"Reviewing the space between public and private sectors" - with a shrewd eye, I might add. If your company is engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility, you may want to contact Phatgnat for a quick sniff test. If you can fool (or co-opt) the Gnat, you may fool (or co-opt) the rest of us too. No sense piffling away all that money and getting no Brand Benefits.
Phatgnat has done a survey of the brand buying behavior of young people and concludes that perceived corporate social responsibility is a key influencer of buying decisions. This, of course, opens business possibilities, for a company to do well doing a little good ("greenwash").
Phatgnat has positioned itself as a consultant to brands in this murky muddle of perceived goodness, consumer preference, and higher profits. Who and how will "Corporate Social Responsibility" audits be done and by whom? How, in other words, is a consumer to know the difference between rich branded hoohah and a real commitment to be responsible? The idea that goodness and profit generally co-vary is absurd; sometimes they do, sometimes not. The management of perception versus objective third party information: How do we as consumer/citizens avoid having our social conscience gamed? I hope that Phatgnat will blog these issues, and be as transparent as he goes along as was Rousseau in his "Confessions." Serving two masters, public good and corporate profit, requires a glib tongue or constant compromise, despite the real points of intersection.
