Study: 70% of Singaporeans expect businesses to be engaged with social issues

85% of Singaporeans today believe that companies and brands are somewhat, very or extremely responsible for addressing social issues. An additional, 59% of consumers believe that brands are struggling to engage effectively while 70% said that companies and brands should be more engaged.

Singaporean's expectations for companies and brands to take a stance on social media have far reaching consequences for business performance. This is according to a research survey by Zeno Group titled "Navigating today's pressing social issues: the responsibility reset" which surveyed over 7,000 consumers - among them 1,000 in Singapore - and over 200 C-Suite and senior leaders in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. 

Almost eight out of 10 Singaporeans surveyed said they sometimes, often or always consider a brand's engagement with social issues when deciding what brand to buy or recommend to others. 

Don't miss: It's a woke world: How can brands manage brand image while taking a stand?

In addition, Singaporeans believe brands can play a positive role in social issues too. In order of ranking, Singaporeans believe businesses can make a difference in climate and conservation issues, economic instability, mental health and technological changes. 

Looking deeper at the data, the nature of engagement matters. Only a minority (13%) of Singaporeans expect brands to do the minimum to comply with their legal or regulatory responsibilities, and even fewer (10%) expect companies to be activists in driving social and political action. More than half (51%), in contrast, prefer companies and brands to support only social issues that are relevant to their business.

“It’s no wonder corporate leaders feel stuck between stakeholder expectations and the capabilities and resources they and their organisations have to fulfil them. They’re caught in the middle,” said Swyn Evans, Zeno Group’s Singapore managing director.

“We believe many of these difficulties stem from our finding that no less than 75% of senior leaders say they don’t have a formal process in place for measuring stakeholder reaction to their engagement on social issues. Imagine if a company’s legal, HR or operations teams acted without policies and procedures to ensure their effectiveness – the C-Suite wouldn’t stand for it," added Evans.

Moving forward, companies can decide whether or not to engage on an issue based on whether or not it is authentic to them, if there is business relevance and if a company is competent and can use assets, resources or expertise that it has to contribute to a meaningful and positive change, said the report. 

"I think there’s a lot of opportunities for Singaporean companies to say - 'Let’s acknowledge the environment we’re in and reset what we’re responsible for', 'Let’s bring in relevant partners', 'Let’s formalise the way that we do things'," said Evans.

"I think the companies that can do that well are going to be rewarded in the marketplace which means they’re going to be rewarded financially too," she added. 

Global expectations

On a global scale, 65% of consumers believe businesses should engage on social issues more than they currently are, while 64% of business leaders think their organisations are engaging the right amount. 

Furthermore, 69% of consumers believe businesses have a role to play in addressing societal issues, yet 62% don’t think businesses have figured out how to do that effectively.

According to the report, 81% of global consumers believe it is important for companies to go beyond compliance with 68% of global consumers stating that the ideal corporate engagement approach involves support and advocacy. 

Interestingly, 69% of corporate leaders feel consumers have unrealistic expectations for what a company can achieve in solving society’s pressing issues. 74% of corporate leaders have admitted feeling stuck in the middle, adding that no matter what actions they take, someone will get upset.

This is especially since many companies lack framework that can help mitigate risks, with 75% of C-Suite leaders saying that their company does not have a formal process in place for evaluating and measuring stakeholder reaction to their engagement on social issues.

Explore transformative trends to empower your brand for sustainable growth. Join 500+ marketing minds at Digital Marketing Asia 2024 Singapore on 1-2 October and uncover transformative trends to empower your brand, network with industry leaders and collaborate across industries, and discover real-life marketing wins and powerful ideas.

Related articles:  
Study: Majority in SG don’t think businesses are authentic or empathetic  
Study: 63% of consumers in APAC trust businesses over the government 
3 areas of trust marketers need pay attention to in 2024