Companies, including cultural institutions, play a crucial role in the preservation and enrichment of cultural heritage through their history, archives, and collections.
COMPANY CULTURE
The cultural identity of a company is a shared asset that extends beyond its boundaries. Promoting its cultural and social values presents an exceptional opportunity to address the issue of social and cultural responsibility, which is increasingly recognized as a valuable aspect.
This heritage possessed by companies often represents the development of products and entrepreneurial skills that have modernized the country, work, infrastructure, technology, and services. They have achieved historic milestones and produced iconic objects, particularly in areas like Italian design, fashion, and style.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
As a result, companies become promoters of cultural values and active participants in projects aimed at preserving and enhancing their historical heritage. These initiatives foster an ecosystem of individuals, content, values, and relationships that benefit the entire community. Various fields can be involved in these projects, including university research, local institutions, organizations, professional training institutions, and service companies such as facility management that provide personnel for historical reconstruction and digitization projects.
The sharing of these assets for cooperation and inclusion represents key aspects of these corporate heritage enhancement projects. The main actors in this endeavor are cultural and research institutions, young people and schools, training and scientific research centers, and social workers.
SUSTAINABILITY OF PROCESSES
Can the concept of sustainability, encompassing social, environmental, and economic aspects, be applied to the digitization of historical archives?
Digitization inherently involves dematerialization, which brings benefits in terms of reducing the movement of people and physical items. In the case of historical archives, it provides an opportunity to enhance content and utilize it more effectively in the daily operations of a company. By transforming physical archives into digital assets, they become powerful tools for research and development within the organization.
Additionally, choosing to undertake digitization projects contributes to the broader goal of preserving cultural heritage through digital means, offering a sustainable model for the process.
FROM PURPOSE TO ACTION
Many companies, museums and archives in Italy possess cultural heritage but lack the necessary knowledge and expertise to organize digitization processes. Through initiatives that could be described as Brand Activism, it becomes possible to provide a valuable and sustainable solution for the digitization of historical heritage. This approach combines high technological capabilities, increased quantity and quality of published content for the benefit of the community, training and retraining of company personnel, and social inclusion.
The Role of Marketing in Social Responsibility
According to Philip Kotler, a leading expert in strategic marketing, the pursuit of social responsibility requires action on multiple levels. Marketing can analyze the market, sell products and services, create value for customers, improve quality of life, and contribute to people's well-being and happiness.
This objective, though challenging to define and achieve, extends beyond marketing and applies to all business models of companies.
"Companies must have social responsibility. Today, customers want to know their purpose."
(Excerpt from "Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action" by Philip Kotler, published on October 9, 2018.).
