Recently, it has been rumored on the Internet that some companies have offered a monthly salary of 100,000-150,000 yuan for ESG department managers, and even the starting salary of fresh graduates can reach 20,000-40,000 yuan.
In fact, ESG is undoubtedly one of the hottest buzzwords in the global business space in 2023. Whether it is daily communication or corporate activities or industry summits in various fields such as business, finance, marketing, technology, and automobiles, ESG has long been common, and listed companies, well-known enterprises or business leaders who do not understand ESG seem to have fallen behind the times.
In this day and age, sustainable development is no longer a simple concept, but a global consensus that needs to be achieved urgently. With the transformation of the domestic economic growth model and the steady advancement of the 'dual carbon' strategy, the concept of ESG has gradually received great attention from all walks of life. Professor Wang Hong, President of China Europe International Business School, once said.
This article will take you to understand the current development status of ESG and how marketing should be combined with ESGI hope it can help everyone grasp this outlet.
What exactly is ESG?
What is ESG?I believe that many people still don't understand this very well.
In fact, ESG is the abbreviation of environmental, social, and governance, that is, environmental, social, and corporate governance, and evaluates the sustainability of corporate operations and the impact on social values from these three dimensions. In the capital investment market, it is regarded by many investors as a measure for evaluating the company's non-financial performance, so it has attracted the attention of large companies, especially listed companies, in recent years.
The evolution of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) is as follows:
Embryonic stage
ESG originated from ethical investment and is mainly based on religious beliefs and moral aspects. At this stage, investors began to pay attention to corporate ethics and social responsibility, but ESG has not yet become a mainstream investment philosophy.
Rise stage
In the 60s of the 20th century, with the public's attention to anti-war, racial equality, and social issues, ESG investment began to rise. During this period, some investors began to consider environmental, social and corporate governance factors in their investment decisions, but this focus was still in its infancy.
Concept Deepening Phase
In 2006, the United Nations established Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and issued the PRI Statement, committing to integrate environmental, social and corporate governance issues into investment decisions and to comply with relevant standards. This event marks the emergence of ESG investing as a global investment philosophy. Subsequently, countries** and international organizations began to gradually standardize ESG and sustainable investment, forming a complete system.
Rapid development stage
With the growing focus on sustainability and social responsibility, ESG investment has grown rapidly around the world. Investors are becoming aware of the impact of ESG factors on the long-term value and risk of companies, so they pay more attention to the role of ESG factors in investment decisions. At the same time, countries** and regulators have also begun to strengthen the supervision and regulation of ESG investment.
There are well-established ESG ratings, created by businesses and non-profit organizations, to assess how well a company's commitment, performance, business model and structure align with the SDGs. The ESG rating system is first used by investment companies to screen or evaluate companies in their various ** and portfolio portfolios.
In addition, job seekers, clients, and others can use these ratings when evaluating business relationships, and rated companies can use ESG rating systems to better understand their strengths, weaknesses, risks, and opportunities.
Why should companies care about ESG?
As mentioned earlier, ESG is regarded by investors in the capital market as a measure to evaluate the non-financial performance of a company, so listed companies attach great importance to ESG, but in fact, ordinary companies should also pay attention to ESGBecause it is related to the development of the company's existing business and the creation of future sustainable development potential.
First of all, good ESG performance can enhance a company's reputation and brand image, which can help it win the trust and recognition of consumers and investors, thereby increasing the market share of the company's business, maintaining a stable or even rising market value, and obtaining more development opportunities.
With the continuous improvement of economic development and social civilization, consumers and investors are no longer limited to providing high-quality products and services, but require enterprises to make a difference in environmental protection and social responsibility. This means that brands must focus on ESG if they want to gain recognition and support from consumers and investors.
For example, fast fashion brand H&M is committed to reducing the negative impact of the fast fashion industry on the environment by promoting sustainable fashion, which is not only in line with consumers' pursuit of environmental protection, but also improves brand image and market share
Coca-Cola's positive actions in water management and carbon emission reduction have enhanced its environmental image in the eyes of the public, and its market share has continued to increase, while winning the favor of investors.
Second, companies need to strengthen their ESG efforts to meet regulatory requirements, mitigate potential compliance risks for development, and ensure the stability and security of their business.
Many countries and regions have enacted laws and regulations related to environmental protection, social responsibility and corporate governance, and if enterprises lack an ESG work system, omission, ignorance or deliberate failure to comply with these regulations, they may have problems such as environmental accidents, consumer complaints, employee rights infringement disputes, etc., and may face the risk of fines, legal actions and reputational damage.
By strengthening ESG work, enterprises can establish effective internal control and risk management mechanisms to ensure that their actions comply with the requirements of laws and regulations, prevent and resolve potential risks in advance, reduce the interference of related issues on enterprise development, and ensure the stability and security of business.
In addition, ESG practices can help companies identify new business opportunities, build closer relationships with stakeholders, and promote the exploration of more business innovations.
As consumers become more concerned about environmental and social issues, the market demand for sustainable products and services is increasing, and ESG can help companies accurately and deeply understand these needs and develop relevant products and services. For example, a cosmetics company can develop products that are environmentally friendly, cruelty-free and label the packaging with a sustainable production process. Such products can attract more consumers who are concerned about environmental protection and social responsibility, thereby increasing market share.
ESG sets the same direction of sustainable development goals for stakeholders including enterprises, businesses, customers, investors, employees, institutions, etc., in order to achieve this goal, all parties come closer, through communication, sharing, cooperation to achieve more exciting business innovation, create more business opportunities and development space.
For example, companies can work with leading companies to develop sustainable development plans, promote environmentally friendly materials and production technologies, reduce production costs and improve product quality. In addition, enterprises can also cooperate with first-class departments and non-first-class organizations to participate in public welfare undertakings and environmental protection projects, enter new market areas and obtain greater development space.
More importantly, strengthening ESG practices can help companies improve their governance and enhance their sustainability potential.
In the process of ESG practice, enterprises can establish a more complete governance structure and mechanism, such as setting up an ESG committee or working group to be responsible for formulating and supervising the implementation of ESG strategies, and incorporating ESG factors into the decision-making of the board of directors to ensure that enterprises fully consider environmental, social and governance factors in decision-making, improve the transparency of information disclosure in the development process, and timely identify, Assess and manage these risks, strengthen stakeholder trust and support, and create a robust internal and external environment for sustainable business growth.
ESG focuses on improving the working environment and benefits, and can form a resonance with employees' personal values with values, which can help enterprises attract more talented people and enhance employee engagement and loyalty, and provide the robust and efficient human resources required for the sustainable development of enterprisesIn addition, strengthening ESG practices will help enterprises improve their technology research and development capabilities, chain management capabilities and customer service capabilities to meet the market and society's demand for sustainable development of products and services and the high quality requirements of products and services. All of this enhances the company's sustainability potential, making it possible to achieve greater business success and social value.
How can marketing be combined with ESG?
Having said all that, how should marketing efforts be integrated with ESG?How should many friends who are engaged in branding, marketing, operation, public relations, sales and other work exert their strength?
For the first time, this requires companies to establish a clear ESG vision and goals at the strategic level, which can then be broken down into executable plans and distributed to various functions, including marketing, to drive implementation. Without this foundation, it will be difficult for any department to carry out spontaneous action and achieve the desired results.
A clear ESG vision can help companies define their long-term ESG goals and commitments, align with their core business and values, and engage employees. In addition, setting specific ESG targets can provide a clear direction of action for specific functions, and these goals should be measurable, achievable, and time-bound so that companies can assess their progress towards ESG. For example, set specific ESG goals such as reducing carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency, and improving employee well-being.
On the basis of establishing a clear ESG vision and goals, marketing efforts can be combined with them to help enterprises meet relevant standards in terms of brand image, product services, sales channels, etc., by formulating ESG marketing strategies and promoting the implementation of relevant marketing plans, and brand brand as excellent ESG responsibility performers.
First of all, marketing should play the basic function of market research, collect relevant intelligence to understand the existing demand and development trend of ESG in the market. For example, through questionnaires, user interviews, on-site observations, product operation data analysis, etc., we have gained an in-depth understanding of the degree of attention and needs of consumers and investors for ESG, such as understanding what environmentally friendly products or functions customers need, whether investors are satisfied with the company's information disclosure, and what information they need to obtain.
On the basis of a clear and accurate insight into market demand, feedback intelligence to the management for decision-making, and cooperate with the promotion of subsequent product and service innovation, and integrate ESG concepts into the company's business. For example, the marketing department reported to the top that there was a strong demand for environmentally friendly materials and energy-saving products, and the company carried out technological innovation and developed new products, which achieved the effect of reducing energy consumption and emissions and improving resource efficiency. After all, products and services that are in line with ESG concepts are the basis for winning consumer recognition and purchase, and they are also a prerequisite for ESG marketing communication.
Subsequently, marketing efforts can promote ESG concepts to leave a deep imprint on internal employees and external consumers and investors by upgrading the brand's visual identity, optimizing marketing channels, and planning relevant communication content and marketing activities.
For example, the visual identity of the logo, official and self-account, advertising and other promotional materials has been updated to use more sustainable and socially responsible visual elements to convey the company's commitment to sustainability to consumers and investors.
Another example is to cooperate with the platform that is in line with the ESG concept, and plan relevant communication content and marketing activities, such as adding ESG logos and emphasizing environmental protection, animal protection and other related topics in advertisements, reporting company-related news to introduce the company's sustainable development practices and social responsibility projects, organizing online and offline activities to guide consumers to participate in ESG practices, participating in industry summits** theoretical research and practical activities on ESG, etc., there are many similar examples, and so on.
In order to enhance the image of the brand as soon as possible, and actively practice ESG, and enhance the relevant visibility and reputation of the target audienceBrands can take advantage of the momentum in the implementation of specific ESG marketing, such as cooperating with holiday hotspot nonprofit organizations.
Because related festivals and public welfare organizations have considerable public basic awareness, it can reduce the cost of marketing communication, such as Arbor Day, World Earth Day, World Oceans Day and other festivals and animal protection associations, children and teenagers ** and other public welfare organizations.
In addition,ESG marketing should not be a grand narrative at the conceptual level, but should be implemented in concrete practice with small incisions. No matter how much theories, concepts, and cognitions are talked about, even if they are talked about and have no practical actions, they are just castles in the air, which will give people a flashy and even deceptive feeling.
Therefore, after clarifying the vision and goals, enterprises should act from all levels inside and outside the enterprise, and do not need to cover all aspects of the three dimensions of ESG, whether it is environmental, social or governance, as long as they can find a small incision to implement action and disseminate it, it is an effective practical achievement.
Finally, I would like to share with you that ESG marketing needs to adhere to long-termism.
Brand marketing is a long-term project, and ESG is related to the sustainable development of the brand, and it is not a short-term action, but a long-term project of sustainable development. ESG marketing needs to adhere to long-termism, infiltrate the concept of ESG into the long-term operation and management practice of the brand, implement it through daily business and daily marketing communication, and then cooperate with major projects to strengthen the implementation, and also need the coordination of all departments of the company to truly land.
This is especially important for ESG marketing.
Autumn and Winter Check-in Challenge
the end.
Author: Chen Hao, a marketing expert, has successful experience in the field of TOC and TOB, and has a column in the "International Public Relations" magazine, marketing department, advertising door, digital English network, chief marketing officer, advertising person dry goods library and other industries.
Public account: Brand market relativity, if you need **, please contact here, more dry goods content welcome to pay attention to the exchange.