The City of Signages

Have you taken a good look at the roadsides lately? If you have not, it’s time you do. The remaining bit of greenery is covered with the ugly billboards of unscrupulous companies. The Colombo metropolis, which is considered a tiny area, is covered with a staggering 1200 hoardings. Well, it doesn’t give us the real picture, as many other signages, on buses, bus halts and shops, and the illegal hoardings are not included in this figure.

Recently, I was driving down Thurstan Road and was met with an awful sight – they have landed a hoarding every 15 meters and converted it to a street of hoardings, hiding behind them, the picturesque university grounds. I don’t understand a few things; what kind of moron would want to destroy the natural beauty of this landscape? Would you deprive everyone of this experience, just to sell a few items? Aren’t marketers supposed to be more community-centric? Apparently, they are not – they never were and nor will they ever be. I am convinced that marketers would do just about anything to sell, even their souls. Recently, I happened to be at CH during a soccer match and it took quite sometime to find out the score - a well known company had built the scoreboard in to a gigantic hoarding and the result was obvious, the last thing you could read was the score! The place was over branded with signages. Imagine, you go jogging in the eve, after a hard day’s work, to get rid of the redundant protoplasm, and be in shape and feel all healthy. But you end up getting brainwashed with more unhealthy propositions. I am not saying that sponsoring activities at a sports club is bad. Surely you can and you should, but contextualizing your sponsorship should be given a lot of thought.

So, why do marketers contribute to visual pollution?

One answer is straight forward; they will brand even hell, if they can sell a few toffees. But here’s something you never thought of – it will still sell those toffees in a subtle way. When anything (almost anything) happens, marketers find novel ways to sell things to people. We had depletion of the ozone layer and it became a selling point for a lot of companies. So is global warming, now. For instance, the Carbon-offset credit card is a nice link between credit cards, people and global warming. You are guilty of flying once in awhile, using a PC everyday and driving a car to work, so you better ought to have a carbon offset credit card! Why not make people guilty for breathing? That way none of us could have just an ordinary credit card!

Once the visual pollution reaches a tipping point, there will be a new breed of offers from clothing brands to radio stations. I can already think of a few creative expressions. A radio station might tell you why you need to see with your ears! A brand of clothing may say that the only thing that remains beautiful, is your body, and that since you can’t be naked, you need to buy their brand of clothes. The beauty of marketing is that almost everything is an opportunity.

Visual pollution affects us in many ways. First, it affects our mood; when we are stuck on the road, the pretty sight of greenery and the beautiful architecture of some buildings, have a soothing effect by negating the frustration. When the day starts all wrong, chances are, people will continue with it and if it happens every day, making people restless and stressed out – they end up spending more on healthcare. By the way, what is the point of maintaining nice gardens within the prime city area if the authorities are allowing companies to cover them up with self serving advertising material - especially if Sri Lanka is desperately trying to woo tourists back in to the country?

In this CSR era, this type of behavior from companies, should not be accepted. One might suggest that self regulation is the answer to unethical marketing. I think self regulation doesn’t really work, and worse, it has become a mere tool of self promotion. Remember, deep down, we are all marketers, we can connect anything..

Tough law enforcements may be the only way forward.

Cervical Cancer - A worthy cause without takers

I was not really happy with my last post on CSR. I had not given any examples from the local marketplace. I was too concerned about the length of the post and thought it will become reader-unfriendly. Well, come to think of it there aren’t many big excitements in CSR here in Sri Lanka, besides the “Women Go Beyond” program of MAS Holdings; others have not been able to make a real difference at ground level – the decisive success factor of any CSR initiative.

For some strange stupid reason some companies tend to follow others when there are countless unexplored opportunities in the areas of energy conservation, public health and ecology. For example there are far too many companies focusing on HIV in Sri Lanka. There is an opportunity for a consultancy firm to specialize in CSR to assist our Corporates in managing their CSR programs.

Cervical Cancer Awareness is one such opportunity which has still not been identified. When I first heard about Cervical Cancer I paid little attention as it seemed more to do with women & people hardly spoke about it. The men were only carrying the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) but it was not causing them any illness. However I recognized the importance of this after I randomly asked a few of my female colleagues about the disease. Among the 12 people only two had heard of Cervical Cancer but they were completely clueless about how they could get infected or the complications arising from it leave alone treatment and prevention. This small sample of women who are better educated with higher disposable income, much exposed to the media, work & party hard, in no way represents the majority of Sri Lankan women. Now you can guess the status of the majority of women living in the out of Colombo area, given the fact that rural folk are far more sexually active than people living in city areas.

The low level of awareness is dangerous in many ways. According to the WHO HPV recently became the No. 1 killer cancer over taking breast cancer, now accounting for one victim every two minutes. Latest research has also revealed that men too could get affected by the HPV. Cervical Cancer is a sexually transmitted disease, 100% curable if detected in the early stages.

Here’s why Cervical Cancer Awareness is a good candidate for your CSR initiative;

- Approximately 500,000 cases are identified every year around the world, almost 80% recorded from developing countries.

- It’s a fresh topic on the bloc and bound to attract media attention.

- Women are commercially more important today than ever and this trend will continue. Approximately 70% of all brands target women as a part of their primary target audience. No company will be able to survive without selling to women in future.

- Wearing condoms may still not prevent you from getting infected – this alone is sufficient to get all media attention as it’s against common beliefs (that STDs could be prevented by wearing condoms)

- Given the low level of awareness, it gives the opportunity to penetrate many social & community circles – from schools, work places to places of worship

- Wide Scope: Cervical Cancer is not just another disease, there are many social complexities associated like stigma & discrimination.

- Immortal enemy - fighting against ‘human temptation’ for sure is both sustainable and interesting!

- In Sri Lanka, there are around 1,100 new cases per year

- Dr. Chithramalee De Silva of Family Health Bureau quotes only 57,948 pap smears taken at The Well Woman Clinics (around 400 Island-wide) in 2006, approximately 5000 more than 2005, still less than 1% of sexually active women in Sri Lanka (Females 16+ all Island)


If you like to know more about cervical cancer click this link www.cervicalcancercampaign.org for more information about the situation in Sri Lanka please read the weekly epidemiological report www.epid.gov.lk/pdf/wer2007/VOL%2034%20NO%2010%20English.pdf

In my opinion many companies will qualify to take on this project, as long as consuming their products and services does not cause any cancer or ill health in any way.

Picture: Sunday times

A fresh look at CSR

Do you feel like another Corporate James Dean? Spending millions on your highly fashionable CSR without gaining much market advantage? Perhaps you need to take stock of your CSR strategy. World over CSR is losing its effectiveness for many reasons; People are clearly questioning the motives of companies due to lack of tangible results, accountability and have begun believing this is yet another marketing ploy to get in to their wallets or worse another way to cover corporate sins by diverting attention. On the other hand Big Companies have not still mastered the Art of effective CSR. The combination of these reasons is more than sufficient to ruin your CSR agenda.

Given the current context the cause, the essence of a CSR program, must be carefully selected. Jumping on a popular cause could be a bad move if others have already taken it on or due to budgetary implications. For a CSR project to work, the company must be able to differentiate themselves from other players in the market, especially from the competition. Popular causes could also be subject to CSR hi-jacking by big companies with bigger marketing budgets (marketing is eventually a battle of resources) Instead of exploring already established causes such as HIV, recycling and green marketing, attempt to surface out new causes. A new cause is likely to give you the opportunity to create more interest and more engaging communication and thereby occupy "fresh mindspace" of all the stakeholders.

Judging by current incidents and trends we can expect tougher law enforcements on CSR in the near future especially in the areas of credibility, accountability and communication. Environmentalists around the world have protested that many major green marketing initiatives are nothing but just "Greenwashing" Tobacco & Liquor companies still continue to use CSR as a way of reaching out to promote their products. The practice of converting not-for-profit organizations to corporate cheerleaders too may not work in future as many such associations have been openly criticized by the media. Not-for-profit organizations may consider indirect approaches as tying up with marketing companies can cause irrevocable damage to their reputation.

We have experienced many innovations in CSR particularly in the area of Green Marketing. General Electric, undoubtedly one of the biggest environmental polluters, has started promoting Carbon Offset Credit Cards under "earth rewards" which, has become very popular in the US. Dell, Continental Airlines, Bank of America have already joined the bandwagon to off set the guilt created by using a PC, driving a car or flying on a jet. It's become a booming market there. One can expect greater scrutiny from both government and environmental organizations to avoid potential abuse of public trust.

I know most of us are more concerned about the communication aspect. Let me share two examples

Last year we saw Norway banning all car ads that claimed they are green and environmental friendly as producing cars directly contribute to more carbon emissions.

"Give life and help our planet breathe" campaign of Malaysian Palm Oil Council was banned in Britain as Palm trees are grown in illegally cleared rainforests.

CSR is not going to be easy to get away with!

Pics by Google Images