The Breakfast Club

            “Don’t you forget about me,” said John Bender of The Breakfast Club.

            To this day, the 1985 hit film, The Breakfast Club, continues to hold the attention of millions of movie addicts. The coming-of-age film depicts the unexpected friendship of five high school students who arbitrarily meet each other in detention. Despite their different social statuses, the students befriend one another as the day progresses.

            John Bender’s words, although simple, have made an influential impact on our society. People all around the world continue to quote him, 30 years later, as if he was an actual member of our society. So, I began to wonder why these words are so quotable.

            Personally, I believe these words are extremely relevant in regard to CSR. The ultimate goal for corporations engaging in CSR initiatives is to have their target markets not forget about them. If stakeholders do not appreciate or identify enough with a certain brand, they will not build up the corporations’ reputation or share their opinions with others. Consequently, these corporations will lose brand loyalty, brand recognition and ultimately, a significant profit.

            This past Monday, Blair, Claire, Canon, Anna and I ventured to one of London’s hottest restaurants: The Breakfast Club. Covered in egg yolk yellow paint and furnished with newspapers, old record covers, signed napkins and pictures, this eclectic café was certainly a must-see. Although we waited for over an hour to be seated, the food was too good to care. Since the restaurant boasts an all-day breakfast menu, our group headed straight for the classics: pancakes, eggs, bacon, potatoes and sausage. We also made sure to order their famous hot chocolate, served in home-style mugs and consisting of layers upon layers of gooey marshmallows. The entire experience was blissful to say the least.

            Although I dearly cherished my experience at The Breakfast Club, I began to notice a severe inconsistency in their CSR efforts.

            To illustrate, I saw a purple sticker that was plastered on the exterior of the café, which read, “Sustainable Restaurant Association 2014.” Out of curiosity, I researched this recognition. According to the SRA website, SRA is a “not for profit membership organization helping restaurants become more sustainable and diners make more sustainable choices when dining out.”

            Yet, adjacent to this recognition, I saw another sticker, which had the website “doingsomething.co.uk” on it. Because it was grouped near the sustainability sticker, I assumed it had to do with their CSR efforts. After going straight to the website, I realized, to my dismay, that it was a dating website. Not only was I confused, but I also began to question the uniformity of the café’s CSR initiatives.

            Nonetheless, after we were seated, I excitedly flipped through the long-awaited menu. As I was deciding between breakfast options, a sentence under the smoothie section caught my eye: “Green really is bloody good! We are donating £2 from every sale of this smoothie to charitable projects chosen by our staff.”

            I quickly realized that this was a form of cause-related marketing. According to Kotler, cause-related marketing occurs when “a corporation links monetary or in-kind donations to product sales or other consumer actions.” In this case, The Breakfast Club gives their customers the unique opportunity to have part of their meal benefit charity. Although I appreciate their efforts, I continued to question their CSR strategy and how their efforts ultimately adjoin.

            So, I did more research. As I browsed The Breakfast Club’s website (which was bizarrely Pac Man themed), I came upon an entire page dedicated to their CSR efforts. According to the page, the café has been undergoing CSR activities under the umbrella title: “Today is Going to Be a Good Day,” for the past 12 months. This title also added to my confusion, because it is not aligned with the business’ efforts whatsoever.

            From partnering with a charity that “uses the creative arts to transform the lives of society’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable people” to sponsoring a knitting club that stiches patchwork blankets and “little hats that sit on top of Innocent smoothie bottles,” the restaurant’s efforts appear random and careless.

            Although the café was dubbed ‘Most Charitable Pop-Up’ in 2014 by Time Out magazine, I do not think their charitable efforts are streamlined enough to allow stakeholders identify with their restaurant on a more personal level.

            According to Coombs, “a corporation’s CSR initiatives should be driven by the organization’s vision and purpose.” Although the café has heavenly breakfast options, an extremely unique atmosphere and outstanding service, the business does not seem to understand the importance of creating a unified image and engaging their stakeholders in cohesive CSR activities.

            Personally, I would suggest the restaurant seek out business professionals to help them unify their brand image and create a succinct CSR message, so that the café may develop a more strategic CSR enterprise.

            Although The Breakfast Club’s food is certainly not forgettable, their CSR campaigns, unfortunately, are not memorable. Consequently, I am not listening to the words of John Bender on this one, because I am currently trying to forget about The Breakfast Club’s chaotic CSR efforts.

Citations:

Coombs, W. Timothy., and Sherry J. Holladay. Managing Corporate Social Responsibility: A

            Communication Approach. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print.

"DoingSomething." DoingSomething. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2015.

"Home - Breakfast Club." Breakfast Club. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2015.

Kotler, Philip, and Nancy Lee. Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your    

            Company and Your Cause. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2005. Print.

"Relæ Wins the Sustainable Restaurant Award 2015." The Sustainable Restaurant Association.     

            N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2015.
"Today Is Going to Be a Good Day - Breakfast Club." Breakfast Club. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June    

            2015.