“It’s good to know that advertising and marketing have such a positive social impact”. This sentence is the conclusion of the interesting article written by Saida Rashid.

I fully agree with her.

There are people who still think it exists a trade-off between business and socially responsible behaviour. A marketer who adopts this point of view is probably out of time. Nowadays social responsibility is an issue that firms cannot ignore, for at least two reasons. First of all, it’s always worth it and honorable to help needy people, solve critical situations and protect the environment. Secondly, these actions are always excellent free advertising for the companies involved.

Indeed it’s important to have a positive image because people admire more and more companies that make an effort to be socially friendly, and this can lead people toward a specific product and brand.

Let’s think about two different examples of social responsibility:

1) As the Nairobi Lamp Lady campaign, in some European cities there is a service dedicated to women safety during the night. It’s a taxi service offered by cabs driven by women that are available only for women in the late hours and during the holydays. The name of the campaign is “Pink Cabs” and the taxi companies that launched it have now a well-known brand because of the positive articles on the newspapers about this topic.

2) Nowadays the Italian government is facing a critical financial situation and the Italian cultural heritage risks to be unattended. One important entrepreneur, the owner of Tod’s (an Italian luxury fashion brand) has decided to take care of the Coliseum for ten years. This commitment helps Rome’s most famous monument to maintain its beauty and it also allows Tod’s to improve its public image.

Definitely, business and ethics can be complements.