White paper: Reconciling customer marketing, loyalty and CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined by the European Commission as the voluntary integration by companies of social and environmental concerns into their business activities and their relations with stakeholders. The ISO 26000 standard which establishes the guidelines for corporate social responsibility, published on November 1, 2010, defines the scope of CSR around 7 themes:

• the governance of the organization
• human rights
• working relationships and conditions
• the environment
• fair practices
• consumer issues
• communities and local development.

The response to these challenges involves all levels of the company: production, logistics, human resources… In this white paper, we focus on the links between these challenges and loyalty marketing. Customer marketing plays an essential role in the face of CSR issues: it must direct consumption towards products that comply with social responsibility requirements, and more generally, it must encourage responsible consumer behavior.

Concretely, how is this possible? Is there not a contradiction, for example, between the desire to retain consumers and the need to limit overconsumption? Or, between the desire to offer products at the best price and local production in the best working conditions?

Marketing is evolving, not only to enable companies to comply (and anticipate) with CSR standards, but also to enhance brand commitments and actively promote responsible practices in their ecosystem: partners, customers, consumers, etc.

In this white paper, we study in a concrete way how customer marketing, and more specifically loyalty levers adapt to meet the challenges of social responsibility, and how customer loyalty can become more effective thanks to a strong and innovative CSR approach. .

Whitepaper outline:

1. integrate CSR criteria into customer marketing communication media
   1. What is the environmental impact of the different communication channels?
   2. Eco-design of print mailings
   3. Initiatives to reduce the impact of emails
   4. The “low consumption” web
2. Animate the customer relationship and build loyalty with eco-friendly rewards
   1. Eco-responsible loyalty gifts
   2. Pleasure with experiences rather than objects
   3. Build loyalty by supporting local purchases
3. Integrating virtuous behaviors into customer marketing and loyalty
   1. Encourage customers to consume responsibly
   2. In the energy sector, Engie has chosen to reward controlled energy consumption
   3. In other consumer sectors (household appliances, cars, etc.), loyalty is increasingly based on after-sales service
   4. Encourage customers to donate
   5. Reward virtuous actions
   6. Make consumers aware of the issues and associate them with the brand’s commitment