Dissertationen zum Thema „CSR marketing“

Problem: CSR is today a frequently used concept, as companies to a larger extent are held accountable for what is happening in the society. The company should also inform the stakeholders about their CSR activities in an appropriate way, in order to capitalise from all possible benefits. According to Schrader et al. (2006), one group that is extremely important to inform is the con-sumers. In order to make a trustworthy impression and gain the most bene-fits, the choice of CSR activity and way of communication is crucial for the company, and therefore the perceptions of the consumers are very impor-tant to know more about and understand. Little research has been done about the consumers’ perception of CSR, especially for Swedish consumers.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find out how Swedish consumers’ percep-tions and behaviour towards a company are influenced by communication of specific CSR activities.

Method: The data collection was done through a questionnaire that was completed online by 102 respondents. The respondents were asked to answer how their view of the company and willingness to buy from a company was changed by each the six specified CSR initiatives, as well as how they would prefer to get information about a company’s CSR activities. Their responses were analysed with help from consumer behaviour and promotion theories.

Conclusions: All the initiatives gave a positive influence on the respondents’ perceptions, but the ones resulting in the most positive changes of the perceptions and willingness to buy were social responsible business practises, cause-related marketing and corporate philanthropy, which are initiatives where the com-pany are doing the largest effort instead of just encouraging others to make an effort. The respondents answered that they trust the companies’ infor-mation about CSR to some extent, but also think a third party should scru-tinise the companies’ activities and inform. The most favourable channel for CSR information was in the store and on packages, from environmental or-ganisations and the company’s webpage. Therefore it seems like the re-spondents value that the companies provide information, but are not too forward and pushing the information on them by for example advertise-ments.

The value corporate social responsibility (CSR) creates for consumers still remains unexplored although its importance has been demonstrated in several contexts including pricing (Chang and Wildt 1994), retailing (Baker, Parasuraman, Grewal, and Voss 2002), and across cultures (Xiao and Kim 2009). Monroe (2003) argues that consumers would be willing to pay a higher price when they perceive a substantial value associated with making a purchase. In order to resolve many of the inconsistent findings in the CSR literature, such as the inconsistencies of CSR's ability to influence attitude (Sen, Bhattacharya, and Korschun 2006; Webb and Mohr 1998) and purchase intent (Mohr and Webb 2005; Trudel and Cotte 2009), it is necessary to explore which facets of perceived value consumers derive from CSR. However, without knowing what type of perceived value consumers gain from CSR, researchers and managers lack the information they need to understand why consumers are willing (or not willing) to pay a higher price in the context of CSR. The value created by CSR depends on the type of CSR activity that the company engages in (Peloza and Shang 2011). This study utilized cause-related marketing (CrM) as a type of CSR and proposed that it will influence consumers' values. Specifically, the value consumers derive from CrM will be moderated by perceptual and attitudinal factors. The perceptual factors examined in this study include the company's reputation, the authenticity of the CSR action, and the consumer's perceived personal role. The attitudinal factors included in the study are cynicism, moral disengagement, and consumer alienation. Two experiments were conducted, and the results show that an authentic CSR image accompanied with CrM influences consumers' esteem and spiritual values. This study also finds that consumer values of esteem and spirituality create favorable consumer responses. Finally, the consumer's perception that he or she has a personal role in impacting a cause enhances the value derived from CrM.

This research investigated the effects of supplier corporate social responsibility (CSR) on buyer expectations of corporate brand performance as well as the mediating effects of brand equity on buyer expectations of brand performance. For decades, organizations have integrated CSR as a business strategy to engage multiple stakeholders in a favorable manner. Extensive literature has revealed how CSR drives brand equity to sustain a brand’s competitive advantage through improved profitability and reputation in the market; it also has indicated the value of CSR as influencing brand performance. This research successfully closed gaps in the extant literature by addressing the influence of CSR as viewed by U.S. buyers in the business-to-business environment, thus explaining value creation and redistribution through the influence of stakeholder theory. A quantitative, non-experimental survey was conducted with 400 randomly selected business-to-business buyers working for U.S. companies with a minimum of 100 full-time employees. Panel respondents were screened for decision-making authority, industry, and geographic distribution to participate in the online survey. Analysis revealed that supplier CSR significantly influenced brand performance expectations of buyers, with brand equity working to enhance brand performance expectations. Confirming that supplier CSR investment translated to a competitive advantage with business-to-business customers highlighted the available potential of targeted spending by supplier organization marketing divisions to key stakeholder groups.

Aim: Problem background - CSR has today increased its strategic status and consumer demand of sustainable development has also increased lately. However, there are still companies that have not adjusted their strategies to fit this swift in demand. This study offers a strategic tool, based on sustainable core competencies, for companies to implement in order to use CSR to boost their business.

Research issue - How can Swedbank increase stakeholder confidence and value?

Delimitations - This study focuses on the concept of integrating CSR work into the strategy and how this could result in added value for the B2B customer of Swedbank Corporate Market.

Method: This study has an abductive approach and the author has collected qualitative primary data in the form of interviews with employees at Swedbank, Sparbanken Nord and with five of Swedbank’s customers from the public sector.

Result & Conclusion: Swedbank needs to re-position their brand with a differentiated strategy, including a supportive vision and Market Communication, in order to gain a competitive advantage, strengthen their image, stakeholder confidence and financial performance. The author recommends the sustainable core competence, “Sparbankssjälen”, in order to deploy an ethical, economical and environmental responsible strategy to implement into all their activities.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how a CSR strategy can be used as a marketing tool by analyzing ICA‘s and Lindex‘s marketing approach within the Pink Ribbon campaign.

Background: The concept of CSR has become more and more common in business practices and customers today almost expect companies to be socially responsible. Even though CSR is very important for companies, it has historically not been a very lucrative approach for them to involve in these activities. However there are ways of combining the social responsibility with earning profits. The concept of CRM is a very effective tool for earning a profit while at the same time being socially responsible. In Sweden one of the biggest and most well known CSR activities is the Pink Ribbon campaign. Could this campaign be utilized to market a company and how would this then be done?

Method: The research approach for the thesis was that of a multiple case study with qualitative data collection concerning the Pink Ribbon campaign. To put the campaign into perspective two companies were chosen and they were investigated in terms of their marketing approach and CSR approach. The empirical findings consisted of a number of interviews with managers at different levels within the companies ICA and Lindex.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that CSR within the context of the Pink Ribbon campaign works well as a marketing tool. The companies have utilized the campaign to gain a better reputation as well as getting a boost in sales because of it. This is in essence what marketing is all about and by using CSR in the form of CRM you also involve the customers in the process.

Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur en CSR strategi kan användas som ett marknadsföringsmedel genom att analysera ICA‘s och Lindex tillvägagångssätt under Rosa Bandet kampanjen

Bakgrund: CSR som koncept har blivit mer och mer vanligt bland företag och kunder idag förväntar sig att företagen ska ta socialt ansvar. Även om CSR är viktigt för företag så har det historiskt sett inte varit någon lukrativ verksamhet att syssla med dessa frågor. Det finns dock sätt som kombinerar lönsamhet och socialt ansvar. CRM är ett exempel på ett medel som leder till lönsamhet samtidigt som företaget tar socialt ansvar. I Sverige så är Rosa Bandet kampanjen en av de största och mest igenkända CSR aktivitet som företag tar del i. Kan denna aktivitet användas till att marknadsföra företaget och hur ska detta i så fall ske?

Metod: Vår undersökningsmetodik har bestått av en multipel fall studie med kvalitativ data angående Rosa Bandet kampanjen. För att sätta kampanjen i ett perspektiv så valde vi ut två företag och undersökte deras tillvägagångssätt med marknadsföring och CSR. Vår empiri bestod av ett antal intervjuer med managers på olika nivåer inom ICA och Lindex.

Slutsats: Vår empiri visar att CSR i sammanhanget av Rosa Bandet kampanjen funkar bra som marknadsföringsmedel. Företagen har använt kampanjen både till att förbättra deras anseende samt för att förbättra deras försäljning. Detta är i princip vad marknadsföring handlar om och genom att använda CSR i formen av CRM så involveras även kunderna i processen.

Problem: The increased environmental awareness among people as well as businesses has led to the development of new concepts such as sustainable development and environ-mental marketing. One way of practising environmental marketing, which is based on the three principles social responsibility, holism and sustainability, is to use eco-labels on prod-ucts and services. Many companies see the usage of eco-labels as a means to gain competi-tive advantage. The number of eco-labelled products and services constantly increases, but does it mean that the number of companies practising corporate social responsibility also increases? The thesis strives to find out how a company through the usage of eco-labels contributes to a sustainable society by practising environmental marketing and thus social responsibility. The more specific purpose of this thesis is to:

Explore the relationship between the usage of eco-labels on products and services and the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within three different companies.

Method: A qualitative research approach was applied. Data was collected through six semi-structured interviews with the responsible of environmental/sustainability questions of three different companies (Scandic, Arla Foods and JC) and with the representatives within information/PR from two third party organisations (the Nordic Swan and KRAV).

Results: We have drawn the conclusion that in order to have CSR incorporated within the organisation of the company, there is a need to have a balance between the different di-mensions (economic, environmental and social) of the company. The company also needs to take responsibilities that go beyond economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities. Scandic and Arla Foods have CSR fully incorporated within their organisations. JC have an imbal-ance between the different dimensions and have therefore not fully incorporated CSR. When it comes to the relationship between the eco-label and CSR, we can conclude that for the explored companies the relationship is dependent on the environmental philosophy and the environmental culture of the company having the eco-label. Scandic and Arla Foods have strong environmental cultures and their eco-labellings are seen as being the output of their CSR. JC do not have such a strong environmental culture and their eco-labelling is seen as the input of CSR. Third party organisations play an important role for CSR within the explored companies, both for the development and for the continuous im-provements of CSR. Third party organisations emphasise the development of CSR when the eco-label is seen as being the input of CSR, as in the case of JC. When the eco-label is seen as the outcome, as for Scandic and Arla Foods, the third party organisations help the companies to make continuous improvements.

Problem: Den ökade medvetenheten hos människor såväl som hos företag när det kom-mer till miljöfrågor har bidragit till att nya koncept som till exempel hållbar utveckling och grön marknadsföring har uppkommit. Grön marknadsföring bygger på de tre principerna: socialt ansvarstagande, holism och hållbarhet. Ett sätt att tillämpa grön marknadsföring är att använda miljömärkningar på varor och tjänster. Användandet av miljömärkningar ses som en konkurrensfördel av många företag och antalet miljömärkta varor och tjänster ökar konstant. Betyder detta att även antalet företag som tar ett samhällsansvar ökar? Denna uppsats söker ta reda på hur ett företag med hjälp av miljömärkningar bidrar till ett hållbart samhälle genom tillämpning av grön marknadsföring och därmed också socialt ansvarsta-gande. Det mer specifika syftet med den här uppsatsen är att:

Undersöka förhållandet mellan användandet av miljömärkningar på varor och tjänster och tillämpningen av företagens samhällsansvar (CSR) i tre olika företag.

Metod: En kvalitativ undersökningsmetod tillämpades. Data samlades in genom sex styck-en semistrukturerade intervjuer med de ansvariga inom miljö- och hållbarhetsfrågor på tre olika företag (Scandic, Arla Foods och JC) och med informatörerna från två tredjeparts or-ganisationer (Svanen och KRAV).

Resultat: Vi har kommit till slutsatsen att det måste finnas en balans mellan de olika di-mensionerna (ekonomiska, sociala och miljö) inom företaget för att CSR ska vara inkorpo-rerat i dess organisation. Företaget måste också ta ett ansvar utöver de ekonomiska, lagliga och etiska ansvar som företag har. Scandic och Arla Foods har fullt ut inkorporerat CSR i sina organisationer. JC har en obalans mellan de olika dimensionerna och har därför inte fullt ut inkorporerat CSR. När det kommer till förhållandet mellan miljömärkningen och CSR hos de undersökta företagen, har vi dragit slutsatsen att detta förhållande är beroende på miljöfilosofin och miljökulturen hos företaget som har miljömärkningen. Scandic och Arla Foods har starka miljökulturer och deras miljömärkningar ses som ett resultat av deras CSR. JC har inte någon stark miljökultur och deras miljömärkning ses som ett bidrag till CSR. Tredje parts organisationer spelar en viktig roll både för utvecklandet och för det kontinuerliga förbättrandet av CSR inom de undersökta företagen. När miljömärkningen ses som ett bidrag till CSR, som i fallet med JC, fokuseras tredje parts organisationers infly-tande på utvecklandet av CSR. När miljömärkningen ses som ett resultat av CSR, som hos Scandic och Arla Foods, hjälper tredje parts organisationer företagen att göra kontinuerliga förbättringar.

Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is not a completely new phenomenon, yet an idea whose time has truly come. To have commercial organizations cooperate with charity organizations for mutual profit is a "win-win-win" situation. The company gets added value to its brand, the charity organization gets to collect more money that it otherwise wouldn't and the customer gains a feeling that he or she has contributed to the society.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how a company, in practice, works with CRM marketing. How do they choose which charity organization to work with,what type of product is most appropriate to market with CRM and how is the CRM campaign designed? A theoretical model is then formed to answer these questions, after a thorough research of relevant theory on the subject. Through a qualitative multiple case study we thereafter studied this at three large companies on the Swedish market, ICA, Kellogg's and Lindex.

Our findings showed that all three companies work very similar with these issues. They cooperate with large well known charity organizations and they think that it's very important that the product and the cause match each other. The products are consistently low involvement products, which is also shown in the theoretical model. The CRM campaign lasts for a shorter period of time and the message is clear so it fast and easy will reach the customers.