7- Business public image Flashcards
What is a business’s public image?
- It’s how the company is perceived and its reputation in the community.
- It is created by the opinions that the public has about a business.
- A favourable public image is a compelling point of difference in a market where businesses sell similar products at similar prices.
The Benefits of a Positive Public Image
- Customer loyalty: Customers will choose to purchase at one store rather than another based on perceptions of ethics and social responsibility.
- A brand people remember/stand out from the competition.
- Attract and retain motivated staff.
- Business owners taking a proactive approach to health and environmental issues and supporting local communities generate sales through positive recognition.
- Sustainable profits – businesses must be seen to be doing the right thing.
- Businesses acting ethically are less likely to have government intervention imposing strict regulations.
Methods of raising business public image
- Donations
- Corporate sponsorship
What are Donations?
Gifts given to benefit a charity or a cause.
- They can come in various forms: money, services, clothing, toys, food or vehicles.
- Businesses use many resources that can sometimes cause disruptions to local communities.
- Donating to causes can be seen as contributing back to society and improving their brand image to the public.
- Donations can be one-off amounts or ongoing, such as a percentage of sales.
- Offering a percentage of sales can encourage customer loyalty.
- By donating, businesses can promote their goodwill, and recipients of the donations will publicise the support. Being associated with a good cause helps to build an image of a business that cares about the community.
- Example: Grilled- local matters (they donate to the charities in the jar that people put the caps in)
What is a Corporate Sponsorship?
A business relationship where two parties make an economic exchange. It is not a donation but a business arrangement.
- A business creates a community image by building associations held in the memory of community members.
- Sponsorship can be a combination of payments and providing support by supplying free office space, equipment, food, clothing or staff.
- In exchange for this support, the sponsor receives benefits related to:
- Visibility: The sponsoring company will receive brand exposure, particularly if sponsoring an international event.
- Positioning: Because of the association between a company and an event, the values and image of the event can support the business’s public image and positioning of the company.
- Publicity: Corporate sponsors are mentioned and thanked during the promotion and running of an event. The sponsoring company is shown to support the community, increasing their business’s public image.
- Market reach: The company will choose what to sponsor based on the demographics of the people involved. This increases their public image among potential customers.
Environmental Issues Affecting Business Public Image
- Our planet is plagued by environmental issues that are depleting our natural resources and putting an enormous strain on our livelihoods. Many of these issues will impact businesses directly and indirectly if left unchecked.
- The syllabus identifies the following environmental issues that impact business public image:
- Climate change
- Pollution
- Energy use
- Animal testing
The Importance to Business
- Being environmentally conscious has become a prevailing community social norm, and in turn, consumers expect businesses to act environmentally.
- Each of these environmental issues thus affects a business’s public image either:
- Favourably: If the business is perceived as preventing, minimising or counteracting the issue.
- Unfavourably: If the business is perceived to be causing more harm.
Climate Change
- Definition: Climate change describes an increase in a region’s average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — over a long period.
- Earth’s climate has constantly changed — even long before humans came into the picture. However, scientists have observed unusual changes recently. For example, Earth’s average temperature has increased much more quickly than expected over the past 150 years.
- Many people, including scientists, are concerned about this warming. As Earth’s climate continues to warm, the intensity and amount of rainfall during storms such as hurricanes are expected to increase. Droughts and heat waves are expected to intensify as the climate warms. When the whole Earth’s temperature changes by one or two degrees, that change can also significantly impact the health of Earth’s plants and animals.
- Many factors contribute to Earth’s climate. However, scientists agree that Earth has been warming for 50 to 100 years due to human activities, such as burning fuel to power factories, cars and buses. These changes cause the atmosphere to trap more heat than it used to, leading to a warmer Earth.
- Companies may create a favourable business public image by:
- Measure and analyse greenhouse gas emissions
- Reduce energy consumption
- Adopt renewable energies
- Reduce waste and fight obsolescence
- Going ‘paperless’
- Choose greener infrastructures/equipment
- Choose sustainable suppliers
- Raise awareness of climate change
- Become climate-neutral (plant trees etc., to offset their impact)
- Donations towards charities/research aimed at solving climate change
- Sponsoring events aimed at solving climate change
Pollution
Pollution refers to the presence of substances that can cause harm or damage to the natural environment.
- Businesses, through their operations, unavoidably create pollution.
- This can be through:
- The manufacturing process creating waste/ by-products.
- Burning of fossil fuels to power factories, polluting the air.
- Packaging and disposing of products adding to landfill.
- Use of plastic, particularly single-use plastic products polluting oceans as micro-plastic.
- Companies may create a favourable business public image by:
- Including messages on product labels encouraging customers to dispose of waste responsibly
- Reducing, reusing, recycling
- Avoiding plastic/single-use plastic
- Disposing of waste correctly
- Using environmentally sustainable resources/suppliers
- Sourcing inputs from close-by local suppliers
- Shipping goods more efficiently
- Using energy more efficiently/Using renewable energy
- Use environmentally friendly packaging
- Donations towards charities/research aimed at proactively or reactively eliminating pollution
- Sponsoring events aimed at reducing pollution, e.g. Clean Up Australia Day
Energy Use
Definition: Energy use refers to a business’ consumption of energy to conduct its operations.
- This includes using electricity and gas to power factories, manufacture and transport products, and provide comfortable office/retail environments through lighting and air-conditioning.
- A business’ unavoidable use of energy puts a strain on the environment.
- Companies may create a favourable business public image by:
- Using more natural light
- Installing fluorescent lighting
- Incorporating renewable energy options
- Insulating buildings to save on heating and cooling expenses
- Switching off lighting, equipment, machinery and computers when not in use.
- Replacing old equipment with new, more efficient equipment
- Recycling and reusing materials
- Going ‘paperless’
- Donations towards charities/research aimed at reducing energy use
- Sponsoring events aimed at minimising energy use.
Animal Testing
An animal test is any scientific experiment or test in which a live animal is forced to undergo something likely to cause pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm. Animals used in laboratories are deliberately harmed and are usually killed at the end of the experiment.
- Animal experiments include:
- Injecting or force-feeding animals with potentially harmful substances
- Exposing animals to radiation
- Surgically removing animals’ organs or tissues to cause damage deliberately.
- Forcing animals to inhale toxic gases
- Subjecting animals to frightening situations; creating anxiety and depression.
- Only vertebrate animals (mammals, birds, fish and amphibians) and some invertebrates, such as octopuses, are defined as ‘animals’ by European legislation governing animal experiments. In the USA, rats, mice, fish, amphibians, and birds are not defined as animals under animal experiment regulations. That means no legal permission to experiment on them is needed, and they are not included in any statistics.
- Companies may create a favourable business public image by:
- Avoiding testing on animals
- Displaying they do not test on animals on their packaging/labels, website, or advertisements.
- Only using ingredients that have already been proven safe, eliminating the need for further testing.
- Refusing to sell products in countries where animal testing is mandatory - China used to force companies to test products on animals. However, the law was changed in 2021.
- Refusing to buy from suppliers that test on animals.
- Donations towards charities/research aimed at improving animal welfare, e.g. RSPCA
- Sponsoring events aimed at promoting animal welfare
