Content We Love: Turning Business Decisions into CSR Practices

Everyone loves a feel-good story, and nothing elicits more sighs of “aww” than selflessness. This is why companies with corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices like to brag about their charity work in press releases. As a for-profit organization, showing the world that you care for more than the bottom line can boost your reputation and create a glowing first impression in any potential customer’s mind. Taking the emotional route are two press releases; the first from photovoltaic company Yingli Green Energy, who trumpeted their World Cup social responsibility plan, and Jumei, a Chinese online beauty products retailer, which starting sharing its monthly audits of suppliers.

For football fans glued to their screens this July, the sky-blue electronic billboards of Yingli Green Energy bordering the field must be a familiar sight by now. As the first renewable energy company sponsoring the World Cup, Yingli now announced their Corporate Social Responsibility Plan for the 2014 tournament with their press release “Yingli Green Energy Aims to Leave a Sunny Legacy for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.”

The plan calls for Yingli to be become the first-ever carbon neutral World Cup sponsor through carbon offsets and by developing a large solar power plant in Brazil. While these are noble deeds worthy of a headline, the company chose the evocative “sunny legacy” to create an emotional connection and emphasize the company’s largess. Buying carbon offsets and building a power plant sounds like calculated business decisions, but bequeathing a legacy suggests wholeheartedness and philanthropy.

Yingli’s generosity, however, is not a recent phenomenon as the company points to its cooperation with FIFA since 2010 “to leave solar legacies in the host countries” and its focus “on improving the social environment for disadvantaged children” post World Cup. To give the press release a touch of authenticity, Yingli noted that FIFA was so “grateful” to the company for having a “positive impact…on society and the environment.” By showing how much high-fiving and backslapping Yingli and FIFA were giving one another, the solar company can point to its charity work as having official backing and is genuine in its quest to help society.

Also pledging to improve public standards is Jumei International Holding Limited, which announced that it was publishing its monthly audits of suppliers in the press release “Raising the Bar in China’s Online Beauty Industry.” Like Yingli, Jumei tugs at the the reader’s emotions in the headline, playing up its corporate strategy as an altruistic move to raise public awareness. However, the online beauty products retailer does not hide its real reason for this move: to reinforce “the Company’s reputation for product quality and reliability with Chinese consumers.” But Jumei puts a magnanimous spin on it, claiming that its plan not only “raises[s] product quality standards…but also for the entire Chinese beauty products industry.” Sure this benefits us, but its helps you too!

Again, like Yingli, Jumei highlights its past selfless acts like the establishing an alliance against counterfeit beauty products in China, and that its campaign “reflects concerns” of the Chinese government regarding consumer protection. To drive home how dedicated it has been to the cause, Jumei also laid out a set of points highlighting the steps it has taken to combat counterfeit goods, like its generous 30-day return policy and offering “consumer education on methods to distinguish fake from genuine beauty products,” all with the promise that it is “committed to… making sure its own testing and standards strive for zero tolerance.” Not only do the bullet form make Jumei’s policies easily digested, it also allows any reader to share the company’s kindness with others.

Behind every for-profit company’s charitable move is a calculated economic decision that drives the CSR practices of organizations. In this light, Yingli’s motivation to leave behind a legacy can be viewed as a way to market itself and expand in Brazil. Similarly, Jumei aims to gain more customers by creating consumer confidence in their brand. Yet rational business decisions like these can be gussied up as acts of social responsibility, seducing the reader and turning him or her into your next potential customer.