Communicating CSR

To achieve their objectives in regards to CSR communication tools are essential for companies.

They need to demonstrate transparency, authenticity and credibility, in order to inform stakeholders about the specifics of their motives.²³

Traditionally, the main platforms to communicate CSR were public relations, reports and website content. Nowadays, increasing capabilities of information and communication technology give the opportunity to use social media as a channel for communicating CSR ²⁴ and to engage stakeholders into communicative processes, empower and connect them as active collaborators of CSR²⁵.

The companies have no choice but to incorporate social media within their communication mix, since the social media have growing potential. However, it is still not clear how to use these tools best, because there is a limited amount of control compared with traditional communication tools.

Engagement shows a customer’s will to contribute to and collaborate with a company. If consumer engagement happens within network, it can bring a societal perspective via attention to company’s activities that influence other stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is not enough consumer engagement research that studies value outcomes beyond the individuals’

self-interested benefits.

22 KOTLER, P., ARMSTRONG, G., HARRIS, L.C. and PIERCY, N. Principles of Marketing. 7th European edition. Harlow, UK : Pearson Education Limited, 2017.

23 BHATTACHARYA, C.B. Responsible Marketing: Doing Well by Doing Good. GfK Marketing Intelligence Review, 05, 2016, vol. 8, no. 1. pp. 8-17 ProQuest Central. ISSN 18655866.

24 BIRTH, G., ILLIA, L., LURATI, F., and ZAMPARINI, A. (2008). Communicating CSR: Practice Among Switzerland’s Top 300 Companies. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 13(2), p.182–196.

ISSN 1356-3289. DOI https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13563280810869604/full/html

25 BHATTACHARYA, C.B, Sen, S., and Korschun, D. (2011). Leveraging Corporate Responsibility: The

Stakeholder Route to Maximizing Business and Social Value. New York: Cambridge

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The anxieties about Social Media are still common. Companies are concerned of how the Social Media fits into their current communication strategies with already established ideas of how to engage shareholders. They are also worried about the potential reputation risk.

Companies in the market might choose different strategies of how to implement Social Media in their communication process.

It is relatively common in practice to separate CSR channels, which will complement mainstream firm’s Social Media sites.

In spite of the limitations regarding the stakeholders’ engagement online, simply transmitting the positive message is discouraged. Instead, listening to the customers and having

conversation with them is recommended.

Such openness to stakeholders could potentially increase the company’s legitimacy. Learning and changing should be enabled, exploring, being open to new rather than suppressing

disagreement, co-operation.

Another approach is for CSR to be integrated with corporate and brand communications, where Social Media interactions are one element of the mix. In companies with such approach internal processes and structures are adapted to enable communications to be managed by one team, rather than separately.

Thera are also those who tend to avoid using Social Media. They are afraid of risk to the corporate reputation.

Posting messages on CSR activities will improve organization–stakeholder relationships and deliver benefits for corporate reputation. Social Media has the potential for CSR to contribute to company’s strategic goals. Social Media networks provide technical capability for

organizations and other parties to share ideas and be involved in dialogue on CSR.

Nevertheless, progress of incorporating Social Media to communicate CSR is slow;

organizations continue to focus more on internally constructed, strategic rather than moral communications. Even despite growing investment in CSR and some impressive corporate programs, the overall picture of engagement through Social Media is rather disappointing. ²⁶

26 LINDGREEN, A. (Ed.), VANHAMME, J. (Ed.) and MAON, F. (Ed.). (2018). Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Era. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315577234.

16 2.3.1 CSR awareness

For reaching the goal of the thesis it is really important to understand how to communicate the company’s CSR activities in the best way possible. Why is it important? Will the customers be more aware of these activities if they are communicated more properly?

What is awareness in marketing? Often, we encounter the concept of brand awareness.

According to Lee,²⁷ “Brand awareness is the degree to which customers are aware of the brand as a member of the category, and typified by the link between the brand and the category cue.”

Study by Rivera²⁸ confirms that CSR associations positively influence loyalty directly and also indirectly via their positive effect on satisfaction of consumers and brand awareness.

Jensen²⁹ writes that two things that determine CSR are the customer awareness of brand or company CSR activities and the customer wishes to engage in CSR initiatives.

Lee in the study ³⁰found out that although many firms are involved in CSR activities, consumers' awareness is still low. And even though companies spend enormous amount of money on it, the performance is not satisfactory.

According to Romaniuk³¹, the three most common brand awareness measures are called top-of-mind, unaided and aided awareness. What is more, aided and unaided brand awareness

27 LEE, M.-D.P. (2008), “A review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: its evolutionary path and the road ahead”, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 53-73.

28 RIVERA, J.J., BIGNE, E., and CURRAS-PEREZ, R., 2019. Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Brand Loyalty. Revista Brasileira De Gestão De Negócios, Jul, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 395-415 ProQuest Central. ISSN 18064892. DOI http://dx.doi.org.zdroje.vse.cz:2048/10.7819/rbgn.v21i3.4003

29 JENSEN, B., ANNAN-DIAB F., and SEPPALA, N., 2018. Exploring Perceptions of Customer Value.

European Business Review, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 246-271 ProQuest Central. ISSN 0955534X. DOI http://dx.doi.org.zdroje.vse.cz:2048/10.1108/EBR-09-2015-0104.

30 LEE, M.-D.P. (2008), “A review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: its evolutionary path and the road ahead”, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 53-73.

31 ROMANIUK, J., WIGHT, S. and FAULKNER, M., 2017. Brand Awareness: Revisiting an Old Metric for a New World. The Journal of Product and Brand Management, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 469-476 ProQuest Central. ISSN 10610421. DOI http://dx.doi.org.zdroje.vse.cz:2048/10.1108/JPBM-06-2016-1242

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measures follow the same quantitative pattern. Therefore, it is possible to measure awareness with the help of both.

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