions (like advertisements, public appearances, and debates) that are used to help a candidate get elected to office.
www.enchantedlearning.com/election/glossary.shtml
· A connected series of activities designed to bring about a particular result.
www.tolerance.org/pt/votequest/vq_dictionary.html
· The total planned, coordinated sales effort on behalf of a specific client or product, often multimedia in nature and run over a period of time. Motto Advertising has created numerous award-winning campaigns for its clients.
www.motto.com/glossary.html
· A co-ordinated effort where the objective is to deliver a set of individual e-mail marketing messages to a specific audience containing a strategic or tactical communication. The purpose of a campaign can be to acquire, retain, cross-sell, stimulate usage, provide a customer-service message, build or reinforce a brand, etc.
www.the-cma.org/council/emglossary.cfm
· A term adopted from formalized role-playing's early roots in wargaming, meaning a linked series of game 'incidents', usually set in an internally consistent gameworld and featuring a recurring cast of player and non-player characters. Campaigns may be open-ended, lasting as long as players choose to continue with them, or limited-duration, with a fixed objective or plot-climax that terminates the story.
www.mud.co.uk/richard/ifan394.htm
· Marcom activity to the channel or end-user. Less formal or comprehensive than a program, campaigns may still have membership requirements. To be effective, marcom must work directly with field sales management to align the message with partner business needs.
www.channelventures.com/channelprofessional/channelglossary.html
· A process by which a website owner acquires website visitors, particularly visitors that convert, as well as the conversion and retention processes that follow the acquisition. Campaigns can utilize on-line ads, links, outbound emails, and even off-line triggers such as direct mail, to acquire targeted visitors.
www.market-vantage.com/resources/glossary.htm
PR in Managing Crisis
steps to do when handling crisis
 | |
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| by Abbe Ruttenberg Serphos Suddenly it seems that each day we learn of a new accounting scandal leaving a major corporation in
While no one can predict a crisis, appropriate foresight and thought can mean the difference between maintaining a stellar corporate reputation and the dreadful alternative. this article was quoted from aboutpublicrelations.net | |
crisis and the futures of shareholders and employees uncertain. While this may be a new wrinkle in the U.S.'s corporate legacy, companies in crisis are nothing new. As we have seen time and again, from Tylenol to Exxon to Firestone to Enron, how you act and react once a crisis begins often forms your company's future.Jumat, 24 Agustus 2007
strategy : maintaining media relations
Maintaining positive relations with the media is one thing most PR professionals think they have down. After doing some research on blogs and professional PR web sites I’m starting to get a better sense of what’s considered good PR and what’s not.
I found a blog by David Meerman Scott, a contributing editor for EContent Magazine, that explains the frustrations journalists feel when PR professionals e-mail numerous press releases to them filling their inbox with “spam.” Of course it’s not actually spam mail, but the e-mail’s lack of relevance and personalization to the journalist is making all PR professionals look bad.
Scott lays out different techniques that PR professionals can use to build positive relationships with the media and still get ink. The following are some of his suggestions along with other tips I've found along the way:
-Pay attention to what that reporter writes about and what their beat is. This will help you create pitches that are specifically targeted at them. Don’t just change a few sentences and still make your pitch a mass e-mail, as Richard Millington points out in his blog.
-See if the reporter has a blog and READ IT! This will help you get to know more about the reporter, their personality, and what issues they think are important. You should also comment on their blog and begin creating an actual relationship with the reporter to build trust and credibility. You should maintain a professional relationship by continuing to push for your client, but also contribute other information so you’re not just using their blog as your second form of pitching.
-Invite reporter to your blog so they can get to know more about you as well. Help them see you’re a person and not some crazy spammer/telemarketer. If your blog is interactive and helpful enough, reporters could begin using your blog as a source for news. This includes using your RSS feeds and links to blogs you enjoy. Scott mentions that getting your company referenced in a high profile blog will get your extra brownie points and increase your credibility; so pitch bloggers too!
-Make the reporter come to your company’s site by making it cool and appealing. Make it easy to find your site by making it searchable through different search engines to increase your traffic.
-In building relationships with reporters, don’t forget about their bosses who have the final say over whether a story gets in or dumped. Start following these same rules and create a solid relationship with the editors of the publications and producers of the news outlets. This was one of the 15 media relations tips from PR professionals and journalists after they participated in a “Best Practices” survey.
-It’s best to know the reporter’s and publication’s deadline so you aren’t pitching them a story close to their deadline and wasting their time. Create a strategic communication plan, look at Bacon’s online and editorial calendars to figure out your timeline. Do not be annoying or overly persistent with the media if you know your story is not going to happen.
-Overall, just be able to adapt to many different types of reporters/situations and put yourself in their shoes when following your approach.
Maintaining media relations is not easy and can becoming time consuming if you don’t have the right set of skills. With this in mind, many PR agencies are beginning to require media relations training for their employees. GolinHarris actually has former media professionals train their clients in media relations in hopes of making the most out of every opportunity. The Margulies Communications Group boasts about their use of former journalists, and their ties to the media, to help them get their clients positive placement in local and national news. Positive media relations are the key to a successful PR professional’s job. With technology changing more and more as each day passes, it’s important to utilize all resources to your advantage to become a credible and trustworthy friend to the media.
this article was quoted from penacolada.blogspot.com
I found a blog by David Meerman Scott, a contributing editor for EContent Magazine, that explains the frustrations journalists feel when PR professionals e-mail numerous press releases to them filling their inbox with “spam.” Of course it’s not actually spam mail, but the e-mail’s lack of relevance and personalization to the journalist is making all PR professionals look bad.
Scott lays out different techniques that PR professionals can use to build positive relationships with the media and still get ink. The following are some of his suggestions along with other tips I've found along the way:
-Pay attention to what that reporter writes about and what their beat is. This will help you create pitches that are specifically targeted at them. Don’t just change a few sentences and still make your pitch a mass e-mail, as Richard Millington points out in his blog.
-See if the reporter has a blog and READ IT! This will help you get to know more about the reporter, their personality, and what issues they think are important. You should also comment on their blog and begin creating an actual relationship with the reporter to build trust and credibility. You should maintain a professional relationship by continuing to push for your client, but also contribute other information so you’re not just using their blog as your second form of pitching.
-Invite reporter to your blog so they can get to know more about you as well. Help them see you’re a person and not some crazy spammer/telemarketer. If your blog is interactive and helpful enough, reporters could begin using your blog as a source for news. This includes using your RSS feeds and links to blogs you enjoy. Scott mentions that getting your company referenced in a high profile blog will get your extra brownie points and increase your credibility; so pitch bloggers too!
-Make the reporter come to your company’s site by making it cool and appealing. Make it easy to find your site by making it searchable through different search engines to increase your traffic.
-In building relationships with reporters, don’t forget about their bosses who have the final say over whether a story gets in or dumped. Start following these same rules and create a solid relationship with the editors of the publications and producers of the news outlets. This was one of the 15 media relations tips from PR professionals and journalists after they participated in a “Best Practices” survey.
-It’s best to know the reporter’s and publication’s deadline so you aren’t pitching them a story close to their deadline and wasting their time. Create a strategic communication plan, look at Bacon’s online and editorial calendars to figure out your timeline. Do not be annoying or overly persistent with the media if you know your story is not going to happen.
-Overall, just be able to adapt to many different types of reporters/situations and put yourself in their shoes when following your approach.
Maintaining media relations is not easy and can becoming time consuming if you don’t have the right set of skills. With this in mind, many PR agencies are beginning to require media relations training for their employees. GolinHarris actually has former media professionals train their clients in media relations in hopes of making the most out of every opportunity. The Margulies Communications Group boasts about their use of former journalists, and their ties to the media, to help them get their clients positive placement in local and national news. Positive media relations are the key to a successful PR professional’s job. With technology changing more and more as each day passes, it’s important to utilize all resources to your advantage to become a credible and trustworthy friend to the media.
this article was quoted from penacolada.blogspot.com
Minggu, 19 Agustus 2007
Ten Core Media Relations Strategies
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| Tested tactics and tips to score the most hits. | |
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by Charlotte Tomic Tomic Communications
As a longtime publicist working for major brands for the past 20-plus years, I thought that getting news articles about clients or placing them on talk shows would get easier. Charlotte Tomic heads the Tomic Communications, | |
WSabtu, 18 Agustus 2007
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept which encourages organizations to consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of the organization's activities on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of its operations. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.
Development and analysis
While many businesses have always behaved in a responsible manner, the debate about CSR has been said to have began in the early 20th century, amid growing concerns about large corporations and their power[1]. The ideas of charity and stewardship helped to shape the early thinking about CSR in the US.
Ida Tarbell’s 1904 work The History of the Standard Oil Company helped lead to the US Supreme Court’s decision to break up the company on antitrust grounds. Similarly, Upton Sinclair’s 1906 book The Jungle led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act and the Meat Inspection Act by the US Congress.
The term CSR itself came in to common use in the early 1970s although it was seldom abbreviated. The term stakeholder, meaning those impacted by an organization's activities, was used to describe corporate owners beyond shareholders from around 1989.[2]
A widely quoted current definition by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development states that "Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large."[3].
Approaches to CSR
Some commentators have identified a difference between the Continental European and the Anglo-Saxon approaches to CSR.[4]
Auditing and reporting
To demonstrate good business citizenship, firms can report compliance with a number of CSR standards, including:
- AccountAbility's AA1000 standard, based on John Elkington's triple bottom line (3BL) reporting
- Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
- Verite's Monitoring Guidelines
- Social Accountability International's SA8000 standard
- The ISO 14000 environmental management standard
FTSE Group's FTSE4Good indice is an evalution of CSR performance by assessing companies according to various criterias. [1]
Some nations require CSR reporting, though agreement on meaningful measurements of social and environmental performance is difficult. Many companies now produce externally audited annual reports that cover Sustainable Development and CSR issues, but the reports vary widely in format, style, and evaluation methodology (even within the same industry). Critics dismiss these reports as lip service, citing examples such as Enron's yearly "Corporate Responsibility Annual Report" and tobacco corporations' social reports.
The business case for CSR
The scale and nature of the benefits of CSR for an organization can vary depending on the nature of the enterprise, and are difficult to quantify, though there is a large body of literature exhorting business to adopt measures beyond financial ones (e.g., Deming's Fourteen Points, balanced scorecards). Orlizty, Schmidt, and Rynes[5] found a correlation between social/environmental performance and financial performance. However, businesses may not be looking at short-run financial returns when developing their CSR strategy.
The definition of CSR used within an organisation can vary from the strict "stakeholder impacts" definition used by many CSR advocates and will often include charitable efforts and volunteering. CSR may be based within the human resources, business development or PR departments of an organisation[6], or may be given a separate unit reporting to the CEO or in some cases directly to the board. Some companies may implement CSR-type values without a clearly defined team or programme.
The business case for CSR within a company will likely rest on one or more of these arguments:
Human resources
A CSR programme can be seen as an aid to recruitment and retention[7], particularly within the competitive graduate student market. Potential recruits often ask about a firm's CSR policy during an interview and having a comprehensive policy can give an advantage. CSR can also help to improve the perception of a company among its staff, particularly when staff can become involved through payroll giving, fundraising activities or community volunteering.
Risk management
Managing risk is a central part of many corporate strategies. Reputations that take decades to build up can be ruined in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental accidents. These events can also draw unwanted attention from regulators, courts, governments and media. Building a genuine culture of 'doing the right thing' within a corporation can offset these risks[8].
Brand differentiation
In crowded marketplaces companies strive for a unique selling proposition which can separate them from the competition in the minds of consumers. CSR can play a role in building customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values[9]. Several major brands, such as The Co-operative Group and The Body Shop are built on ethical values. Business service organisations can benefit too from building a reputation for integrity and best practice.
License to operate
Corporations are keen to avoid interference in their business through taxation or regulations. By taking substantive voluntary steps they can persuade governments and the wider public that they are taking current issues like health and safety, diversity or the environment seriously and so avoid intervention. This also applies to firms seeking to justify eye-catching profits and high levels of boardroom pay. Those operating away from their home country can make sure they stay welcome by being good corporate citizens with respect to labour standards and impacts on the environment.
Disputed business motives
Critics of CSR will attribute other business motives, which the companies would dispute. For example, some believe that CSR programmes are often undertaken in an effort to distract the public from the ethical questions posed by their core operations. Some that have been accused of this motivation include British American Tobacco (BAT) [10] which produces major CSR reports and the petroleum giant BP which is well known for its high profile advertising campaigns on environmental aspects of their operations.
Criticism
Two broad categories of CSR criticism can be identified:
- CSR hinders the operation of the free market;
- CSR is essentially cynical and selfish.
Criticism from a free market perspective
This group are generally supporters of Milton Friedman who argued that a corporation's principal purpose is to maximize returns to its shareholders, while obeying the laws of the countries within which it works. Friedman argued that only people can have responsibilities[11].
Because of this, moderate critics would suggest that CSR activity is most effective in achieving social or environmental outcomes when there is a direct link to profit. This approach to CSR requires that the resources applied to CSR activities must have at least as good a return as that that these resources could generate if applied anywhere else. This analysis drastically narrows the possible scope of CSR activities.
Critics who believe that CSR runs against capitalism would go further and say that improvements in health, longevity or infant mortality have been created by economic growth attributed to free enterprise. Investment in less developed countries contributes to the welfare of those societies, notwithstanding that these countries have fewer protections in place for workers. Failure to invest in these countries decreases the opportunity to increase social welfare.
This group may also point to:
- The rule of corporate law that a corporation's directors are prohibited from any activity that would reduce profits
- The burden of the existing social and environmental regulation that companies must comply with. Detractors of CSR point out that organizations pay taxes to government to ensure that society and the environment are not adversely affected by business activities.
Critics who believe that CSR is essentially cynical
This group argue that the only reason corporations put in place social projects is for the commercial benefit they see in raising their reputation with the public or with government. They suggest a number of reasons why self-interested corporations, solely seeking to maximise profits are unable to advance the interests of society as a whole[12].
They would point to examples where companies have spent a lot of time promoting CSR policies and commitment to Sustainable Development on the one hand, whilst damaging revelations about business practices emerge on the other. For example the McDonald's Corporation has been criticized by CSR campaigners for unethical business practices, and was the subject of a decision by Justice Roger Bell in the McLibel case (which upheld some of these claims, regarding mistreatment of workers, misleading advertising, and unnecessary cruelty to animals). Similarly Shell has a much publicised CSR policy and was a pioneer in triple bottom line reporting, but was involved in 2004 in a scandal over the misreporting of its oil reserves which seriously damaged its reputation and led to charges of hypocrisy.
These critics generally suggest that stronger government and international regulation rather than voluntary measures are necessary ensure that companies behave in a socially responsible manner.
Other views from this perspective include:
- Corporations really care little for the welfare of workers or the environment, and given the opportunity will move production to sweatshops in less well regulated countries.
- Companies do not pay the full costs of their impact. For example the costs of cleaning pollution often fall on society in general. As a result profits of corporations are enhanced at the expense of social or ecological welfare.
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