• June 21, 2011

Good corporate citizenship is a bit like serving in the Peace Corp: you can't really do it half-cocked, or just for a couple of weeks; you can't say you've done it if you are only thinking about doing it (or if you don't have results to back up the fact that you were really out there helping dig latrines); you shouldn't even do it if you actually don't care about the people you are being sent to assist, and are actually in it to pad your resume or avoid the draft; and you should try to stay involved with your projects even after you leave.

There you have it, those essentially are the same keys points companies should jot on their chalk boards when they think about branding around corporate citizenship according to branding firm Landor. The agency did a three-month study of companies that have done this kind of work with success and, along with partners Grey, Millward Brown and Hill & Knowlton, served up the results in the remote jungle village of Cannes this week (which I hear has very good latrines.) I'll have more on this tomorrow, I think, assuming my man Kurtz makes it back alive.