Corporate Communication: M&M's CR Strategies Report

This report delves into the significance of corporate communication, particularly focusing on corporate responsibility (CR) within M&M's. It begins by defining CR and its importance in corporate communication, emphasizing its role in stakeholder engagement and brand reputation. The report then explores M&M's CR strategies, aligning them with the broader objectives of Mars, Incorporated, and highlighting initiatives such as sustainable cocoa farming and community development programs. It examines the social, legal, and environmental issues addressed by these strategies, along with the internal and external benefits derived from them. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of effectively communicating CR efforts to stakeholders, drawing on examples from companies like BHP and CISCO Australia, and providing insights into how M&M's can enhance its own CR communication. The conclusion underscores the importance of CR and its effective communication for building a strong brand image and fostering positive relationships with stakeholders.

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Corporate Communication
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Introduction
Corporate communication is a broad aspect of every organization, which is used for
communicating with the internal and external stakeholders of the organization. All the
companies to liable to have a good communication with the stakeholders regarding their revenue,
profits, future plans of business growth and corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Doorley &
Garcia 2015). These are done mostly through annual reports. The recent trend of communicating
regarding the corporate social responsibility is that companies are publishing a separate CSR
report that focuses only on the sustainability initiatives taken by the company and how much is
the progress year-on-year (Chaudhri 2016). This is a specific report, which helps the
stakeholders to understand the motives of the company to choose the specific CSR activities,
how those are aligned with the company objectives and how those are benefitting the society as
well as the company. Hence, corporate communication is an effective tool for communicating
with the customers and other stakeholders regarding various business operations of a company.
However, corporate communication strategies regarding corporate responsibility (CR) also face
challenges as the company needs to sound those initiatives as they matter not only to the
company but also for the community. As stated by Crowther and Seifi (2018), CR is a very
important part of the business operations of the companies and it must be communicated to the
stakeholders to make them understand about the company’s responsibility towards the
community, which helps in increasing the goodwill and image of the company among the clients
and other stakeholders. Thus, through this report, the necessity and the strategies of corporate
communication on corporate responsibility of M&M’s will be highlighted. This report will
elaborate the definition of CR, its importance in corporate communication, CR strategies of

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M&M’s, its social and environmental benefits and internal and external benefits and CR
communication strategy of M&M’s using examples from different companies.
Discussion
Corporate responsibility (CR)
Corporate responsibility (CR), often termed as corporate social responsibility (CSR),
refers to the self-regulating business operations that make a company socially accountable for its
business operations (Leipziger 2017). CSR often includes various types of social development
and sustainability initiatives, which helps in the development of the society or a particular
section of the community and in sustainability. Any human activity has impact on the
environment and affects sustainability in the negative manner. It applies for industrial activities
also. Hence, it is responsibility of the organizations to take initiatives that would help them to
reduce their carbon footprint from the environment. Along with that, through CSR activities,
companies also help in giving back something to the society (Schrempf-Stirling, Palazzo &
Phillips 2016).
CR strategies
The primary factor of designing a CR strategy is that it must be aligned with the
corporate objectives and hence, it should be incorporated with the company business strategies
(Frynas & Yamahaki 2016). M&M’s is the flagship product of one of the largest confectionary
companies of the USA, Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars, Incorporated. Hence,
while designing the CR strategies, these should be in line with the company objectives of Mars,
Incorporated. Apart from aligning the CR strategies with the business strategies, the company
should also take other strategies before designing and implementing CR initiatives, such as, it

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should earn support from the higher authorities and stakeholders, such as, board of directors, and
for that, the initiatives should be productive for the company and for the community. The
company should also look for future pipeline, that is, the initiatives should be feasible so that
those can be continued in the long term and also, it should look for potential future employees
from the communities it is helping to develop, which can be done through various social
scholarships (Ludema & Johnson 2018). Organizations also make strong and sustainable
partnerships to make their CR initiatives more affordable and faster. Moreover, innovation and
integration of design thinking are two new strategies, which can be beneficial for the company as
it is a part of the R&D and also for the community through development of talents and skills
(Loosemore & Lim 2017).
Thus, being a confectionary enterprise, M&M’s should not only design its CR initiatives
aligned with its business and target market, but should also take a proper communication strategy
to reach out to the larger number of stakeholders. Hence, the CR strategies of the company
includes sustainable farming and establishing sustainable supply chain for cocoa, and providing
sponsorships to the less developed sections of the community for children’s education and health
and empowering women.
Social/legal environmental issues
Mars, Incorporated has various types of CR strategies and initiatives for different types of
its businesses, such as, saving the cocoa supply for the future generations and for that it is
investing more than $1 billion for making the supply chain sustainable (Mars.com 2019), it is
helping the veterinarians to handle their student debt, it is investing in renewable energy goals,
launching nutritious products through innovative approach, empowering women of the

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communities, sustainable farming, and many more. Thus, the organization addresses social and
legal environmental issues. For M&M’s, the sustainable supply chain of cocoa and sustainable
farming is most appropriate CR initiatives, along with investing in community development. In
this way, both the social and environmental accountability of the company are met.
Internal and external benefits
CR initiatives of any organization have both internal and external benefits. These
initiatives should benefit the employees as well as the business by increasing company image
and reputation, which helps the business to grow (Epstein 2018). On the other hand, these
initiatives should have a strong impact on the community through developmental programs and
sponsorships and environmental impact through sustainability measures, such as, responsible
production and consumption (Parsa et al. 2015). As in case of M&M’s, the CR programs benefits
the employees and other internal stakeholders by increasing the awareness among the customers
and thereby growing the revenue and profit of the business. On the other hand, it benefits the
community through various developmental programs and scholarships and benefits the
environment through sustainable supply chain and farming of cocoa. This is a stakeholder
approach of CSR. All these programs must be reported in a comprehensive manner so that all the
stakeholders become aware of these.
Communication about CR strategy
It is extremely important to convey the benefits of the CR programs to the internal and
external stakeholders to maintain a transparency about the company’s CR actions and how is the
actual progress of the programs. As stated by Crane and Glozer (2016), while doing a business, a
company takes resources from nature and from the communities, and hence, it is important for

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the company to return something good to the nature and the communities, and this gives rise to
the concept of CSR. However, if the CSR activities are not communicated in an effective
manner, the usefulness cannot be utilized. Unless people know about the programs launched by
M&M’s, they can never avail the benefits. On the other hand, for the internal stakeholders, it is
important to know the progress of the programs in which the company is investing. The CR
programs are designed to match up with the competitive position of the company in the market
and hence, it is essential to communicate about the strategies and initiatives to the employees as
well as to the public for not only create awareness but also to maintain a transparency about the
level of investment and its return year-on-year.
Various companies integrate their CSR report with the annual report, like Mars,
Incorporated, BHP, while some companies publish a separate sustainability report or CSR report.
The purpose of this report is to communicate with the stakeholders about the CSR initiatives of
the company, such as, CISCO Australia. Whatever is the structure followed, the pattern of the
CR strategy and programs report for all these companies are similar. The reports start with the
objectives of the companies along with the sustainability objectives and approach of the
companies towards the social accountability. It is followed by different segments in which the
company invests, such as, people, health and safety, communities, environment and climate
change (Bhp.com 2019). In these segments, the objectives set by the company, amount of
investments, initiatives taken and the evaluation of the performance and progress is documented.
In this manner, the companies communicate with the stakeholders about their CR strategy and
programs. M&M’s also require to document its CR actions as a medium of communication with
its stakeholders.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that, not only CR strategies and initiatives
are important, but communicating with the stakeholders about those programs is also important
for M&M’s as well as for any company. Communication about these aspects increases the
reputation and credibility of the company in the market. While many companies have already
started to publish their CSR reports, many companies have not taken any measure to
communicate about their CR activities. The CR programs have multiple benefits for the society
and environment, and unless those are communicated, awareness will not be created and the
benefits will not be availed in the optimized manner. Hence, it is extremely essential for M&M’s
to publish their CR report as a medium of communication with the stakeholders about their
welfare initiatives.

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References
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