IMPROVE BRAND IMAGEBesides that, although Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) may seem like it doesn’t bring much benefit in the beginning, but it does ensure the growth of the company and improve its brand image. The reason for this is because a company that puts their commitment in CSR will be able to differentiate itself from the other company in that specific market or in general. When a company actively involves itself in social works, for example, caring for a community, it will be able to leave a good impression on the company. Therefore, the consumers are willing to give their full support to the company since the company is doing something good for the society.
As an example, there’s an article in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 29, 2016 about a bedding fair conducted by Harvey Norman known as the 12th Malaysian International Branded Bedding Fair in 2016. The most appealing and remarkable aspect about this fair was all their goods present at the fair was traded at half-price and some of it even came together with an offer of a supplemental 10% discount under the condition of purchasing two or more items. Apart from all of these typical markdown of prices promotion, the company was generous enough to come up with an idea of giving out free items during the fair. In addition, they came up with a good marketing strategy where they use the fair as a platform of launching the recently developed mattresses from each of the major brand such as Sealy, Napure, Hilker, Therapedic and Englander.
Not only that, they did a favourable deal for customers. With every purchase of RM5000, Harvey Norman will give out free RM200 petrol vouchers and also a free 3-year warranty for mattress fabrics. However, the fair did not only pursue the idea of buying new goods at reasonable price and getting freebies, but it also fulfilled the company’s environmental responsibilities by creating a free disposal of old or unused mattresses and beds site, encouraging the consumers to recycle and not waste.
The highlight of this Harvey Norman fair was they decided to make a donation of 200 pieces of brand new single size mattresses to designated needy homes. To be specific, 50 units was donated to Yayasan Sunbeams Home, 35 units to Rumah Victory Children and Youth Home, 40 units to Pusat Jagaan Insan Istimewa and 50 units to Kiwanis Down Syndrome Foundation(PJ). The purpose of doing all these is because the company wants to ensure that their consumers get to enjoy the full benefits while doing trades with them. The impact of all these CSR activities is that the consumers will not only come to know about the company, but also realise that the company is producing good quality products at an affordable price, which provides lots of benefits for their consumer while purchasing their products.
While accomplishing CSR, they are able to reach out to all the different social classes because they have a wide range of prices. Therefore, they will succeed in attaining a larger crowd of consumers. Even though it costs a lot in the beginning and wastes a lot of manpower and time, which doesn’t even guarantee profit for the company, but if the company have a long-term vision, they can surely earn back the cost in the beginning or even generate a higher profit than they did before because they have now a stronger customer loyalty base and a better status in the market. Not only that, the company has already built a good and firm reputation which no amount of money could purchase and it have already has its own place in the international market.
