Improving customer loyalty, entering new markets and feeding the hungry. That’s a win-win strategy.

Problem:

A Fortune 50 global retailer wanted to better align its corporate social responsibility strategy with its core business strategy. The company approached Mission Measurement to innovate a strategy that would meet a pressing social need while meeting two core business goals: Strengthen customer loyalty and brand trust and increase employee retention.

Solution:

Our proprietary qualitative and quantitative research laid the groundwork for a social innovation strategy that would engage key members of the public, employees and community organizations around a single social cause. The key to that effort was finding the right social value proposition that would resonate with critical consumer segments and employees.

We started with research among two key consumer segments—price conscious moms and community protectors—to identify the social barriers and drivers that affect their behaviors and perceptions. Then we measured and analyzed the same factors among the retailer’s employees.

In turn, the retailer provided valuable insights in determining the areas in which it could make the greatest social impact. Those insights further focused our strategy on providing logistics and distribution support.

Results:

The retailer developed a campaign built around a powerful social value proposition: Creating hunger-free zones in the areas where it operated.

The results of that strategy included:

• The retailer tangibly increased brand reputation and loyalty among employees and consumers, positioning itself as the corporate leader in executing hunger relief campaigns.
• The campaign contributed to the retailer’s successful entry into several new and desirable urban markets.
• The retailer committed $2 billion to hunger-related efforts, including 500 million pounds of food.
• In addition to creating hunger-free zones, the campaign ensured truck delivery to a wide range of food banks, facilitated audits of major food banks to maximize efficiencies, drove organizational sponsorships to establish food banks and forged relationships with well-known hunger relief organizations.