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Companies that Rank High in CSR Also Known for Cause Marketing

On October 18 2011 I wrote a post about the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship 2011 CSR Index and how by my reckoning six of the top ten and 33 of the 50 companies listed did at least some cause marketing. A few days later reader Jessica Marlo left the following comment.
"It really bothers me that you can't share this information with the rest of us! What companies make up the the "six" of the top ten and "33" of the 50? Sheesh!"
I left the list out of the post not to perturb Jessica or anyone else, but because most such lists tend to be like chloroform in print; real snoozers.

But I promised Jessica that I’d post the list. So fortify yourself with a good strong belt of caffeine and plow in.

Now, this is admittedly idiosyncratic. Some of these firms may have done cause marketing that I’m unaware of. By the same token, the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database has more than 5,000 cause marketing images. I don’t see all the cause marketing in North America much less the world, but I see a lot of it.

Likewise, this is a list of cause marketing. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Caterpiller… number 19 on the Boston College list… does a benefit golf tournament somewhere for a worthy charity or two. But that’s not cause marketing. Likewise Texas Instruments… number 15… is almost certainly a generous corporate philanthropist. But that’s not cause marketing either.

I’ve counted as cause marketers companies whose subsidiaries do cause marketing. Berkshire Hathaway, which is basically a big stock index, gets counted because subsidiaries like Dairy Queen do cause marketing.

What follows is the Boston College list redacted to include only the 33 that I know for a fact do cause marketing. The number at the left represents where they finished on Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship 2011 CSR Index. The number at the right is Boston College’s cumulative score. The full list is here.

If you feel like I’ve mislabeled any company herein, please let me know. Comment below or send me an email at aldenkeene at gmail dot com.

1 Publix Super Markets Inc. 80.59
2 Google 77.10
4 Kellogg’s 76.16
6 Berkshire Hathaway 75.78
7 FedEx 75.73
8 Campbell Soup Company 75.40
11 Johnson & Johnson 74.49
12 The Walt Disney Company 74.35
13 Coca-Cola Bottlers 74.14
14 Hershey Company 74.06
17 Clorox 73.88
18 Microsoft 73.87
21 Lowe’s Home Improvement 73.53
22 Procter & Gamble 73.46
23 Kraft Foods Inc. 73.31
24 PepsiCo 73.31
25 Toys ‘R’ Us 73.30
26 Home Depot 73.24
27 Quaker Oats 72.94
29 Target 72.78
30 Avon Products 72.73
31 Timberland Company 72.50
32 General Mills 72.31
33 Kohl’s 72.19
34 Whirlpool 72.17
35 CVS Caremark 72.10
37 Macy’s, Inc. 72.00
43 Costco Wholesale 71.53
44 BMW 71.44
45 Dannon 71.31
47 Staples 71.31
48 Dean Foods 71.18
49 Samsung Electronics 71.16
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