More corporations today recognize the link between business and social responsibility. How well a corporate image is publicly presented is the key to expanding business presence.

Each year, corporations budget for public relations to help promote the image the companies hope to project to the public and their target markets. It’s difficult to imagine a corporation not understanding the value of a highly effective public relations plan and the impact on corporate public image. This includes embedded corporate visibility and attendance at social and business events.

Start with Corporate Image
Every corporation has an innate corporate image that’s based on company policies. Fortune 500 corporations maintain their corporate public image to remain among the highest ranked companies.

For new corporations, it’s necessary to focus on business strategies that encompass the overall beliefs and policies that project a positive public image. A corporate image may include the personal demeanor and management style of executives, sales and other personnel who figure prominently in the public eye.

For example, imagine the subliminal message sent by a famous fashion design executive who regularly appears in public in tattered jeans. Review the specifics of business image before creating a plan of action for growing your corporation’s public image through smart social responsibility.

Branding and Projecting to Target Markets
Projecting a business brand leads to targeting a specific sector of the corporate market. For example, a business model that targets mainly a younger generation needs to supplement their branding promotions in a manner that relates easily to youthful ideas. The corporation, Old Navy, targets fashions that tend toward a youthful market. Their brands are usually those well recognized by the twenty to forty age groups. Thus, most of the corporate public relations that pitches Old Navy products tend to accent young adults rather than senior citizens.

What is Smart Social Responsibility?
For corporations, smart social responsibility refers to the projection of business brand as viewed by the public through public relations promotions and advertising. All corporations have a social responsibility to use resources in the most responsible, effective manner. Corporate investments are also part of social responsibility. In essence, corporate public image can be advanced through a sophisticated program of public relations that engenders smart social responsibility when public relations address responsible corporate objectives. When the drug manufacturer, Merck, chose to produce a drug that wasn’t highly profitable, but greatly benefited society, this is a good example of smart social responsibility.

Ronn Torossian is the CEO of 5W Public Relations and founder of the Ronn Torossian Foundation.