In conversation with Sophie Groussard, Chief Marketing Officer, Konica Minolta
How to talk about corporate social responsibility (CSR) with a B2B tech audience
Sophie Groussard is the Chief Marketing Officer at Konica Minolta – a B2B IT and
printing firm that offers digital solutions to its diverse customer base of SMEs, VSEs and major businesses. After spending over two decades in marketing, Sophie is now using her experience to help communicate corporate social responsibility in the B2B space.
Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is no longer a nice-to-have for businesses. With more scrutiny than ever from all angles, companies that are not making the effort to do the right thing will fall behind the pack. From urgent challenges such as the climate crisis, to creeping ones such as growing customer expectations for vocal, ethical conduct, there is pressure for businesses to rise to the occasion.
To me, marketing is about identifying and responding to the customer’s needs. For our B2B customer base, they’re looking for suppliers and partners that can support them in meeting their own ESG and CSR goals. By showing that you’re aligned and working towards similar goals, you’ll give prospects and current customers more reasons to choose you or stay loyal.
Is CSR valued by B2B customers?
We understand the appeal of ethical companies for individuals. A study found that 55% of consumers are willing to pay more for products from socially responsible companies. But for businesses, it is even more important to work with suppliers and partners that make it easier to achieve their own CSR and ESG goals.
CSR is about more than compliance. When approached correctly, it has a genuine, tangible benefit for our customers and can be leveraged across marketing communications. Researchers from IO Sustainability and Babson College, supported by Verizon and Campbell Soup Company, revealed that companies that invest in CSR could make market share gains of over 5%, and increase market value among competitors by up to 80%.
From a sales perspective, a more positive brand reputation leads to higher levels of customer trust. If they like your product and trust you as a business, customers are more likely to come back again and again. This is particularly true for corporate customers, who want to find a supplier or partner they can stick with. Visible and vocal CSR actions are a powerful tool in building that valuable brand reputation.
Which areas of CSR are most important?
Every sector has different CSR challenges and it’s important that you recognise which ones are most pressing for your customers. In the B2B world we occupy there are plenty, from reducing the environmental impact of office supplies to cutting energy use. There are broader ESG concerns too, such as protecting the wellbeing of workers in deeply challenging times to complying with ever-increasing governance responsibilities.
A savvy marketeer should seek to understand what their core customer base is most concerned about and focus their external communications on these topics. For example, your potential customer base may only want to align with suppliers that are vocal and active in supporting their employees and the communities they operate in. We’ve done a lot of advocacy work, particularly through our disability foundation. Most recently, we’ve been supporting two par triathletes as they prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games. They both participated in the Marathon Vert Konica Minolta, which was hosted in Rennes in October – an event which supports our goal of planting over one million trees in 10 years.
As the main sponsor of ONF (Office National des Forêts), we are supporting broader sustainability projects that aim to protect the environment and biodiversity. We’re also financing tangible actions like biodiversity protection work at Etang Corra, within Forêt de St Germain en Laye. Crucially, we’re leveraging this work by sharing communications materials with our sales reps, so they can show our prospective, values-led customers what we’re doing.
CSR is often missed out from marketing. Why is that?
In my experience, lots of useful CSR activities and insights often already exist within a company, even if you’re yet to implement a formal programme. The problem is making your approach cohesive and that what you’re already doing is being given adequate time in the spotlight.
There are often internal issues that are the main barrier to promoting your CSR strategy, rather than a lack of action. It’s easy to get caught up in promoting your latest deals and forget to talk about the actions that underpin your values and will build lasting relationships with your customers.
Even though we set up our CSR department 50 years ago, which makes us a really early adopter, we haven’t been great at communicating what we’re doing to our client base. Yes, we’ve signed partnerships with the French National Forest Office (ONF), produced a non-mandatory CSR report and trained CSR officers and ambassadors in all of our branches. But if we’re not talking about it, we’re not positioning ourselves to new customers as a strong partner in CSR – limiting the value our hard work adds.
What’s the best way to approach integrating CSR into marketing?
In my 20-year marketing career, I haven’t found a company that fully integrates CSR into its marketing strategy like Konica Minolta. As Chief Marketing Officer, I have to make sure it’s integrated into all of our communications, from our special offers to sponsorship-related marketing.
For me, it’s been helpful to benchmark Konica Minolta’s actions against companies in our sector that have a strong CSR marketing strategy. We’ve also carried out stakeholder surveys with customers, suppliers and employees, and run workshops with managers to capture their opinions on CSR.
I’ve noticed that more and more of our customers are requesting support from Konica Minolta in evaluating and optimising their carbon footprint. We’re well placed to help, thanks to our second-life materials (reconditioned devices) and print services. We can carry out printer usage analysis and recommend energy consumption optimisation services that go a long way to reducing emissions.
Through this, I’ve been able to leverage the actions and valuable insights of our people and create a cohesive strategy. Now, I work with people from all over the business in key areas like human resources to put action plans in place.
How can I start talking about CSR?
I use something called a ‘strategy of influence’ to bolster our position as a company committed to CSR. It’s not enough to simply say “we’re doing x,y and z”. We use expert insights to back up what we’re saying and interview respected leaders in their fields. It’s about publicly aligning yourself with thought leaders and specialists who people respect so your business is shown to have a genuine understanding of real issues.
In previous roles, I’ve interviewed experts in French infrastructure about the Paris 2024 Olympics and chatted to leaders in the renewable energy space. Now, I’m talking to leaders about digital accessibility and cyber security, as these are two areas we want to focus on and to contribute meaningful insights to the conversation.
Integrating CSR and marketing will look different for every business. But understanding your customers’ main concerns and bringing what you’re already doing into the light has the power to quickly translate into all-important sales.
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