Nine out of 10 consumers say they would boycott companies that are being irresponsible, according to an international "corporate social responsibility" report being released Wednesday.

 

And it's more than theoretical exercise: More than half of consumers in 10 countries say they have refused to buy a product in the past year because of what they saw as bad corporate behavior, according to the report by marketing and public relations agency Cone Communications, which has specialties in cause marketing and corporate social responsibility.

 

That might not bode well for Gap, Wal-Mart and other U.S. retailers that so far have not signed a labor-backed plan to improve factory safety while they work on alternative plans. Pressure for a factory safety agreement intensified after a factory in Bangladesh making clothes for major retailers collapsed in April, killing 1,127 workers.

 

Most major European companies and U.S. retailer Abercrombie & Fitch have agreed to a labor-backed plan that calls for independent safety audits that will be made public and for the companies to pay for safety improvements in Bangladesh factories.

 

Gap, which has held itself out as a corporate social responsibility leader, is being targeted the most aggressively by backers of the labor plan. The company, however, says it's pursuing its own safety initiative and will not agree to the unions' proposal unless the company's liability concerns are addressed. Ian Bassin, general counsel of the global activist group Avaaz, says Gap is trying to make the plan unenforceable.

 

Avaaz, an advocacy group that says it has 21 million members that it taps for campaigns, is leading the charge against Gap using social media. The group has launched a Facebook and Twitter campaign to pressure Gap to sign the safety accord -- about 1.1 million people had signed onto the campaign as of late Tuesday. Avaaz also has organized protests at Gap's headquarters in San Francisco and showed up for the retailer's shareholder meeting there on Tuesday.

 

Cone's survey of 10,000 consumers in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., Germany, France, Russia, China, India and Japan found them increasingly using social media to talk about companies, with more than a third having used social media to spread positive information about a company and a fourth spreading negative company news.

 

Gap spokesman Bill Chandler says his company has a "history of taking action wherever we operate," citing efforts to improve working conditions in Haiti, Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh. He says that its efforts for corporate social responsibility are why the retailer is being singled out.

 

Bassin says that's fair. "If you put yourself out there as the paragon of the highest standards and ideals and you fail to live up to them -- and are one of the laggards -- then you are going to face harsh criticism. Your reputation is going to drop precipitously, even if you are at the forefront."

 

Cone Executive Vice President Jonathan Yohannan, says that though Gap has been a leader on responsibility issues including the environment and diversity, that is not much known outside of retailing, nor outside the United States. Companies such as Marks & Spencer, Patagonia and Whole Foods Market are better examples of retailers who are leaders globally, he says.

 

Cone says that nearly 90% of consumers consider corporate social responsibility when deciding where to shop and that it is important for retailers to communicate about how products are made. The report says that a growing concern for consumers in the survey was economic development -- 38% cited it as their top concern, up 4 percentage points since 2011 -- followed by human rights, poverty and hunger.

 

The report also shows, however, that though consumers may boycott companies they see as guilty of bad behavior, they will only favor one they see as better-behaving if the price and quality of its products are about the same.

 

Still, the overall effect could be higher prices. "The price of cotton, the price of labor and all these issues are going to force companies to start rethinking what they can offer in the marketplace due to globalization," says Cone research and insights chief Alison DaSilva. Retailers may "need to rethink the $5 tee shirt.

 

Source: usatoday.com