Angela Qin's Blog

This blog will deal with Corporate Social Responsibility.

Canada has been slow with CSR but jumped on the bandwagon in recent years. Businesses realized that having social missions will not decrease revenue but can actually increase their bottom line.

Currently in Canada, Loblaws Cos. is #1 on the Social Responsibility chart.  Loblaws is the largest distrubuitor in Canada and is responsible for No Name, Joe Fresh, President Choice products and more.

How does social responsibility help them be successful?

They recently launched a sustainable seafood commitment initiative. They want to have all their frozen, and fresh seafood to come from a sustainable source by 2013. For me as a consumer, that makes me think more highly of the company. When I buy products, I can feel empowered because I am helping the environment by eating products made from sustainable sources. Also, I feel the company cares for it’s consumers because they want to sell only the best quality products.

In general, CSR can benefit a company in several ways.

First, the employees might feel more empowered by the organization’s mission and goals. This will reduce turnovers and will help develop a coherent work culture.

Second, a company that has many social responsibility initiatives will be seen more positively. Having a scholarship fund or a kids camp program will help the company seem more caring.

Lastly, it can serve as a point of differentiation. Like we discussed in class with the Body Shop and their initiatives, businesses can differentiate themselves with CSR missions and goals.

Overall, CSR will benefit the company itself as well as the community at large. There’s no reason to not participate in it!

http://www.loblaw.com

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/managing/report-on-corporate-responsibil/corporate-social-responsibility-governance-practices-rankings/article1609498/page1/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/business-categories/sustainability/canada-playing-catch-up-in-social-enterprise/article1763944/

I was checking out my blog and realized all my previous posts are about girly things. I decided I need to change up my contents a little bit. At the start of the year I promised to read newspapers everyday (it hasn’t really happened) so I decided to look in Metro for this blog’s inspiration.

The article I found in Metro was actually ABOUT Metro.  Online article can be found here.

The first thing I want to talk about is the decrease in newspaper market. Other than Metro “all other newspapers in this market lost ground”. This is due to substitutes. We can now read the news online and it’s easier to find information more relevant to us.  Also there are many new entrants as the entry barrier for the newspaper business is not high. Overall there’s fierce competition between all newspaper productions.

Metro however is able to position themselves so they saw an increase in readers. They target a local community ex. Vancouver, and provide a fast read for commuters. Papers like the Province and the Vancouver Sun can be overwhelming. There’s so much information to read! Metro however packs everything nicely and just provides enough for a commuting trip. Their marketing strategy is also efficient. Since they want to target commuters, they hired workers to hand out newspapers at large skytrain line stations (that’s where I got mine actually). This provides easy access and a constant brand awareness of Metro.

Last week we talked about positioning and I wanted to examine how a company “Lush Cosmetics”  tries to market themself with competitors. Lush is a premium cosmetics line started in 1995 and orginated in the UK.

The points of parity

• -a line of bath/shower products
• -as well as some beauty products

Other companies in this market include The Body Shop, Bath and Body Works, The Face Shop, Fruits&Passion

To distinguish themselves, here are their points of difference.

• -ALL handmade
• -against animal testing, tested on human volunteers
• -all products are vegetarian
• -70% of products are without harmful preservatives

These POD’s make LUSH a premium brand for body care. I think they did a great job positioning themselves as the no.1 handmade organic cosmetics line. When I think about splurging for a bath bomb and doing a good deed, I would think to shop at Lush.

Would you be willing to pay the high prices for their ethical actions?

P.S. Unrelated to business but if you get a chance, try their comforter bubble bar, yummy yummy yummy shower gel, and heavanilli massage bar.