Consumer perception of corporate responsibility is uncorrelated with measured rankings like the CRO 100, according to a US survey conducted by PSB in conjunction with Burson-Marsteller and Landor.

People are willing to pay more for products from socially responsible companies - 75% said are willing to pay more - but very few companies have any real profile as socially responsible, the study found.

The top-scoring brands on the CSR perception index were Johnson & Johnson, Google, Subway, Microsoft and General Mills. Brands’ performance on consumer perception metrics is uncorrelated with actual social responsibility performance as measured by the CRO 100, one of the most prominent CSR comparisons.

The results demonstrate that companies investing in CSR need to do more to communicate their commitment to consumers, and that companies who provide a consistent citizenship message receive the most recognition, the study says.

Read a summary of the study (Burson-Marsteller)

Our opinion:

A very interesting study. The main outtake of this study in my opinion is that stakeholder engagement is more then ever key to CSR within business. This is a really good piece of research to show your boss if you work in the CSR field and to give him/her another reason to do more stakeholder engagement.

Source: CSR Europe and Picture Credit: DailyPic