The Not So Clean Story of a CSR Initiative
In a bold move to raise the status of its flagship brand, Eko Supreme Resources, owners of So Klin detergent embarked on a CSR project to position the brand as truly supreme. The objective was to help people while simultaneously promoting the brand. Several months after, the supposed beneficiaries say they are still waiting for the company to keep its word. Ndubuisi Eluwa tells the sour tale of a CSR project gone bad.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a veritable tool in the hands of businesses desirous of building people-oriented brands. In a crowded marketplace where companies strive for a unique selling proposition to separate them from the competition, CSR can play a role in building customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values. To this extent, experts are of the opinion that companies remain answerable on two aspects of their operations. First, quality of management – in terms of people and processes; second, the nature/quality of impact on host community.
CSR is, however, a two-edged-sword. When well implemented the impact is favourable and long lasting but if badly implemented, it incurs public ire for the brand. Thus, as much as the CSR platform appears attractive, it must be strategically planned to be relevant to all stakeholders and must be what the organization can follow through.
Dear So Klin
In 1995, Klin which later became So Klin came into the Nigerian detergent market in a manner marketing experts describe as ‘entry through the back door’. At the time and long afterwards, Klin passed for what is commonly referred to as a commodity – a product with no identity.
The brand owners appeared content with this level of success. A success, market observers say, was driven by two innovations: First, Klin came in white colour which many consumers found more attractive than the regular blue of the leading brands, Elephant and Omo; Second, it pioneered the introduction of a unique offering targeted at lower end consumers – i.e. 30g packs – at a time when the market leaders appeared to be out of the reach of the mass market.
The arrival of Oliver Terante as marketing manager changed all of this. On arrival, reports have it that Terante felt the need to lift Klin’s status and subsequently took bold steps to elevate the commodity to a brand. Credible sources involved in planning and executing the branding project say he borrowed his ideas largely from the Philippines .
In an interview to sell the company’s new thinking Terante says: ‘We believe that if you really want your brand to grow, then, you really have to spend money to build that brand. And the traditional ways are you advertise on TV, do road shows, print fliers and all that. In our own case, we thought, “Is there a way to do all these and also help people?” and our answer was “Yes”. So with that as a platform, we were able to conceive a project as DSO Klin. In essence, it is basically part of the marketing mix but we thought, maybe, we can do something that would be more relevant to people. So, if you can help people and at the same time you are promoting your brand, I think it is a good thing.’ Perhaps there is no better way to explain the marketing manager’s objective in building his brand with Dear So Klin.
Terante contracted an agency and they agreed to position it as a CSR platform and create publicity around it. M2 investigations reveal that the agency saw the right avenue in Daily Guide, a popular radio breakfast programme on Star 101.5 FM anchored by Moyo Oyatogun.
Dear So Klin, a fifteen-minute program with Oyatogun as anchor; Wale Obadeyi, producer; Dada Ajai-Ikhile, supervising producer and Terante as the executive producer, was to come on board later as the media arm of the project. The strategy was to have concerned members of the public send in text messages or emails making wishes for people in need of assistance. Daily Guide would also follow up with the broadcast of presentation ceremonies to selected nominations. A GSM line and an e-mail account were opened for the general public to forward their wishes. The agency went to work inspiring many write-ups in the print media in celebration of what it sold to the public as a ‘unique CSR initiative’.
Important Watersheds
Information available to M2 says things turned sour when most of the wishes were not granted as promised, prompting insinuations that Terante garnered enormous goodwill for his brand with the hype generated through the programme before withdrawing support for the initiative.
In a chat with M2, Oyatogun expressed disappointment at the way things turned out admitting that she had embraced the idea wholeheartedly because it was in tandem with what she always wanted to do. She confirmed that most of the people nominated were not satisfied with the way the ‘so called assistance’ was rendered to them.
Iyabo
Aunty Iyabo, as she is fondly called by Wasiu who recommended her for a wheelchair, is a 37-year-old cripple. Oyatogun says that even Wasiu did not represent Iyabo’s true condition. According to her, Iyabo lived in a deplorable environment with her parents and siblings which would have rendered the wheelchair useless. ‘The pavements are quite high because the area gets flooded when it rains and this will definitely make it difficult to use the wheel chair. Terante therefore promised to relocate her to a better environment.’
M2 investigations show that while the wheelchair was made available to her along with sewing equipment, nothing has been done about the accommodation.
In a telephone conversation with Iyabo last week, she confirmed that ‘They gave me the wheelchair, a sewing machine and some materials but the accommodation is still pending.’
‘Initially, I wanted a shop where I can do my sewing business,’ she continues, ‘but in the process we were issued with a notice to quit where we were living so I changed the request for an accommodation. Although Terante has sent his people severally to check the places that I have seen, up till now nothing has been done.’
According to her, she used to call Oyatogun and the agency to fulfill their promise but, “at a point they referred me to Terante and I used to call him but now I don’t get him on the line any longer so I have resigned my condition to fate.’ Oyatogun confirms that Terante has been unreachable on phone for a long time.
Pelumi
Pelumi Victoria, a 7-year-old child of indigent parents can neither walk nor talk well. A concerned neighbour, Dele, wished for her. Sources who spoke to M2 reveal that ‘part of the arrangement was to enroll Pelumi in a school to improve her walking and communication,’ but while a cerebral palsy walker was presented to her, the schooling aspect is yet to be attended to.
M2 also gathers that many schools refused Pelumi admission, a development which Cosmas Okoli, CEO of MAARDEC Products and Services, a one stop shop for persons with disability who identified with the DSO Klin cause was willing to take up, but for Terante’s sudden withdrawal.
Efforts made to contact Pelumi’s family to know her state proved abortive as the referee could not be reached. However, discreet investigations by M2 show that Pelumi is not making use of the walker presented to her by So Klin.
Mama Favour
The case Mama Favour is also in contention. An Alh. Wale sent a wish on her behalf. Dear So Klin investigations showed that Mama Favour’s shop was demolished with her wares inside and she needed assistance as her husband had no source of income. While Mama Favour could not be reached before press time as the phone number given turned out to be wrong, information reaching M2 reveals that she needed a grinding machine and a freezer to resume her business. She was given five cartons of So Klin and one branded beach umbrella instead.
These are a few among other cases where Dear So Klin fell short on its CSR promises. Besides speculation that Terante may have unethically exploited the advantages of hype for his brand, there is also the thinking that forces within Eko Supreme Resources Ltd that did not buy Terante’s idea worked against him and kicked against what they perceived as unnecessary spending.
A source who claims to have worked with Terante on the project alleges that he faced a lot of opposition from within. ‘I strongly believe that Terante faced a lot of opposition from some forces within who were not favourably disposed towards the project’ adding that those forces apparently ensured that the necessary funds were withheld from the project hence the wishes of people were not being adequately met.
Eko Supreme Resources Responds
Terante claims that there were no forces against him inside Eko Supreme. ‘How could we have been able to achieve all that we achieved if the company was not in support?’ he queries. ‘On the contrary, everybody here was happy that we were helping people this much.’
He continues: ‘In any case, I would like to make the concept of the project clear for the avoidance of doubt. We believe a brand can be built while helping people in need and that informed our choice of the Dear So Klin platform. However the choices of whom to help and what to help with were exclusively ours and cash gifts were not part of the plan.’
He recalls that ‘Iyabo’s case was the first we handled and I became interested because of the pathetic state we met her in,’ confirming that he promised to provide her with better accommodation. ‘But at a point I was not satisfied with the manner in which the whole thing was being handled. There was no transparency and I felt some hanky-panky was going on somehow. Besides, despite Iyabo’s claim that she had been given quit notice, I found out she is still there.’
On Pelumi’s case he recalls that the wish for her was to assist her to be able to walk and we provided her with a cerebral palsy walker and gave her parents cartons of So Klin. ‘There was never a promise to send her to school. It was her parents, just like any other parents, that wanted us to send her to a special school but the MAARDEC man whose company provided the equipment we gave to people with disabilities explained to them that he (also a person with disability) was not sent to a special school and so a normal school would help her and that was where we rested the case.”
In Mama Favour’s case Terante claims that she was just an Alaberu (load carrier) and that no specific items were wished for her. The wish was just for something that can augment her income, ‘and since it was our call to decide what to help with, we decided to give her a grinding machine and cartons of So Klin. No deep freezer issue was ever raised,’ he maintains.
Terante explains that the project encountered some problems part of which was the fact that people were asking for more than the company could reasonably give. ‘We can only give what we have and you can’t possibly satisfy every body’s need.’ he reasons.
The issue now is: where does this leave the supposedly budding brand, So Klin?
Marketing communication experts believe it is a bad omen for brands not to live up to expectations especially in a sensitive initiative as this. Unfortunately there is no law in Nigeria guiding CSR implementation.
Oyatogun who agrees that the project is one big unfortunate incident however differs. For her, a promise is a debt and, ‘even if this whole fiasco does not impact negatively on the brand, Terante and the entire Eko Supreme Resources should be honourable enough to keep their promises especially to Iyabo,’ she charges.
However, Oliver strongly believes that the project recorded a good measure of success “because we gave people houses, grinding machines, wheelchairs, school supply for those who want to do such business and so on. These are good things and I believe good things are successful things.’
Whether this will play out negatively on the brand or not, the days ahead will tell, but market watchers say that for those whose hopes were raised and dashed, and those close to them, Brand So Klin may never become a brand to reckon with.
