Firms Anxious to Build Good Will in Florida : Philanthropy: Hurricane gives companies an opportunity to show public a charitable side.
Among the cases of decongestants and antibiotic ointments that Burroughs Wellcome Co. is donating to victims of Hurricane Andrew is one of the company’s blockbuster drugs--AZT, the leading treatment for AIDS.
The pharmaceutical giant is just one of hundreds of companies scrambling to have its logo associated with hurricane philanthropy in an effort to create intangible, invaluable good will.
For Burroughs Wellcome, the donation is in part another olive branch extended to the AIDS community, which has derided the company over the years for the hefty price it initially assigned to Retrovir, its brand of AZT.
“We are grateful to Burroughs Wellcome for their support,” said Don Sanderson of the Cure AIDS Now program in Dade County, which is working with the drug maker to coordinate distribution.
Such a dialogue was impossible just three years ago when AIDS activists stormed Burroughs Wellcome headquarters to protest Retrovir’s $10,000-a-year price tag. Gradually, however, the cost came down, and the two sides see more room for cooperation.
Compassionate giving alone cannot repair a tarnished corporate image. But companies know their public deeds can influence consumers.
Natural disasters, particularly of the devastating scope of Hurricane Andrew, provide a convenient opportunity for companies to assume more human characteristics by helping those in need.
But their motives aren’t entirely altruistic. “You can’t measure it in dollar terms,” said Peter van Dernoot, principle of van Dernoot & Associates Inc., a Denver public relations firm.
“It takes a sophisticated management to appreciate the long-term benefits of . . . what something philanthropic can do. A company and its product will do much better in an environment where they are well received and have a favorable image,” and giving to hurricane victims helps, he said.
And so they line up. Nissan and Ford with trucks, Domino’s and its pizzas, Campbell Soup with canned beans and minestrone, Ralston Purina with pet food, Kraft General Foods with bagels, Norseland Foods Inc. with no less than 16.5 tons of cheese, Salem Sportswear with 20,000 T-shirts and Connaught Laboratories Inc. with vials upon vials of tetanus and influenza vaccines.
Good will, if companies can create it, is a unique asset. “It can’t be stolen by a competitor or outmoded by the Japanese. It is the one asset that is 100% proprietary to the company,” said Clive Chajet, who heads the image consulting firm Lippincott & Margulies Inc.
