Corporate social investment and branding in the new South Africa.

South African brand managers are discovering that the savvy use of corporate social investment (CSI) policies is making them more competitive and giving their brands high local profile. Savvy CSI programmes on the part of banks, game lodges, small businesses and even multi-nationals like Anglo American and De Beers have already proven to be an excellent means of promoting brand loyalty in a country where increasingly more consumers are looking to businesses to help solve the myriad economic and social inequalities the country has been bequeathed by the previous government. The author contends that businesses that hope to flourish in South Africa have learned that it is in their interests for their brands to stand for these values and beliefs with regard to society's transformation and to embrace a policy of transparency in their corporate dealings and social upliftment programmes. Brands that have successfully melded corporate social responsiblity (CSR) initiatives with traditional brand management have created what the author refers to as a policy of values-led branding that is catching on across the country and becoming de rigueur for modern South African brand management. The initiatives that South African companies have promoted in this politically and culturally hypersensitive microcosm of first and third world branding concerns may became emblematic for companies across the world which hope to utilise CSI and CSR programmes to build their brand image against powerful competitors struggling against the brunt of global activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]