Monday, April 5, 2010

Call for CSR Consumer Insights Data

In a recent post, I laid out some of the topics I plan to cover in my Justmeans blog this month. I’d like to add one more to the list, and am interested in soliciting your help.

One of the concerns I have seen while working on this blog is a lack of good consumer insights data. I am currently doing research into different market research databases relevant to this topic and would welcome any information readers can offer on data resources for those interested in this topic.

Why is this important? As I hinted in my Justmeans post on the Ethical Sourcing Forum Conference (see “Ninety-Nine Years after Triangle: CSR in Factories”, published on the 26th of March), one of the big disconnects hindering the advancement of workers’ rights is the fact that companies can’t monetize their efforts in any way. Guarding against human rights abuses is an important tactic for minimizing reputational risk, but wouldn’t it be great if companies taking superior measures to protect the workers in their supply chains could increase revenues as a result of their good efforts? Unfortunately, the word on the CSR street is that consumers don’t want to hear sad stories when buying products, making it counterproductive for firms to share information about their social compliance work. Is this true? And is there any sort of modified messaging that would counteract this problem?

Ah, if only we had data to guide how consumers REALLY receive this kind of CSR information! If you are in a position to share comprehensive data on this subject, please connect with me through the Justmeans website.


Photo credit: ocw.osaka-u.ac


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