Justin Warshavsky

Some profits go to charity!: Consumer

Brands’ Use of Corporate Social

Responsibility Advertising Strategies

Why did I choose to study this topic?

Recently brands have been turning to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaigns to create a competitive advantage over other brands

There is a lot of research done on CSR but not much on CSR advertising

TOMS uses CSR as the foundation of their brand

Research Trends Brands use CSR advertising to communicate to

the consumer that they are a responsible brand

CSR advertising is used for brands to communicate how they better the community and their ethical positions (Verboven, 2011)

Both the brand and the cause partnered with the brand benefit from CSR (Bigne-Alcaniz et al., 2012)

Brands choose non-profit, social, or environmental causes to partner with that reflect brand image Example: Arctic Home campaign by Coca-Cola (Popoli, 2011)

Research Trends Consumers act positively to CSR campaigns

(Nan & Heo, 2007)

CSR campaigns effect the consumers’ attitude toward the entire company rather than just the advertisement or brand (Nan & Heo, 2007)

Research Questions RQ1: Are consumer brands more likely to advertise

the one for one strategy or the direct to charity strategy?

RQ2: What messages do consumer brands communicate when using one for one as its Corporate Social Responsibility advertising strategy?

RQ3: What messages do consumer brands communicate when using direct to charity as its Corporate Social Responsibility advertising strategy?

RQ4: How does consumer brands’ Corporate Social Responsibility strategy align with its brand image?

Methodology Content analysis of 55 CSR print

advertisements from different genres of magazines

One of the advantages to using content analysis is its ability to be used for topics of current interest (Berger, 2011)

Direct to Charity Environmental

One for One Environmental

Direct to Charity Societal

One for One Societal

Other

Results 53% (n=29) of ads were direct to charity for

societal

76% (n=42) of ads were found in women’s magazines

47% (n= 26) of ads were for food or beverages

67% (n=37) of ads used central route (facts over other cues)

Majority of ads had high brand-cause alignment

Discussion Brands use the direct to charity for societal

strategy the most

CSR Advertisements are placed in women’s magazines Women shop for household more than men

(groceries)

CSR messages are communicated by facts rather than other cues such as emotions

Brands use CSR to enhance brand image

Limitation: Hard to find CSR ads

Conclusion This shows how brands communicate CSR to

the general public. Other outlets used to communicate CSR need further research Websites

Television and radio commercials