Another great talk in the Refresher Program by Professor Oriol Iglesias, director of ESADE’s Department of Marketing Management and director of the ESADE Brand Institute.

He put the audience in the picture about a growing concern in corporations: social awareness and the need to look further than business as such in order to have a positive impact on society.

In recent decades, many companies have developed a growing social conscience. Meanwhile, new communication technologies have fostered a hyper-connected and far more transparent competitive environment. Against this backdrop, brands are under great pressure to be socially responsible – but genuinely, not just theoretically.

The changes taking place in society in areas such as ecology and sustainability, and the upsurge in social activism and its increasing presence in the social media mean that businesses can no longer remain aloof from society. However, as Oriol pointed out, there is still a gap between what society preaches and what people actually buy. As members of society, people expect production to respect the environment and people, but as individuals they continue to buy brands that do not meet these expectations. This phenomenon, which Iglesias calls the ”the bipolar conscious paradox” may dwindle and have a huge negative impact on companies that fail to meet consumers’ social demands.

You may read the full article here

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Source: ESADE Alumni