Corporate Social Responsibility Advertising Research Articles

Effects of Message Strategy and Need for Cognition (NFC) on Consumer Attitudes: A Case of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Advertising

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertising can differentiate brands and create product value, and an appropriate messaging strategy can help corporations launch persuasive CSR advertisements. This study employed a 2 × 2 mixed experimental design to operate two independent variables—message strategy of CSR advertising (CSR-informational advertising vs. CSR-transformational advertising) and the level of need for cognition (high-NFC vs. low-NFC)—in order to examine the effect of these variables on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and brands. Three primary conclusions were reached: 1) the message strategy of CSR advertising influenced consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and brands; 2) NFC levels influenced consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and brands; and 3) individuals with high NFC exhibited more positive attitudes toward advertisements and brands in the CSR-informational advertising compared with those in the CSR-transformational advertising. Overall, using advertising to promote CSR activities can strengthen corporate image, promote consumer behavior, and consolidate consumers’ brand loyalty; however, corporations must actively consider how to appropriately design CSR advertising content.

How Do Self-Values Play a Role In Consumers' Perception of CSR Advertising?

ABSTRACT This study examined dynamic interactions among self-values leading consumers to self-reference corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertising sponsored by three industries: oil, juice, and pharmaceuticals. The findings revealed that when consumers highly valued businesses9 involvement in social causes, their motives to impress others or increase status significantly affected purchase intentions via self-referencing CSR advertising. For highly issue-involved consumers who did not believe in a business9s involvement in social causes, the status motive indirectly affected purchase intention through self-referencing in a negative direction when they viewed an oil company9s CSR advertising. This finding was not present for CSR advertisements sponsored by the other industries.

Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Content Analysis of United States Magazine Advertising, 1980–2009

ABSTRACTThere has been widespread and growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR). This study examines how CSR practices have changed, corresponding to the changes in social issues by tracking back to the prevalence of CSR advertising in print magazines from 1980 to 2009 when CSR had thrived. Our findings from content analyses of print CSR advertising with Time Magazine and Better Home and Garden suggest that there are significant relationships between social issues and CSR practices by year, target audiences, and industry types. With recent increasing needs for CSR practices in society, this study lays the theoretical and practical groundwork for strategic CSR communication by documenting historical data on CSR advertising.

Effectiveness of CSR Advertising: The Role of Reputation, Consumer Attributions, and Emotions

AbstractDespite companies' wishes to publicise their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, communication remains a challenge. This research study tries to contribute to the literature, analysing the antecedents and consequences of attitude towards a CSR advertisement in the financial sector. Specifically, we designed a causal model, which included the prior ethical reputation, the range of possible attributions, and the mix of emotions provoked by the advertisement. We surveyed 225 adults in Spain who evaluated a fictitious advertisement for companies of different ethical reputations, conveying a philanthropic cause. As a result, it was observed that the advertisement generated a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic attributions and a mix of positive and negative emotions, and the prior ethical reputation of the company was a key antecedent of the effectiveness of the communication. Furthermore, a good attitude towards the advertisement has rewards, in terms of improvement of attitudes towards the brand and behavioural intentions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

How do racial minority consumers process a model race cue in CSR advertising? A comparison of Asian and White Americans

This study proposes that model race and race of consumers play an important role in processing corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertising. The aim of the study is to examine why a racial mismatch between target consumers and featured model race might work better among Asian Americans in the context of CSR ads, guided by motivated reasoning and self-referencing information processing mechanisms. Through an experiment, the study finds that people who perceive that money means social status tend to have more positive responses to CSR ads regardless of their race or ethnicity. In addition, Asian Americans who highly equate money with status are likely to evaluate CSR ads featuring a white model more positively than the ad with an Asian model. The study also reveals that Asian Americans with higher money as status perception tend to self-reference only when they view the CSR ad featuring a white model, but not an Asian model. However, White Americans do not vary in self-referencing based on model’s race when viewing the CSR ads.

Marketing strategies to add economic value, reactions on corporate social responsibility advertising in print media: an Indian company case

Corporate social responsibility advertising(CSR Advertising) results from commercial advertising,having social dimensions. This concept works as amarketing tool of cause-related marketing (CRMarketing). In this study, the case of IOCL (an Indianoil company) is presented to show how the companycreates innovative advertising ideas, serves the society,contributes to save environmental natural resourcesand allows to add economic value. In addition to theusual ways of commercial advertising, this kind ofapproaches on CSR-advertising is an advance toestablish a positive image in the mind of customers. Theslogan ‘go green’ is highlighted in order to contribute tosave natural resources on Earth. Reactions of CSRadvertisingare measured to test the effect of publishedmessages and the manipulation of CSR advertisingmessage and persuasive claims.

The advertising of corporate social responsibility in a Brazilian bank

PurposeOrganizations achieve brand awareness through marketing efforts. Studies show that advertising plays a central role in garnering results. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertised by a retail bank in Brazil.Design/methodology/approachCritical discourse analysis (CDA) was adopted, with the three steps proposed by Fairclough: textual analysis, processing analysis, and social analysis. This approach allows in‐depth analysis of the CSR discourse present in communications of organizations with their target.FindingsLiterature indicates that consumers prefer to obtain personal advantages rather than benefits to the environment in which they live. This could influence organizations’ preference towards communication campaigns that demonstrate CSR actions, and that additionally communicate benefits which individuals receive. However, one of the largest banks using advertising limited to CSR‐specific aspects achieves impressive brand awareness results.Originality/valueThis study presents evidence that CSR advertising can stimulate brand awareness without using commercial aspects in its content.

Advertising corporate social responsibility initiatives to communicate corporate image

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a set of research propositions concerned with how the alignment between socially responsible corporate image and corporate identity might be enhanced through the reduction of scepticism by considering diagnostic dimensions of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) image advertising claim.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews corporate image advertising, the tool investigated for informing about the firm's CSR record, discusses the scepticism construct and theoretical explanations of why this communication approach might induce scepticism, considers extant empirical findings that lend support to these theories, and describes several elements of CSR advertising claims considered to be diagnostic and capable of inhibiting scepticism responses to CSR image advertisements among consumers. Research propositions are advanced and discussed.FindingsThe paper provides conceptual insights into reducing consumer scepticism toward CSR‐based corporate identity communicated via corporate image advertising.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper advances four research propositions, and proposes a method for testing these propositions.Practical implicationsThe paper acknowledges the increase in CSR‐based corporate image advertising, discusses why such communication approaches may be prone to consumer scepticism, and considers message elements to inhibit this persuasion‐eroding cognitive response.Originality/valueThis paper suggests a study to understand how corporate identity based on CSR achievements can be more persuasively communicated via CSR‐based corporate image advertising

Communicating CSR: practices among Switzerland's top 300 companies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication among the top 300 companies in Switzerland and to investigate how favorable the cultural context is for this kind of communication.Design/methodology/approachThe investigation of the top 300 companies in Switzerland was conducted using a written survey that built on previous studies.FindingsCSR communication in Switzerland appears to be well developed, but still has broad margins for development. Examples are provided on how to improve CSR communication. Such improvements should be relatively easy to implement since Switzerland, it is argued, appears to be open to CSR communication.Research limitations/implicationsThe investigation considered only the communication objectives toward a limited range of stakeholders, such as clients, shareholders, and employees. The survey was conducted among the top 300 companies in Switzerland; these companies are not necessarily representative of the whole Swiss business community.Practical implicationsThe paper describes the elements that should be considered in order to develop an effective CSR communication. These elements are synergies between issues, objectives, and channels; criteria for a credible social report; the exploitation of the potentialities of CSR advertising and the web; and the understanding of the national context where the organization is operating.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on CSR communication, an area that has received limited attention in CSR research. Organizations may find interesting hints on how to develop effective CSR communication.