Chinese brands lead CSR : R3

The top 10 brands with good CSR perception among Chinese consumers  are China Mobile in first place, followed by Mengniu, Lenovo, Haier, Wang Lao Ji, Li Ning, Yili, Coca-Cola, Nongfu and Nokia in tenth place. 

The R3 study cited that China Mobile came top as the company now has a customer base of over 523 million users, and they are leveraging this well to showcase some of their social and community messages.

Dairy giant Mengniu was placed second, as after the milk scandal and crisis in 2008, dairy companies changed their mindset to community marketing. 

R3 came across a significant amount of local social engagement projects during the research, including Lenovo’s 'Youth social entrepreneurship competition', Mengniu’s 'Turning waste into treasure' event held in five key cities across China and China Mobile’s 'Love foundation', a charity event with the All-China Women's Federation for orphans.

“Foreign brands have made strong initiatives, but have not achieved the same degree of recognition as local players. Right now, eight of the ten top companies in this area are China companies,” said Sunny Chen, senior researcher for R3. “The best marketers in China are treating CSR campaigns with the same strategic rigor as they would a sales or brand building project,” Chen added.

The study was based on face-to-face interviews with 1,500 people in 10 cities between 1 to 15 December 2010. Consumers were asked about their CSR perception of companies based on the company’s CEO image, corporate responsibility in green products, charity advertising, image for caring for Chinese consumers, charity events, donations for disasters and mass media news.

Unilever's global CMO Keith Weed spoke about sustainability in China at the Global Advertiser Conference in Beijing yesterday.