How Social Marketing can Address the Obesity Issue: The Role of Corporate Reputation

Abstract

There is an increasing level of government and non-profit organisations holding organisations to account for their social responsibility (Zyglodopoulos, 2002). Such efforts often consist of social marketing campaigns with the ultimate goal to bring about attitudinal and behavioural change in undesirable behaviours such as smoking, gambling, drinking and obesity (Hastings, MacFayden, and Anderson, 2000; Andreasen, 1994). The impact of social marketing can be explained using institutional theory, which draws an association between social norms, the norms of an organisation, and the support of key stakeholder groups. It recognises that an organisation’s environment contains social and cultural norms that define social reality (Handelman & Arnold, 1999; DiMaggio 1988). The purpose of a social marketing campaign is to impact on these societal norms and values (Hastings, MacFayden & Anderson, 2010). These social norms define the institutional norms which stakeholders expect the organisation to adhere (Handelman & Arnold, 1999). Maignan & Ferrell (2004), in proposing a stakeholder view of corporate social responsibility, recognised the need for managerial processes to conform to stakeholder norms. Organisations that conform to social norms provide a show of cultural allegiance with their stakeholders and are to be rewarded for this support (Mohr & Webb, 2005). Conversely, where social norms shift as a result of a social marketing campaign and they are no longer consistent with the norms of an organisation, customers would be expected to disassociate from the organisation. Where customers are able to draw a connection between the social marketing message and the products or operations of a company, it is feasible to predict a positive influence on the firm’s corporate reputation. Bhattacharya & Elsbach (2002) considered the concept of social marketing and organisational identification and highlighted circumstances where social marketing impacted upon corporate reputation (Bhattacharya & Elsbach, 2002). This paper further investigates this interplay of social marketing, consumer-based corporate reputation and purchasing intentions. It demonstrates the impact of being exposed to a social marketing campaign on customer perceptions of corporate reputation and their subsequent purchasing intentions.