Business Respect - CSR Dispatches No#156 - 30 Jun 2009

An email newsletter with news and discussion focusing on corporate social responsibility globally, looking at the companies in the news and the emerging issues. Linked to the website at http://www.businessrespect.net and produced every two weeks.

This web page provides news stories and articles from the newsletters. Newsletters also include links to features on the internet, Mallen's blog, and other resources.

In this issue, we look at four common mistakes that marketers make that destroy trust.

Welcome

Every marketer knows that they have to create a relationship of trust with the customer. It doesn't matter if it's a small number of big corporate customers, or a wide spread of consumers drawn from every community across the world.

And yet time and again we see that trust destroyed. Not always through malice, but through carelessness, through bad luck and - fundamentally - not understanding how much the rules have changed.

That is the subject of the main article for this issue.

If you know any marketers you think should read it - forward it on. Don't forget if you're registered on the website, you can add your own comments. It would be great to hear what you think on this one.

Have a great fortnight.

News

Bangladesh: Factories required to control pollution by 2010

The Bangladesh High Court has said that industrial firms should put effluent treatment plants in place by 2010 or be shut down. High-impact tanneries are being required to move out of a city centre location.

Novartis nears swine flu vaccine but won't donate any to developing countries

Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis drew unfavourable comparisons with its competitors GlaxeSmithKline and Sanofi by saying it would not donate swine flu vaccine to the World Health Organisation for poorer nations in the event of it making the breakthrough.

OECD anti-bribery convention largely not enforced

Only four countries - Germany, Norway, Switzerland and the United States - have been serious in their efforts to enforce the OECD anti-bribery convention, according to Transparency International.

Japan: False labeling in the spotlight again for Nippon Meat Packers

Nippon Meat Packers and Nippon Flour Mills have been ordered to correct misleading labeling of fish and frozen food products.

US: Obama lobbied over internet censorship

One week after the Chinese government blocked access to Google's website on the grounds that it contained too many links to sites that were considered unsavoury, campaign groups are urging President Obama to pass legislation that would punish companies that they feel collaborate with governments that require internet censorship.

Article

Four common marketing mistakes that destroy trust

Author: Mallen Baker, dated 30 Jun 2009

Marketing is a high stakes game. It is the aspect of running a business that gets the speediest and most honest feedback - in the form of sales, buzz and reputation. But it is also a key factor in whether or not the company gains and keeps the trust of its customers. And there are lots of mistakes that marketers commonly make to lose that trust. Here are just four key ones.

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