• by Karl Greenberg , April 16, 2007

Nissan, which brought its global communications and PR practice under the aegis of global brand communications last year, has launched an omnibus plan to create its own global corporate citizenship programs, publicize them through marketing channels and move away from the practice of simply cutting checks to charities to fulfill corporate goodwill goals.

The new corporate structure made Simon Sproule corporate vice president/global communications, corporate social responsibility and investor relations, and gave him a leadership position--unusual for someone coming from the PR side--in Nissan's global brand efforts, events and shows, and corporate goodwill programs. He says Nissan's goal is to make corporate citizenship activities--typically side lines--an inherent part of Nissan's global brand positioning.

"The discipline or mindset that marketing and brand communications can bring is different from what PR can bring," he says. "We found that bringing the two groups together creates a pollination of good ideas." He says the new arrangement will mean that dealers, Web, media, auto shows and experiential events can be brought into play in publicizing Nissan's corporate goodwill efforts.

Ultimately, says Sproule, the company might run global corporate advertising about its social responsibility programs. "That's the ultimate aim. To enable us to leverage these activities through all channels," he says.

"In the past, corporate citizenship has been a series of random acts of kindness driven by interests of senior executives of a company, without a lot of research or a lot of strategy--a side activity," says Sproule, adding that the company will henceforth focus efforts on education, environment and humanitarian activities--or disaster relief.

"If you look at an investment which is in the millions of dollars a year, trusting that to third parties is not the right way to manage our reputation and brand. When you are responding to someone else's program, it's never as good for you as if you went out and created it."

He says programs that Nissan will develop, or sign on to, must involve Nissan vehicles, expertise and the Nissan brand. Currently, Nissan is running a program in tsunami-affected areas of Southeast Asia, involving Nissan vehicles converted to libraries stocked with children's books.

The company also recently developed a program with UNICEF in which it equipped Nissan pickup trucks with refrigeration units and brought them into Western Africa to carry out vaccination programs for children. Nissan also has its vehicles on Habitat for Humanity sites in the U.S., and with the World Wildlife Fund. "We found one or two big global programs we can get behind," says Sproule.

Nissan isn't alone in boosting corporate goodwill efforts. A new study by the Society for Human Resource Management, released last week, suggests that 80% of organizations in the U.S., China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Canada are involved in corporate goodwill of some kind.

Per the study, more companies in Brazil, India, Mexico and Australia have formal social responsibility policies than in the U.S., and Brazil leads the seven countries surveyed. Companies in the U.S., per the study, also lag others in efforts to encourage employee volunteerism, though China is the worst in this area.

The main obstacles to corporate social responsibility programs are cost, unproven benefits and lack of support from senior management, per the study.