I firmly believe that brands and companies should absolutely give to their communities just because. Full stop.
But I realized that this isn’t so clear, cut-and-dried for everyone with a brand. It’s harsh but true.
I then came across this 11-year-old TED Talk from Bill and Melinda Gates, back when they were married. I wouldn’t consider myself a Gates fan, but this was fascinating! The couple talked about altruism with results: through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the couple was able to curb malaria and polio in Africa.
Bill is also a key figure in Effective Altruism, a movement that believes in every person’s obligation to do good, and good has to be effective. In other interviews, he made several points about how altruism can be beneficial for the individual doing the altruism.
In short, there is something in it for the giver.
So here I am answering a controversial question a few ask in private: if I give back to the community, what’s in it for my brand?
Disclaimer: I can only speak from the perspective of PR and digital marketing since that is my line of expertise.
You Get To Amplify Marginalized Voices
I realized that the beauty of PR and digital marketing lies in leveraging the voices of people who aren’t heard enough. The connection between communication and amplifying marginalized voices is so powerful because you get to pass the mic to someone who needs to be heard.
More than just a feel-good, or good-just-because initiative to the community, here are tangible benefits for your brand in amplifying others:
- You Get To Think About Who Your Brand Is For
Rather than thinking about how grassroot PR strategies can amplify your brand, think about how your products or services can benefit people from more remote areas of the country.
- What if, say, your outreach in a village in Albay made a lonely teenager more confident in her skin? Through your skincare line?
- Or what if you were able to make a bunch of poor school children hopeful in the future through your free food drives? Food is powerful, too!
These add so much value to your brand’s PR strategies, and they bring me to my next point.
- You Get To Connect To People Again
NGP IMC recently found the value in letting employees and people tell their stories rather than the usual tree planting outreach program.
These moments made them realize that, sometimes, we get distracted in our own little corporate bubbles that we forget who we’re all doing this for.
Community engagement allows your brand to connect to and foster stronger relationships with your customers–the very people you’re catering for in the first place. More than just numbers on scale, you created a brand to solve someone else’s problem, and sometimes you need to be reminded of that.
This ties well to my next point.
- You Get To See A Problem You Haven’t Seen Before
Community engagement also opens your brand’s eyes to touchpoints you wouldn’t have considered before.
Say you’re a pharmacy who decided to give back to a remote section in Boracay. Along the way, you realize there’s not enough medicine in that part of Boracay despite there being a rise in tourists.
Is that not a problem your brand can solve?
- You Get to Discover Talent Who Add To Your PR Strategy
Fellow writer Ronadine Amanta did a fantastic job finding local influencers from Boracay and Pampanga–places where people don’t expect local talent yet have thriving, bustling cultures.
And believe me: every inch of this country is thriving with culture! Not just stories for PR.
Filipinos, in particular, often connect more to someone from a small island town versus somebody who was born and raised in BGC. Especially in a time where de-influencing is a trend and authenticity is now its own sort of currency.
Who knows? Maybe that next engagement in Iloilo could give your brand the next Nana Silayro?
Your Brand Gets To Be A Good Neighbor, Not A Faceless Corporation
While increased brand trust, credibility, reputation, and social impact are pretty talked-about advantages to having a good PR agency, it all boils down to your brand being a good neighbor.
Like a good neighbor, people will trust you more when you want to borrow some sugar.
Here’s what being a good neighbor gets you:
- More Trust and Credibility = Greater Reputation
Your customer base–and people in general–will trust you more as a credible brand in your industry because community engagements are done by people who care. Not profit-motivated initiatives detached by what the public feels.
This builds your reputation as a brand, too. Between you and a brand known for ripping off of their employees and giving subpar products, whose reputation will people trust?
- Social Impact
Social impact here means that your actions as a brand will ripple through as a positive, meaningful change in society. Each brand has their own impact. Wouldn’t you want yours to be a positive one for everyone?
Or, at least, to as many people as possible.
Community Engagement Adds to Your Perspective
The media is powerful because it shapes and influences people. How they see others, and in how they see themselves.
A good PR agency would use the power of media to leverage community engagements. This can look like:
- brainstorming with the community for meaningful solutions,
- fostering dialogue, and
- making (or suggesting) change that is well-meaning for everyone involved.
These are the ultimate goals in giving back to the community. They add so much perspective to your brand, which ultimately leads to another brainstorming session with your brand.
- What does your brand do?
- What is your brand’s mission?
- Who are you creating for?
- What positive impact is my brand leaving for the community? Country? World? (If you’re that ambitious, why not?)
Here are other things a new perspective can bring.
- Perspective = Meaningful PR
For your brand, at least tangibly, these goals also add value to your brand’s PR and marketing.
Nothing would be hollow–everything, from messaging to delivery, would be full of meaning and social impact. Especially if you add an integrated marketing communications (IMC) approach.
- Integrated Equals Inclusive
From grassroots to online forums, all your channels would be media that everyone (even the most remote of places) can easily access, and understand.
Remember: not every Filipino speaks English or Tagalog. A PR and IMC agency would also have connections to social workers and translators to ensure your brand’s message
Overall, It’s Good To Do Good
Honestly, everyone should do good just because. End of statement.
These tangible PR benefits, personally, are surface-level compared to the deeper fulfillment that comes with engaging with marginalized communities. Or just communities in general.
But tangibly, good action can result in good things–especially from a PR and marketing perspective.
There’s also an art in broadcasting community engagement, too. It’s the difference between “showing off for clout” and “spreading the good for someone else.” All brands should aspire to be the latter.
If you need help with that, NGP IMC understands the impact of community. You can book an appointment here or contact them here.
Kriztin Cruz is a recruitment and digital marketing professional, freelance writer, hobbyist painter, and frustrated sociologist–with too many things to want and too little time to spare. She graduated with a Psychology degree in 2019 at De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde Antipolo. When she’s not drafting a corporate letter or working on anything digital marketing, you can find her doing the following, but not in this order: reading a good book, scavenging for a good book, sketching, painting, journaling, junk journaling, obsessing over an obscure Czechoslovakian surrealist film (or anything by Miyazaki or Del Toro), cooking, finding a cafe to relax in, and creating new things while a nice documentary plays in the background.