There is a problem with the communication of the CSR of the brands. These, in fact, have already integrated to a large extent the objectives of the climate agenda and increasingly add a social, corporate dimension that, in the case of financial institutions, is directly linked to their basic offers: targeted, bonuses that affect to loans and insurance in favor of green mobility or real estate, carbon footprints associated with expenses… Of course, one can suspect the effects of “greenwashing” behind these ads. But here we are only talking about communication. However, from this point of view, we can already speak of an improvement among brands when it comes to showing their social and environmental responsibility.
However, opinion polls regularly show that this communication largely falls short of its objectives. Turned into a kind of obligatory declaration of good intentions, it is not heard by a large part of the population: according to the recent survey by Oracle France/Odoxa*, only 45% of the French people surveyed have already heard of CSR; and less than one in two employees (41%) is aware of their company’s commitments in this area. This, seven years after the Paris Agreement, which remarkably frames the commitments of companies and five years after the implementation of extra-financial information. This despite a particularly massive and ultimately quite counterproductive communication, when we see that 7 out of 10 employees say they think that, in general, the commitment of French companies is insufficient in terms of CSR.
In short, everyone thinks that social and environmental responsibility is something very good, but it mobilizes little. The energy transition, in particular, does not yet represent a mass market. The studies carried out rather highlight that a third of the French are really interested in it. But it is an active third party that often, surprisingly, knows in detail the offers related to mobility or real estate.
This is not, however, a truly homogeneous segment of the population. It is true that age and income level mark important divisions. Regarding the offers from banks and insurance companies, the typical attractive profile is a man, between 30 and 50 years old, who has quite high income and is overrepresented in Ile-de-France (there is a strong coincidence with the typical public of online banks and neobanks). But personal and geographic circumstances (the percentages vary greatly by region) account for other important gradients. Depending on the products, the CSR market has its niches (rural people, for example, are particularly interested in car sharing). Finally, elements of social distinction come into play, particularly the “Tesla effect”, when it comes to electric vehicles.
Special attention to aid
However, in terms of CSR, the mass communication that highlights the products is largely lost in front of audiences that react in clearly differentiated ways. The key is not the products but the lifestyles.
However, should we stick to such an observation and adapt brand communication accordingly? Perhaps not because it seems that, until now, this communication has lost an essential orientation.
If we consider the energy transition, in fact, the media discourse is assailed by a dichotomy between global awareness-raising carried out under the register of a planetary catastrophe and very specific measures, often technical and complex (DPE, ZFE, etc.). Between the two, opinion polls suggest that the public only seems to really care about the monetary impact aid measures put in place by the State – the zero-rate loan linked to the energy transformation of houses is quite well known.
However, the measures in favor of the transition do not seem appropriate given the inflation of energy costs. Under these conditions, passivity tends to characterize the populations that are among the most exposed, because they have the lowest income – as long as electric vehicles remain expensive, while “thermal sieves” are increasingly expensive to heat – or because they live in rural or peri-urban areas that are less equipped in terms of alternative modes of transport.
As surprising as it may seem, the relation energy transition/defense of purchasing power is not yet presented as a key argument in the current context. However, it is a safe bet that is capable of interest a much broader audience than the good deeds of brands.
*Survey carried out online on February 8 and 9, 2023 with a sample of 1,005 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over, including
543 employees. The representativeness of the sample is ensured by the quota method applied to the following variables: sex, age, degree level and profession of the interviewee, prior stratification by region and agglomeration category.
Source: BFM TV
