Based on the survey, the conclusion was made that the awareness of Tesla’s CSR activities is very low. Also, there is not enough credibility and transparency in the firm’s actions, which causes even criticism of the company. Moreover, the fact that a great number of people is still not familiar with the concept of CSR and is not interested in it makes the goal to increase the awareness of Tesla’s CSR activities even more difficult.
However, the answers of respondents that match the profile of the Tesla’s target consumer differ from the majority. Such customers are ready to pay more for products and services from socially responsible companies and they can even name some of the Tesla’s CSR activities, which means that they are aware of them and that this can urge them to prefer products and services form the company, which can increase company’s sales.
According to the secondary research, being socially responsible helps the company to be seen more attractive in customers’ eyes. That is why, it is important that all the customers and potential customers know about CSR activities of the company, so that not only the small amount of people, which is being Tesla’s target group, knows about it, but the bigger part of the customers and potential customers.
The recommendations would be to optimize marketing communication. It is important that Tesla listens to their potential customers and engages in communication with them, so that there is no misunderstanding and more transparency in their actions. If all the actions of the firm are transparent and communicated well, it benefits the company and all the stakeholders.
And this way the company’s CSR activities would not be seen as covering for wrong-doing.
What is more, it is particularly important that there are no misunderstandings from people about Tesla’s activity. Comments about Tesla’s wrongdoing are either result of poor communication or the company is really doing it. The former is noise in communication, which has to be eliminated. The latter is unacceptable for the firm, which wants to be socially responsible nowadays.
Since Word-of-Mouth plays a great role in Tesla’s popularity, it is important to understand that things that happen to one customer or things that only one customer knows, might be heard and thought by others. It might be especially dangerous with the negative opinions about the company. So, the company should pay attention to each feedback given.
44
Tesla spends zero dollars from budget on advertisement. Moreover, the current trend in
Communicating CSR is using the internet marketing, especially Social Media Marketing. That is why, the main channel for communication should be the internet.
The company is using its Social Media for communication. However, not so actively to inform others about their activity in CSR. Therefore, the main recommendation would be to engage more with the customers via internet, have a conversation with them about the CSR activities, especially about those, that are least heard of. According to the results of the survey – disaster relief and community engagement. Also, the suggestion would be to have separate CSR channels apart from company’s mainstream channels.
Based on the information from studies mentioned in the thesis the recommendation is that Tesla should show commitment towards their customers, general public and their employees.
45
Conclusion
The goal of the thesis was to measure awareness of Tesla’s CSR activities in Electric Vehicles industry and suggest possible changes in communication strategy so that the company could increase sales.
In the theoretical part of the thesis the concept of CSR was defined, current trends were described, disadvantages and advantages were listed. The criticism of the concept was also studied. Moreover, the marketing communication was studied in general and the special attention was paid to communicating CSR.
This information was useful for giving recommendations.
In the practical part the market, the company itself and its competitors were analysed in order to understand and be inspired about what the company is doing, what else could be done and what could be changed. And the information for the specific markets was gathered.
Also, the survey about Tesla’s CSR activities awareness was conducted and the results were analysed. In the end of the practical part, the conclusions and recommendations were made and the potential ways for improvement were suggested.
The value-added of this thesis is the recommendations that are relevant for the company and that can be implemented immediately.
The main conclusions are that the awareness of Tesla’s CSR activities and about the concept of CSR in general is very low and it has to be improved to get the maximum benefits. The recommendations include to optimize marketing communication, to communicate with the company’s customers, to pay attention to Word-of-Mouth, to actively use internet for
communication, to avoid the noise in the communication process and to get the feedback and take it into the consideration.
46
Table of abbreviations
CEO – Chief Executive Officer
CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility EU – European Union
EV – Electric Vehicles
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation PR – Public Relations
RMB - Renminbi
SEC - Samsung Electronics China’s SRQ – Special Research Question UN – United Nations
Table of Pictures
Picture 1. Tesla's official Twitter page, showing no promoted activity. .. Chyba! Záložka není definována.
Table of graphs
Graph 1. Question 10. Source: Own research. ... 35
Graph 2. Question 11. Source: Own research. ... 35
Graph 3. Question 13. Source: Own research. ... 36
Graph 4. Question 14. Source: Own research. ... 36
Graph 5. Question 1. Source: Own research. ... 37
Graph 6. Question 2. Source: Own Research. ... 37
Graph 7. Question 3. Source: Own Research. ... 38
Graph 8. Question 5. Source: Own Research. ... 39
Graph 9. Question 6. Source: Own Research. ... 40
Graph 10. Question 7. Source: Own Research. ... 41
47
Graph 11. Question 9. Source: Own Research. ... 42
Bibliography
Books and Journals
1. 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.
2. BHATTACHARYA, C.B, Sen, S., and Korschun, D. (2011). Leveraging Corporate Responsibility: The Stakeholder Route to Maximizing Business and Social Value.
New York: Cambridge
3. CRANE, A., and DESMOND, J. Societal Marketing and Morality. European Journal of Marketing, 2002, vol. 36, no. 5. pp. 548-569 ProQuest Central. ISSN 03090566.
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560210423014.
4. Du, S., BHATTACHARYA, C.B., and Sen S. (2007), “Reaping relational rewards from corporate social responsibility: the role of competitive positioning”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 224-241.
5. FREEMAN, R.E., and DMYTRIYEV, S. Corporate Social Responsibility and Stakeholder Theory: Learning from each Other. Symphonya, 2017, no. 1. pp. 7-15 ProQuest Central. ISSN 15930300. DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.4468/2017.1.02freeman.dmytriyev.
6. HADJIKHANI, A., JOONG, W.L., and PARK, S. Corporate Social Responsibility as a Marketing Strategy in Foreign Markets. International Marketing Review, 2016, vol.
33, no. 4. pp. 530-554 ProQuest Central. ISSN 02651335. DOI http://dx.doi.org.zdroje.vse.cz:2048/10.1108/IMR-03-2014-0104.
7. HOHNEN, P., and POTTS, J. Corporate Social Responsibility: An Implementation Guide for Business. International Institute for Sustainable Development [online].
2007, p. 115 [cit.2021-09-01]. Available from:
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/csr_guide.pdf
8. INGRAM, V. Corporate Social Responsibility: the role of public policy. A systematic literature review of the effects of government supported interventions on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviour of enterprises in developing countries. IOB.
[online]. Study. 2013. [Accessed 1 December 2020]. Available from:
https://www.government.nl/documents/reports/2013/05/14/corporate-social-responsibility-the-role-of-public-policy
9. 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.
48
10. KOTLER, P., ARMSTRONG, G., HARRIS, L.C. and PIERCY, N. Principles of Marketing. 7th European edition. Harlow, UK : Pearson Education Limited, 2017.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. MADEN, C., ARIKAN, E., TELCI, E. E., and KANTUR, D. (2012). Linking corporate social responsibility to corporate reputation: a study on understanding behavioral consequences. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 8th International Strategic Management Conference, 58, (pp. 655-664). Barcelona: Elsevier.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1043
14. 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
15. 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.
16. SAUNDERS, M.N.K., LEWIS, P., and THORNHILL, A. Research methods for business students. Seventh edition. New York: Pearson Education, 2015. ISBN 978-1- 292-01662-7.
17. THOMAS, J., and MAINE, E. Market entry strategies for electric vehicle start-ups in the automotive industry – Lessons from Tesla Motors. [Online] 06 2019. [Acessed 01 February 2021.] Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334034257_Market_entry_strategies_for_ele ctric_vehicle_start-ups_in_the_automotive_industry_-_Lessons_from_Tesla_Motors.
49
Online Sources
1. BRANDTOTAL. Ad Strategy Report Auto Industry. [online]. rep. 2019.
[Accessed 20 February 2021]. Available from: https://www.brandtotal.com/blog/tesla-spends-zero-on-social-media-advertising
2. BUSINESS LEADERS FORUM. What is CSR [online].
[Accessed 1 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.csr-online.cz/en/what-is-csr/
3. STATISTA. Electric mobility - statistics & facts [online]. 2020.
[Accessed 20 February 2021]. Available from:
https://www.statista.com/topics/1010/electric-mobility
4. STATISTA. Estimated plug-in electric vehicle sales worldwide in 2020, by
automaker. [online]. 2021. [Accessed 15 March 2021]. Available from: ttps://www- statista-com.zdroje.vse.cz/statistics/977407/global-sales-of-plugin-electric-vehicles-by-brand/
5. TESLA, INC. tesla.com. [Online] [Acessed 10 February 2021.] Available from:
https://www.tesla.com/about.
Reports from the companies
1. BARTON, R., MORATH, J., QUIRING, K., and THEOFILOU, B. Generation Purpose [online]. rep. Accenture, 2020. [Accessed 5 January 2021]. Available from:
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-117/Accenture-Generation-P-urpose-PoV.pdf#zoom=40
2. BMW GROUP. [online]. Sustainable Value Report 2019. rep. 2020.
[Accessed 1 December 2020]. Available from:
https://www.bmwgroup.com/content/dam/grpw/websites/bmwgroup_com/responsibili ty/downloads/en/2020/2020-BMW-Group-SVR-2019-Englisch.pdf.
3. BYD COMPANY LIMITED. BYD CSR Report. [online]. rep. 2019.
[Accessed 1 December 2020]. Available from:
https://www.byd.com/sitesresources/common/tools/generic/web/viewer.html?file=%2 Fsites%2FSatellite%2FBYD%20PDF%20Viewer%3Fblobcol%3Durldata%26blobhea der%3Dapplication%252Fpdf%26blobkey%3Did%26blobtable%3DMungoBlobs%26 blobwhere%3D1600574935250%26ssbinary%3D.
50
4. OECD (2020), Annual Report on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises 2019. [online]. [Accessed 1 December 2020]. Available from:
http://mneguidelines.oecd.org/2019-Annual-Report-MNE-Guidelines-EN.pdf
5. TESLA, INC. Impact Report. [Online] 2019. [Accessed 11 October 2020.]. Available from: https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/2019-tesla-impact-report.pdf.
6. TESLA, INC. Q4 and FY2020 Update. [Online] 2020. [Accessed 20 January 2021.]
https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/static/1LRLZK_2020_Q4_Quarterly_Update_Deck_-
_Searchable_LVA2GL.pdf?xseo=&response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22TSLA-Q4-2020-Update.pdf%22.
Appendix
Questions in the questionnaire:
• Screening questions:
▪ Do you know what CSR means?
▪ What does CSR mean?
▪ Do you work with the concept of CSR?
▪ Do you work for Tesla?
• Content questions:
▪ Do you prefer to buy products from socially responsible companies?
▪ Will you pay more for products and services if they are from socially responsible companies?
▪ Do you consider Tesla to be a socially responsible firm?
▪ What CSR activities/fields of Tesla's CSR activities can you name?
▪ Choose all Tesla's activities that you have heard of
• Demographic Questions:
▪ What is your gender?
▪ How old are you?
▪ How often do you commute to work/university/etc.?
▪ How do you commute to work?