The Rise of Consumer Activism: Why Socialwashing Won't Fly in Today's Market
Consumers today are no longer passive bystanders. Armed with information and a growing sense of social responsibility, they seek brands that align with their values. This rise in consumer activism has major implications for businesses, particularly those who have engaged in a deceptive marketing tactic known as socialwashing.
What is Socalwashing?
Socialwashing can occur when a company makes a claim about supporting a social issue that is exaggerated or inconsistent with its actual business impact on the issue. Socialwashing can also happen when a company has a product or service with a marketed social benefit without having genuine information to support the claims. This could involve promoting charitable donations without transparency on beneficiaries or touting "sustainable" products without addressing environmental concerns within their supply chain.
These tactics used to work. But today's consumers are savvier. They can easily fact-check claims, compare a company's donations to its profits, and expose inconsistencies between a brand's image and its workplace practices.
Why Socialwashing Doesn’t Fly
Here's why socialwashing is no longer a viable strategy and why communicating transparently, accurately, and consistently is crucial:
Loss of Trust & Negative Brand Reputation: When exposed, socialwashing severs consumer trust. Feeling deceived, customers abandon brands, making reputation recovery an uphill battle. Transparency builds trust. Be upfront about your social impact efforts, limitations, and ongoing initiatives. This allows consumers to make informed choices and build a genuine connection with your brand.
Regulatory Scrutiny & Legal Risks: Governments are increasingly cracking down on deceptive marketing practices. Companies caught socialwashing could face fines and legal repercussions. Transparency helps you avoid these issues. By being honest about your practices, you demonstrate a commitment to ethical conduct and reduce the risk of legal trouble.
Talent Retention & Attraction: Oftentimes, socialwashing can touch on social issues related to justice, race, gender, sexuality, and other protected identities. Companies that advertise themselves as ‘inclusive’ but don’t have the internal workplace procedures to back that up have the potential to deceive interested talent. No one wants to get a job just to find out the workplace culture isn’t what you expected.
Byproduct Effects: While companies may think their product or service has a 100% positive impact, this is likely not true. Every product or service has tradeoffs and it’s important to ask the right questions to fully understand both the positive and negative impacts your product or service has.
Case Study: Wrong Approach vs. Right Approach
Company A (Wrong Approach):
Company A runs an annual cause marketing campaign in the beginning of March for International Women’s Day (8 March). The company makes and sells t-shirts that donate a shirt to a ‘community in need’ for every shirt purchased. The slogan is ‘a commitment for women is a commitment for the future’. The company is not descriptive about the true beneficiaries of this cause marketing campaign–not disclosing where the community is, if there are any nonprofit or community partners, or how many shirts are donated to the community in question. No follow-up information was reported after the cause marketing campaign. The company also doesn’t disclose if giving these t-shirts is seen as competition for local t-shirt vendors in the community in question.
Come to find out, the company has internal policies and practices that do not support its commitment to women. The leadership within the company is 75% male and 25% female, and they do not track data for any other gender. Additionally, the company does not have a comprehensive parental leave program and only offers unpaid ‘maternity leave’. There is a suspected gender pay gap between males and females in the company and there are no employee resource groups for women or other gender-identifying individuals.
Company A (Right Approach):
Company A, instead of their annual cause marketing campaign in the beginning of March, chooses to use the money they have earmarked for t-shirts to conduct an internal pay gap analysis with a third party. Once the results from the pay gap are found, they transparently release the findings with a corrective action plan to remedy the pay gap in their internal workforce. In this corrective action plan, they commit to conducting an internal policy and procedure audit with the intention of finding areas of improvement for applying a gender lens. They consistently report status updates throughout their corrective action plan.
Instead of running the same campaign the following year, they identify local nonprofits that are already working on gender issues and conduct listening sessions to see ways in which they could help them. Company A launches a grant program and discloses the financial donations they make throughout the year. Finally, they partner with a women-owned local t-shirt company to make shirts out of recycled polyester and distribute them at an employee volunteer event with the local nonprofits throughout the year.
How to Avoid Socialwashing: A Self-Check for Your Communications
Here are some steps to ensure your communications are transparent and avoid socialwashing:
Focus on Action, Not Just Words: Support causes you can meaningfully effect. Whether it is through internal workplace policies and procedures, philanthropy and community giving, employee engagement programs, or ethical sourcing practices, let your actions speak louder than your marketing.
Align Your Actions with Your Values: Ensure your workplace culture reflects the values you promote externally. Before you post a LinkedIn status for Pride month in June, make sure you have the internal resources for your own LGBTQ+ staff. Promote diversity and inclusion within your company.
Listen to Your Audience: Be open to feedback from consumers and actively address their concerns. Pay attention to social media conversations and constructively engage with critics.
Data Backs Your Claims: When making social impact claims, ensure you have data to back them up. Be specific about your goals, progress, and challenges. Don’t be afraid to include the challenges. No company is perfect and consumers appreciate honesty more than exaggeration.
Independent Verification: Consider seeking independent verification of your social impact efforts. This adds credibility to your claims and demonstrates a commitment to transparency.
The Takeaway: Authenticity is Key
Consumers today are demanding authenticity. They want to support brands that share their values and take concrete steps to make a positive impact. By ditching socialwashing, embracing genuine social responsibility, and communicating transparently, accurately, and consistently, businesses can build trust, loyalty, and a sustainable future for themselves and the causes they support.
Whether you're just starting your social impact journey or seeking to enhance your communications practices, publicly and transparently reporting your progress and goals on your social impact work is one meaningful step towards a more resilient future.
Do you want to learn more about how that work ties into developing your communications that avoid socialwashing and enhance your social impact strategy? No matter your social impact stage, we’re here to help. Reach out to The Uplift Agency at hello@theupliftagency.com.
The EU’s Newest Sustainability Directive Guidebook
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and revised Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) bring significant changes for businesses operating in the EU or those with EU-based suppliers. These regulations aim to minimize environmental and human impacts and promote responsible sourcing throughout your supply chain.
Click here to download our Guidebook.
The Uplift Agency
Uplift builds strategies, programs, and communication campaigns that advance ESG in workplaces, supply chains and communities.
We know how to navigate the road ahead because we’ve already been down it – 90 percent of our team has led environmental or social programs in corporations or nonprofits. Because ESG is all we do, our services are more comprehensive and integrated than most firms.
