MNG81001 Assessment 4: Detailed Analysis of L'Oreal's CSR Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of L'Oreal's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices, focusing on their communication strategies and the challenges they face. The report begins with an abstract summarizing the key findings and then introduces the concept of CSR and its importance for businesses. It evaluates L'Oreal's CSR activities, including an analysis of their website and CSR report, assessing their commitment to sustainability across various areas such as environment, consumer responsibility, community involvement, and employee relations. The report examines how L'Oreal communicates its CSR efforts and discusses potential issues arising from a lack of dialogue, as well as the dangers of empty boasting. It also highlights corporate scandals involving animal testing. The report concludes with recommendations for L'Oreal to enhance its CSR practices and communication, emphasizing the importance of transparency and stakeholder engagement. The report uses Harvard referencing style and includes appendices with relevant information. The report is an assessment for a marketing module.

RUNNING HEAD: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMUNICATION 0
Corporate Social Responsibility and communication
Student’s Details-
OCTOBER 6, 2019

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Contents
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Evaluation and Analysis of Company’s CSR Activities......................................................3
2.1 Evaluation of The Website.............................................................................................3
2.2 Analysis of CSR Report..................................................................................................5
3. Communication About CSR..................................................................................................7
4. The Lack of Dialogue.............................................................................................................7
5. Dangers of Empty Boasting and CSR...................................................................................8
5.1 Empty Boasting and Reputation....................................................................................8
5.2 Corporate Scandal 1.......................................................................................................8
5.3 Corporate Scandal 2.......................................................................................................8
6. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................9
7. Recommendations..................................................................................................................9
8. Appendices..............................................................................................................................9
9. References.............................................................................................................................12

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Abstract
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the company is majorly focus upon the sustainable
business that promotes the higher benefit of the society, employees and communities. CSR is
crucial for the business as it helps in the increasing transparency and maintaining integrity into
the organization. This ultimately helps in the promotion of increased welfare of the society and
also increasing the productivity of the company. For this report, secondary research is made
through the CSR reports of the company and through the academic sources. The results of the
report can be helpful in the identification of communication of CSR practices and also
identification of the problems that might arise due to lack of CSR framework.

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1. Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the obligation of the company towards the
society and placing a positive impact on the society (Carroll, 2015). It seeks to determine the
activities of the company that fulfills the CSR and making the company sustainable from all
aspects. Further, it is crucial for the company to communicate CSR for acting as it entails the
process of anticipation of needs of the stakeholders and making a fair communication of CSR
policies to the concerned stakeholders (Yusoff & Lau, 2016). The report is prepared on the CSR
communication of Loreal which effectively communicates the strategies and the challenges that
the company faces in meeting the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the company. The
purpose of the report is to evaluate the CSR policies and the activities that help in the successful
communication of CSR.
2. Evaluation and Analysis of Company’s CSR Activities
CSR activities include the initiatives that are undertaken by the companies for the promotion of
sustainability into their operations and creating a value for the stakeholders (Abugre & Nyuur,
2015). Also, Loreal has robust and reliable procedure for analyzing the CSR activities.
2.1 Evaluation of The Website
By analyzing the website of Loreal, it is being evaluated that the company deals with the
consumer goods and their main sustainability aim is to share beauty. Moreover, table 2.1 shows
the answer of the question ‘how green is my strategy’ that clearly identifies the fact that the
company has been making sustainable operations and are fulfilling their corporate social
responsibility towards the employees, community, environment and diversity. Also, the table
shows the CSR ranking of the company which answers the questions of how green is the strategy
and how green is the company.
Table 2.1: How ‘green’ is my company
1. Company name: L'Oréal
2. Industry type: Consumer good

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3. Is there a CSR department?  Yes  No
4. What is it called? CSR Commitments
5. Is there a CSR Report for 2018?  Yes  No
6. Is it available on the website?  Yes  No
7. Corporate Social Responsibility in Action. Which social change activities does the company
engage in? Identify activities from each relevant category.
CSR activity  OR  Activity
a. Environment  Women and Climate
b. Consumer
responsibility
 Good360
c. Community  L'Oréal Citizen Day
d. Employee
relations
 For Women in Science
e. Indigenous
f. Diversity  White Ribbon
8. How ‘green’ is the website? 64
9. How ‘green’ is the company? 54
10. CSR indices/rankings 100

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2.2 Analysis of CSR Report
The CSR report of Loreal determines the sustainability of commitment that includes sharing
beauty for all. The table 2.2 shows the content of the CSR report of the company and also key
message for the stakeholders of the company. Also, the report elements such as the policies and
practices of CSR and the ability of the report to be systematic and comparable. The report
elements also include the good or bad news and the ways Loreal addresses the challenges are
shown into the table 2.2. Lastly, two sustainability initiatives of the company are also shown into
the table.
Table 2.2: Attributes of the CSR report
Describe the form and content of the CSR report:
CSR report of the company has the elements such as sustainable innovation,
sustainable production, sustainable consumption and sharing growth.
2. Who is the report designed for?
Constituency  OR  Key message
a. Investors  The company has transparent
policies that attracts the attention
of the investors.
b. Employee present  The company’s sustainability
development programs have
benefitted employees in various
ways.
c. Employees future 
d. Academics 
e. Community activities  The company has been
contributing towards unprivileged
communities through providing

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CSR 6
them employment opportunities.
f. Public officials 
g. Corporate managers 
h. Other 
3. How thorough and credible is the report?
Report elements  OR 
a. Is this a CRS report? 
b. Does the report provide details on CSR practices as well as
policies?

c. Does the CSR report provide systematic data? 
d. Does the company report data in a comparable form? 
e. Does the report present future goals as well as past practices? 
f. Does the report include bad news as well as good news? 
g. Does the report address the company’s greatest CSR challenges? 
h. Does the company integrate CSR reporting with its traditional
business strategy and its financial reporting?

4. Identify the key elements of the report
CSR report of Loreal clearly states the sustainable programs for all stakeholders
group and has provided sustainable operations for the innovation and environmentally
sustainable (Loreal, 2018). The company’s beauty products are socially sustainable as
the company adopts a strategy for sustainable development.
5. Identify two sustainability initiatives for 2018 (or 2109 if details available)

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1. Sustainable Innovation
2. Sustainable production.
3.Communication About CSR
It is crucial for the company to communicate CSR of the company in order to make people aware
about the sustainable operations of the company which ultimately creates confidence and trust of
the stakeholders (Turkel & Akan, 2015). This has become an important concern as the
companies can maintain legitimacy of sustainable business and thereby brining transparency
(Chaudhri, 2016). Similarly, Loreal has been informing their clients and the stakeholders
regarding the CSR through reports such as United Nations Global Compact and also a
sustainable program that included Sharing Beauty for all. It has a transparent approach and
shares the strategy and challenges through various reports. Therefore, the company’s CSR needs
be communicated and there should not be lack of dialogue which can create problems for the
company.
4.The Lack of Dialogue
The companies having lack of dialogue can lose the reputation of the company. Also, the
companies can suffer from severe punishments from the concerning party due to lack of CSR. It
can bring bad impact on the brand and due to the social media, the consumers are aware about
their rights which they can use to post bad negative responses onto the website of the company
(Elving & May Postma, 2017). However, Loreal as a renowned brand can face issues due to lack
of dialogue. The company can lose the brand recognition and often failing to meet the
expectations of the client. Due to lack of dialogue, the reputation once lost, can never be in the
same situation as it was earlier (De Graaf, 2016). Therefore, the company fulfills the corporate
social responsibility and communicates the CSR policies and guidelines to the public in terms of
reports that it prepares for the increased transparency. Moreover, the problem also gives rise to
dangers of empty boating.

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5.Dangers of Empty Boasting and CSR
In order to become environmentally sustainable, the companies are attempted to not backed by
substance which particularly means that the companies are not environmentally harmful. The
danger of empty boating arises when the company does not have inefficiency of the substance
and the companies may face losses due to the lack of communication (Argenti, 2015).
5.1 Empty Boasting and Reputation
Due to the empty boating, the company can suffer from severe loses and also leading to the lack
of communication piracy of CSR. Also, when corporate social responsibility is not being
communicated in right manner is backed by a substance, then it ultimately causes harm to the
reputation of the company (King, 2013). However, Loreal can fill the empty spaces through
sustainable operations. Furthermore, in the light of the sustainable production, the company has
lowered the water consumption and also reduced the green house emissions in order to perform
sustainable industrial operations.
5.2 Corporate Scandal 1
Loreal was criticized by the animal welfare campaigner, Naturewatch for using animal testing
into the products since 2006. Later, Loreal denied the allegations of Naturewatch and introduced
a report that contained the sustainable practices of the company and also had showed that the
finished products were not tested on the animals (Salisbury, 2011). Moreover, the company
claimed that it did not used animal’s body for testing the products except into the case where it
required a National Legislation. This practice only took place there is requirement or regulations
for the acceptance of the product after the testing of the products on the animals on order to
allow for commercial use.
5.3 Corporate Scandal 2
The corporate scandal of Loreal continued for the years. The company was listed amongst the
PETA listed companies, the company has company0wide policy for the test of animals. Also, in
order to operate cruel free with PETA, the government has banned the use of test on the animals
or any ingredient to not be used on the animals. Moreover, the company has introduced the
policy that can abolish the use of ingredients and also finished products on the animals.

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6.Conclusion
To conclude, it can be said that corporate social responsibility is crucial for the business as it
affects the company in either positive or negative way. Also, CSR is needed to be communicated
into the organization in order to perform better and also making a continuous reputation of the
company. Here the report is successful in the understanding of CSR for Loreal. The report has
analyzed the CSR activities of the company and also importance of communication of CSR. The
report has highlighted the major issues such as the lack of dialogue and dangers of empty
boasting. Lastly, it has analyzed the major corporate scandals of Loreal and the way company
dealt with the standards.
7.Recommendations
From the above report, it can be recommended that the company should include CSR into the
business model and also communicate CSR through the reports and audits. Ultimately, this
condition allows a Loreal to bring transparency and gaining the trust of the clients. Also, it can
be recommended that Loreal should perform sustainability into their operations by doing due
contributions to the society, employees and other concerning stakeholders.
8.Appendices

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Source: (L'Oreal, 2019)

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9.References
Abugre, J. & Nyuur, R., 2015. Organizations’ commitment to and communication of CSR
activities: insights from Ghana. Social Responsibility Journal, 11(1), pp. 161-178.
Argenti, P., 2015. Corporate responsibility. s.l.:Sage Publications.
Carroll, A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is on a sustainable trajectory. Journal of
Defense Management, 5(2), pp. 2167-0374.
Chaudhri, V., 2016. Corporate social responsibility and the communication imperative:
Perspectives from CSR managers. International Journal of Business Communication, 53(4), pp.
419-442.
De Graaf, F., 2016. CSR as value attunement within governance processes: Stakeholder
dialogue, corporate principles and regulation. Business and Society Review, 121(3), pp. 365-390.
Elving, W. & May Postma, R., 2017. Social media: The dialogue myth? How organizations use
social media for stakeholder dialogue. In: How strategic communication shapes value and
innovation in society. s.l.:Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 123-141.
King, D., 2013. It’s time to ban the empty word ‘sustainability’. [Online]
Available at: https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-ban-the-empty-word-sustainability-17612
[Accessed 6 October 2019].
Loreal, 2018. Loreal 2018 Annual Report. [Online]
Available at: https://www.loreal-finance.com/en/annual-report-2018/responsibility-1-5/
[Accessed 6 October 2019].
L'Oreal, 2019. Loreal. [Online]
Available at: https://www.loreal.com
[Accessed 7 October 2019].
Salisbury, P., 2011. Behind the Brand: L’Oréal. [Online]
Available at: https://theecologist.org/2011/aug/10/behind-brand-loreal
[Accessed 6 October 2019].

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Turkel, S. & Akan, A., 2015. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication: A Turkish
Industry Example. Integrated Communications in the Postmodern Era, pp. 151-174.
Yusoff, I. & Lau, S., 2016. Corporate Social Responsibility: Ranking Public Listed Companies
in Malaysia. Reitaku Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Volume 24, pp. 107-126.

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