As our homeland concentrates, the private sector expands and the practice of globalisation gathers pace, the spotlight is increasingly turning to focus on the role of business in our society. As a result, how corporate social responsibilities are defined, utilised and how performance is measured and reported on, are all issues that are rapidly rising up the agenda for business and particularly so for leading brand-based companies trading around the world. Csr is now widely accepted in the business world with 75 of the FTSE100 participating. Is it all spin, are we being led down the proverbial garden path or is it a factor that will shape organisations of the future? Do we as consumers care enough to even believe in CSR? After all we only really know what the media allows us to know.

Corporate v personal responsibility ?
Who would have thought ten years ago that the Mcdonalds would be promoting responsibility and choice, a change in their advertising will feature one of five servings a day, which will make Mcdonalds one of the leading advertisers of fruit and vegetables to children and families. Mcdonalds has rarely been out of the media over the last few years, from law suits to subvertising the franchise has had a lot of bad press. The question to ask is that should McDonald's not only be responsible for the environment and the community around them, as they are with their local community and environment programmes but should they be responsible for what people are putting into their mouths. Surely the compensation culture has gone too far or is this just what the new consumer wants- corporate accountability for individual faux pas?!

As Susan Baker says companies are confronted with a new kind of consumera creature distinctly different and identifiable from its predecessors.' We as the new consumer' are more educated, more demanding and are not just buying products we are buying brands and experience!
Companies are picking up on this fact and mass customisation, price transparency experiential purchasing are all factors of the segment of contemporary consumer behaviour. This means a greater challenge for marketers, new strategies need to be adopted businesses need to be flexible and recognise customers needs are changing, time tourists and time refugees summise this. New consumers are no longer the passive absorber of marketing messages but demand authenticity, as Nigel Pearcey states .. a time bomb under traditional marketing everywhere,

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