Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility
As seen at Starbucks, corporate social responsibility can help to distinguish a company from its competitors, strengthen the brand’s image, and attract customers. However, it can increase costs that have to be passed on to the customer. For example, Starbucks has to raise their prices to account for the fact that by buy fair trade coffee. Corporate social responsibility can also make Starbucks a target for customers who are lobbying for social change. For example, the National Gun Victims Action Council once “called for a boycott of Starbucks for allowing people to carry guns in stores” (Seattle Times), which is a customer practice outside of Starbucks’ control. People hold the company’s conduct to a higher standard and expect the company to be more responsive to the customers’ ideologies and advocacy efforts.
Personally, I do think that businesses should make sure their practices are ethical (internal), but I don’t know to what extent businesses should support community initiatives and charities at the cost of profit (external).
“Starbucks’ socially responsible image cuts both ways,” last modified March 21 2012, http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2017800974_starbucks21.html.
Picture: “Interview with Deb Trevino, Director of Corporate Communications at Starbucks (Part II)”, last modified January 27 2011, http://mrahmey.com/2011/01/27/interview-starbucks-part-ii/.
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