Marketing and corporate socialresponsibility within food stores

Peter Jones and Daphne ComfortThe Business School, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK, and

David HillierSchool of Technology, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, UK

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer an exploratory case study of how the UK’s top tenfood retailers are employing corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a means of marketing tocustomers while they are within stores.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins with a short review of the characteristics andorigins of CSR and it is followed by a literature review of current thinking on the relationships betweenmarketing and CSR and a brief outline of the structure of food retailing in the UK. Data obtained froman internet search and a simple walk through visual inspection and information collection surveyconducted within the largest store operated by each of the top ten retailers within the towns ofCheltenham and Gloucester, UK provides the empirical material for the case study.

Findings – The survey revealed that the principal CSR themes being employed within stores werevalue for money, support for local food producers, Fairtrade, healthy living and healthy eating,commitment to organic products, charitable donations and initiatives to support the local community.

Practical implications – That there was considerable variation in the extent to which the top tenretailers were using CSR themes in marketing communications within stores.

Originality/value – Outlines the relationships between marketing and CSR and gives a briefsummary of the structure of food retailing in the UK and will be of interest to those involved in thosefields.

Keywords Food industry, Retailers, Corporate social responsibility, Marketing, United Kingdom

Paper type Case study

IntroductionIn making its case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) the UK Government hasargued that more transparency in the ways that companies address and manageenvironmental, economic and social issues can help improve relationships withemployees, customers and other stakeholders (Department of Trade and Industry,2004). The UK’s large food retailers are increasingly keen to report their commitment toCSR (Jones et al., 2005). These reports are generally directed at shareholders, investors,consumer pressure groups and policy makers rather than individual customers. Thispaper offers a preliminary examination of the extent to which the UK’s major foodretailers currently use CSR as a means of communicating with customers within theirstores.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)CSR is concerned with the integration of environmental, social and economicconsiderations into business strategies and practices. That said there seems to be nouniversally agreed definition of CSR and while the UK’s Confederation of British

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Industry (2001) has argued that “CSR is highly subjective and therefore does not allowfor a universally applicable definition”, Frankental (2001) has argued that “CSR is avague and intangible term which can mean anything to anybody, and therefore iseffectively without meaning”. That said a variety of definitions have been framed. TheCommission for the European Communities (2001) defines CSR as “a concept wherebycompanies integrate social and environmental concerns in the business operations andin their interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis”. According to Wood(1991) “the basic idea of CSR is that business and society are interwoven rather thandistinct entities” and for Mallenbaker (2005) “CSR is about how companies manage thebusiness process to produce an overall positive impact on society”. More generally, adistinction has been drawn between CSR seen as philanthropy as opposed to CSR as acore business activity. In the former companies conduct their business unfettered bywider social concerns and then make charitable donations to selected worthy causeswhile in the latter the accent is upon operating the core business in a sociallyresponsible way which seeks to enhance the competitiveness of the business andmaximise the value of wealth creation to society.

In some ways the underlying concept of CSR has a long history. In outlining thegrowth of CSR, Hopkins and Crowe (2003) suggest that there has always been a tensionbetween business and social goals and they cite the power of the craft guilds in theMiddle Ages, the slave trade and the struggles to improve living and workingconditions in Britain’s rapidly growing towns and cities during the nineteenth century,as graphic evidence of these tensions. Sadler (2004) has argued that “the definition ofthe functions of the corporation with relation to wider social and moral obligationsbegan to take place in the centres of capitalist development in the nineteenth century”.Turning to more recent times Marlin and Marlin (2003) have identified three phases inthe development of what they call “CSR reporting”. The first phase dating from theearly 1970s was seen to be composed of advertisements and annual reports whichfocused upon environmental issues but which were not linked to corporateperformance. The second phase in the late 1980s was characterised by theintroduction of social audits, which examined the performance of companies in theareas of social responsibility with respect to communities, employees, customers,suppliers and investors. The company Ben and Jerry’s is cited as pioneering thisapproach with the Body Shop and Shell Canada being other early examples ofcompanies adopting a similar approach. The third phase dating from the late 1990ssaw the strengthening of social auditing through the introduction of externally set andcertified standards.

A variety of factors are cited as being important in building the current momentumbehind CSR. Ernst and Young (2002) suggest that five key drivers have influenced theincreasing business focus on CSR, namely, greater stakeholder awareness of corporateethical, social and environmental behaviour; direct stakeholder pressures; investorpressure; peer pressure and an increased sense of social responsibility. TheCommission of the European Communities (2002) argues that CSR has gainedincreasing recognition within companies as an important element in new and emergingforms of governance because it helps them to respond to fundamental changes in theoverall business environment. These changes include globalisation and theresponsibilities companies find the need to address as they increasingly sourceproducts and services from developing countries; the issues of image and reputation,

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which have become increasingly important elements in corporate success; and the needfor companies to recruit and retain highly skilled personnel. National andsupranational governments have also been active in promoting CSR. The EuropeanUnion, for example, promotes CSR in all member states and the UK Governmentemphasises its ambitious vision for CSR.

The business case for CSR is seen to focus on a wide range of potential benefits(Bevan et al., 2004). These include improved financial performance and profitability;reduced operating costs; long-term sustainability for companies and their employees;increased staff commitment and involvement; enhanced capacity to innovate; goodrelations with government and communities; better risk and crisis management;enhanced reputation and brand value; and the development of closer links withcustomers and greater awareness of their needs. At the same time there are those whowould champion the case against companies integrating CSR into their core business.Such arguments might follow Friedmann (1982) in affirming that:

[. . .] there is one and only one social responsibility of business-to use its resources and engagein activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game,which is to say engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

Henderson (2001) has argued that seemingly growing business commitment to CSR is“deeply flawed” in that “it rests on a mistaken view of issues and events and its generaladoption by business would reduce welfare and undermine the market economy”.

Marketing and (corporate social responsibility) CSRIn advertising its two-day conference held in November 2005 on communicatingcorporate values to consumers the Ethical Corporation described CSR and marketingas being “traditionally on opposite sides of the fence” and “hardly the most obviousbedfellows” (Ethical Corporation, 2005). Thus, “to CSR people marketing cansometimes seem nothing more than empty promises and PR spin.” and “to marketingpeople, CSR is all about duty, responsibility and doing the right thing” (EthicalCorporation, 2005). Blomqvist and Posner (2004) go further in suggesting that“companies are losing out because there is often little or no integration between CSRand marketing departments and their respective strategies” and that “unless CSRbecomes central to the marketing director’s agenda, it will not have the desired effectand can potentially create a backlash”. That said Morsing (2003) has argued that“communicating corporate social responsibility is a delicate issue” and that“stakeholders are reluctant to receive too much information about companies’ CSRengagements”. More dismissively, Coors and Winegarden (2005) argue that “CSR isreally nothing more than corporate advertising that makes consumers aware of newproducts and features for which they are willing to pay”.

Nevertheless, there is growing interest in exploring the links between CSR andmarketing. In looking to provide a framework to integrate CSR and marketingMaignan and Ferrell (2004) summarised the work of marketing scholars in examiningconsumer responses to CSR initiatives, the perceived importance of ethics and socialresponsibility among marketing practitioners and the marketing benefits resultingfrom corporate actions with a social dimension. The authors also explored morespecific dimensions of CSR such as the support of charitable causes and the protectionof the environment. In an earlier work the same authors (Maignan and Ferrell, 2001)

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explored the role of what they then described as “corporate citizenship” as a marketinginstrument. Here, they suggest that companies will be likely to invest in CSR if itsactivities trigger the active support of consumers and they go on to review the evidenceon consumers’ support of corporate citizenship. While this review suggests that:

[. . .] negative CSR associations can have a detrimental effect on overall product evaluationswhereas positive associations can enhance product evaluations’. . . and “customer loyalty”.

In their conclusion the authors propose that corporate citizenship may help companiesto market their products and they call for further research to ascertain the existenceand the strength of the relationship between CSR and consumer behaviour. Bronn andVrioni (2001) have explored how companies use CSR in their marketing communicationactivities and they have argued that the changing attitudes of customers have drivencompanies to find new ways of making marketing increasingly relevant to society.They cite survey work from the USA, which shows that when price and quality areperceived as equal many customers tend to favour socially responsible companies andproducts. That said Mohr et al. (2001) concluded that consumers’ beliefs about thevirtues of CSR are often inconsistent with their buying behaviour.

There is also growing interest in the ways in which CSR can build and enhancebrands and in what Blumenthal and Bergstrom (2003) have described as the“convergence of branding and Corporate Social Responsibility”. Middlemiss (2003), forexample, suggests that “CSR is taking centre stage to provide more sustainable, longterm brand value”. Bronn and Vrioni (2001) argue that “having a pro-social agendameans having a powerful marketing tool that can build brand image and brand equitysector” while Yan (2003) emphasises that CSR “marks the difference between brandsthat have captured the imagination of tomorrow’s consumers and those that areproving to be causalities’ and Klein and Dawar (2004) argue that marketing plays “arole in consumers’ brand and product evaluations”.

Ogrizek (2002) has argued that “CSR branding is of paramount importance to thefinancial sector” whilst in the retail sector Girod and Michael (2003) have stressed thatCSR can be a key tool to create, develop and sustain differentiated brand names”.Blomqvist and Posner (2004) suggest that there are three approaches to integrating“CSR with marketing namely the integrated, the selective and the invisible approaches.The first sees the brand and CSR operating synchronously and it works mostsuccessfully where responsible practices are seen to be key in driving brandpreferences. In the second CSR is said to manifest itself in very targeted ways and thatit can provide differentiation in a crowded marketplace. Third, while CSR plays animportant strategic role within the company it receives little attention in externalcommunications.

Hickie et al. (2005) observe that “the CSR movement has not yet articulated acoherent strategy for aligning social responsibility with the core objectives of corporatemanagement”. More specifically, in exploring the links between CSR and strategicmarketing the same authors argue that “CSR advocates” approach to customers hasnot always aligned with the interests of mainstream businesses’ and that if CSR is “tobecome integral to business” then companies must solve the “challenging marketingproblem” of moving “social responsibility into the mass market”. For the authors thisbegs the question “how can CSR make optimal use of marketing’s key elements ofproduct, price, place, promotion and packaging as it seeks to expand the appeal of

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products?” and leads them to recommend that “CSR marketing has to move. . . intoproduct-marketing strategies and tactics”. Within the UK over a third of all consumerspending takes place in retail outlets and thus retailers have a major role to play inmeeting this challenge.

Food retailing in the UKRetailing is a large, diverse and dynamic sector of the UK economy and Mintel (2004)estimate that food retailers account for half of all retail sales though they note that theterm “food retailer” is becoming increasingly inappropriate as the operators of majorstores increase their non-food offer. Mintel (2004) estimates that UK consumerspending on food and drink was running at £90.4 billion in 2004 with 61.1 per centbeing spent on foodstuffs, 8.7 per cent on non-alcoholic beverages, 13.3 per cent onalcoholic drinks and 16.9 per cent on tobacco. At the same time many, but not all, thelarge food retailers have been extending their product range to include a seeminglyever wider variety of goods and services which includes clothes, household goods,books and magazines, pharmaceutical products, music and videos, telecommunicationproducts and services and a growing range of financial services. During recent decadesfood retailing within the UK has become increasingly concentrated. The sale of foodby, and the numbers of, small independent retailers have declined and a very smallnumber of major players have taken an increasing market share. So much so that by2003 the top ten food retailers accounted for some 82 per cent of food sales and just fourretailers, namely Tesco, J. Sainsbury, Asda and Wm. Morrison Group, had a massive65.3 per cent market share (see Table I).

The CSR reports and information posted on the internet by the UK’s top ten foodretailers have been reviewed elsewhere by Jones et al. (2005). While the majority ofthese retailers produce substantial, detailed and dedicated CSR reports, someincorporate CSR information in their annual reports while others provide some limitedinformation on CSR issues on their general company web site. In 2004 Tesco, forexample, produced a 38-page “Corporate Responsibility Review” while similarly titledreports produced by Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and the Co-operative Group, forexample, ran to 42, 33 and 48 pages respectively and J. Sainsbury provide aninteractive web based report. Somerfield on the other hand devote four of its 17-pageAnnual Report and Accounts to CSR while ASDA, Iceland, Spar and the Wm Morrison

Company Market share (%)

Tesco 24.7J. Sainsbury 14.2Asda 13.3Wm Morrison Group 13.1Somerfield 4.5Marks & Spencer 3.3Co-operative Group 3.2Waitrose 2.5Spar UK 1.9Iceland 1.5

Source: Mintel (2004)

Table I.Top ten UK food retailers(2003)

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Group provide limited CSR information on their company web site. The leading foodretailers report on CSR issues under differing headings. J. Sainsbury, for example, usethe following headings “colleagues”, “community”, “customers”, “environment” and“suppliers”, Waitrose use “sourcing”, “customers and company”, “environment”, and“partners” while Marks & Spencer list “sustainable raw materials”, “responsible use oftechnology”, “animal welfare”, “ethical trading” and “community programmes” asprimary issues but also focus briefly on “products”, “people” and “places”.

The CSR reports posted on the internet tend to be primarily geared to shareholders,investors, consumer pressure groups and policy makers. This paper looks to offer aperspective on the ways in which the top ten retailers employ their CSR commitmentsas a means of marketing to, and communicating with customers, in stores. Moreparticularly, the paper reports the results from a simple “walk through” visualinspection and information collection survey conducted on June 8, 9 and 10 2005,undertaken in the largest store operated by each of the UK’s top ten food retailerslocated within the Cheltenham and Gloucester. The survey focused upon the extent towhich CSR themes were being used in marketing communications on banners andposters within the stores, on the shelves and shelf edges and on products themselveswhile the printed materials collected embraced information leaflets, promotional flyersand leaflets and company magazines.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) information within storesThe survey revealed considerable variation in the extent to which the top ten foodretailers used CSR themes to communicate with their customers within store. The onecommon general theme stressed, albeit in varying measure and in different ways, by allthe chosen retailers was value for money. In some companies’ stores this was oneelement within the use of CSR information while in others it was virtually the solevisible element. Price has always been one of the traditional elements within the retailmarketing mix but the top ten food retailers all stress their commitment to customersand to offering them value for money in the CSR information they post on the internet.Thus, Tesco’s 2004 CSR Review stressed the company’s commitment to offering“unbeatable value” cutting prices and while this is widely reflected in the Tesco storewith a variety of banners, posters and shelf edge stickers advertising price reductionsand “buy one get one free” offers other CSR issues were also employed in marketingcommunications within the store. By way of contrast advertising price and value offerswere very much the dominant CSR themes used within a number of stores.

Price and value apart three retailers, the Co-op, Waitrose and Tesco, made extensiveuse of CSR themes within their stores. Within the Co-op store, for example, CSR themesemployed included Fairtrade, support for local food producers, fitness and healthyeating, organic products, waste recycling, tackling anti-social behaviour and initiativessupporting the local community. The store had a number of large banners suspendedfrom the ceiling, which provide colourful examples of the company’s local/regionalsuppliers of fresh vegetables, breads and beers. A 16-page information booklet entitled“Local Harvest Update” supported this promotional material with features andphotographic images on twelve local food producers. The booklet emphasised that theLocal Harvest initiative “offers you the chance to buy great tasting products fromOxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-op’s trading area” and stresses that “whether youwant to support local farmers, help protect local jobs, reduce your impact on the

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environment or simply explore great tasting local ingredients, Local Harvest is thescheme for you”.

Fairtrade was also a prominent theme within the Co-op store. The store’s range ofFairtrade products were prominently shelf edge marked and the packaging around thecompany’s own brand Fairtrade products usually contained written and pictorialinformation about the producer. Once again, this information was re-enforced withpromotional leaflets and booklets. Here, the messages look to set the context forFairtrade products, provide profiles of individual growers, they stressed that whencustomers purchase Fairtrade products they “are investing in the lives of farmers andtheir communities in the developing world” and they emphasised that “Fairtrade isn’tjust a matter of quality or equality; it’s a matter of life or death”. The store also usedbanners and information leaflets to promote the Oxford, Swindon and GloucesterCo-op’s “Co-operative Community Dividend”. Under this scheme the Co-op emphasisedits commitment to the local community by donating a percentage of its profits tosupport local causes. Grants of up to £1,000 have been made to local football teams,recycling projects, dance groups, schools, sports clubs, allotment associations andsports groups.

The Waitrose store also emphasised a number of the company’s CSR themesincluding locally produced foods, organic produce, Fairtrade and ethical trading,healthy living and eating, food quality and labelling and free-range poultry production.Shelf edge marking and information leaflets are the principal methods used in store topromote these CSR themes but there was limited use of banners and posters.Information on the company’s Fairtrade and Organic ranges was particularlyprominent and detailed. The information leaflet on the “Organic and Free RangeColumbian Blacktail Eggs”, for example, noted that: “the birds are kept in small,purpose-built houses powered by wind and solar energy”, that “they are fed a naturalcereal-based diet, free from genetically modified ingredients and artificial yolkcolorants” that “the use of growth promoters is prohibited and the birds are raised inaccordance with the highest welfare standards”, and that “each farm receives regular,independent veterinary inspections and each bird’s health is carefully monitored”.

Many of the products in the company’s Fairtrade range carried information aboutthe producers on the packaging and an information leaflet offered customers detailsabout the Waitrose Foundation, which has been created to improve the lives andworking conditions of the farm workers who grow and pick citrus fruits for thecompany’s suppliers in South Africa. The Foundation’s partners, namely Waitrose, theimporters, export agents and the growers are working together on social, educationaland health projects for citrus farm workers.

Tesco was the third of the top ten food retailers to make extensive use of CSRthemes within the store. In the fresh food section close to the store’s entrance largebanners proclaimed that the company were supporting “British Produce” and much,though not all, of the organic produce was prominently shelf labelled. The packagingon some of the company’s Fairtrade products contained information on the producers.A series of “Healthy Living” leaflets focused on organic produce, staying fit and active,fat and salt levels in foodstuffs, sugar, calories, healthy eating for children andvegetarian eating and the promotion of Tesco’s Healthy Living Club. The leafletentitled “Kids: helping to make healthy eating child’s play”, for example, stressed that“at Tesco there’s all the food you need to give your kids a healthy diet”. And it includes

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small features entitled “Feeding children under 5”, “Give your child a healthy balanceddiet”, “The goodness of fruit and vegetables”, “Healthy drinks”, “The tasty healthylunchbox” and “subtle ways of introducing healthier food”. Notices behind the store’sfresh meat counter emphasised that all the meat sold in the store met specifiedstandards of animal welfare, stringent UK safety standards and current environmentallegislation.

Within the other seven stores surveyed the use of CSR themes was generally muchmore limited and much less prominent. Thus, while J. Sainsbury’s promoted its “ActiveKids” programme, which is designed to promote sport and leisure activities withinlocal schools, marking organic and Fairtrade products and its healthy food range withshelf edge labels, CSR themes were much less prominent than in the three storesdescribed earlier. The Morrison’s store announced “Breast Cancer” as its “Charity ofthe Year” at the store entrance and this was its only prominent CSR theme and Marks &Spencer marked its organic produce with shelf edge labels but made no other obvioususe of CSR themes within store. Iceland’s only reference to CSR was on the bannerswhich proclaimed “Food You Can Trust-All Iceland Brands Are Free From AllArtificial Colours and Flavours”, Asda provided some limited information on organicproducts and prominently shelf marked its Halal meat range while in the Spar andSomerfield stores the only acknowledgement of CSR centred on price reductions and“Buy One Get One Free” offers.

DiscussionThe findings of the exploratory survey undertaken in the top ten food retailers largeststores in Cheltenham and Gloucester in early June 2005 represents a snapshot of theuse of CSR themes in just two particular locations at a specific moment in time but itraises some issues which merit discussion. There is considerable variation in the extentto which the top ten food retailers were using CSR themes to communicate with theircustomers within the stores surveyed. In part this variation undoubtedly reflects theextent to which the retailers are currently committed to CSR and to reporting it withinthe public realm. However, while the Co-op, Tesco and Waitrose produced substantialand detailed CSR reports and used CSR themes extensively within store J. Sainsburyand Marks & Spencer also produced substantial and dedicated CSR reports but madeonly limited use of CSR themes within store. The other five of the top ten food retailershave published only limited CSR reports or information within the public realm and itis not surprising that they adopted a similar approach to CSR within store.

A number of factors may be important in explaining this variation and limited use.First, the variations may well reflect the extent to which the food retailers aregenuinely committed to CSR and to reporting it within the public realm. While the CSRreports and information made available within the public realm reflect the retailers’aspirations, such aspirations may not always be fully reflected in day-to-dayoperations within a fiercely competitive business environment. Second, retailers maybe unsure of the extent to which using CSR themes within stores will influenceconsumer buying behaviour in a positive manner and whether increased consumerawareness and understanding of social, environmental and economic impacts couldlead to changes in buying behaviour that could reduce the sales of some products andthus prove financially damaging to the company. Third, the limited use of CSR themesin marketing messages within store in Cheltenham and Gloucester may reflect

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Morsing’s (2003) findings from Denmark, which emphasised that communicating CSRis a delicate issue and that “it needs to be handled in a subtle manner that may provetraditional marketing and PR tools insufficient”.

CSR themes are used within store both to inform customers about specific productsand product ranges as well as to emphasise and enhance the company brand thoughthese two functions are inevitably intertwined. The product focus is predominantly onorganic and Fairtrade products, healthy living ranges and local produce. Informationprinted on product labels and packaging, shelf edge marking, information leaflets,banners and posters are used to communicate a variety of CSR marketing messages tocustomers. Where the food retailers looked to enhance their brand the focus waslargely, but not exclusively, on what might best be termed “community issues”,typically, support for local schools, local community groups and local food producers.

While some CSR themes were clearly used, often quite extensively, within storesothers received little or no attention. Surprisingly, environmental issues, which wereamongst the first sets of CSR themes to be reported by the major food retailers,received little explicit attention. The survey was conducted at a time when climatechange, for example, had rapidly risen up the political and media agenda within the UKbut there was little evidence that the top ten food retailers were keen to use eitherspecific information about energy use and/or vehicle emissions or their more generalperformance on environmental sustainability to communicate with their customers orto promote either products or their retail brand within stores.

As CSR increasingly pervades more sectors of the economy and of everyday life sofood retailers seem certain to continually review their public commitment to it and tomaking more extensive use of CSR themes within stores to market products and theirretail brands. Such an approach would certainly seem to be consistent with the claimssome of the top ten food retailers make that CSR is integral to the business and to theirbrand. It is also important to recognise that the customers most frequent, and perhapsin the majority of cases, their only interface with the retailer is in the store, so it is here,rather than on the company’s web site, that CSR messages can be most widelytransmitted.

In reviewing the changing role of CSR within their businesses food retailers will becommissioning and/or undertaking their own market research in an attempt to exploreto what extent the use of CSR themes within stores influences purchasing behaviour,builds retail brand loyalty and provides effective ways of communicating withcustomers. At the same time independent research might provide some broaderinsights into the relationships between CSR and consumer buying behaviour andmight allow more detailed comparisons between retailers. Here, one focus could be onthe ways in which CSR themes influence different customer segments while anothercould explore the effectiveness of different methods of promoting CSR themes withinstores. Academics may also be keen to continue to interrogate the general relationshipsbetween food retailers’ CSR aspirations and often-harsh realities at the operationallevel within stores.

A wider and deeper set of issues concerns the role of CSR in the debate within theUK about the concentration of power in the hands of a small number of food retailersand the impact this concentration is said to be having on a wide range of businessesand on communities and here the main emphasis is on reputation. Concerns about whatis perceived by some to be the damaging impact of the increasing concentration of

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retail power has been manifest in a variety of ways and from a number of sourcesincluding Friends of the Earth, The International Institute for Environment andDevelopment, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, the Federation of SmallBusinesses, the GMB trade union, The Association of Convenience Stores and theParliamentary All Party Small Shops Group. In November 2005 the former ChiefExecutive of the Office of Fair Trading, who headed a competition inquiry in 2000,which cleared the major food retailers of abusing their market position, called for a newinvestigation into the ways in which the leading food retailers dominate the market.

Concerns about the dominance of the major food retailers are hotly contested and anumber of them have sought to take steps to address such concerns and to participatein initiatives designed to communicate their social, environmental and ethical policiesand achievements and to emphasise their accountability and the transparency of theiractivities. While one such, initially high profile, initiative namely “Race to the Top”,established in 2000 prematurely ended in 2003 following the withdrawal of someretailers from it, the top ten food retailers are now increasingly filing CSR reportswithin the public realm. These reports are available to all stakeholders but they aregenerally targeted more at, and more likely to be read by, shareholders, investors,consumer pressure groups and policy makers rather than the general public. Ifconcerns about the concentration of power within the retail sector of the economybecome increasingly widespread amongst the general public then retailers may beincreasingly attracted to using CSR themes as a means of communicating directly withlarge numbers of customers and of enhancing their reputation with those customers.

ConclusionDuring recent decades large food retailers have been steadily increasing their marketshare and they have been very much at the cutting edge of retail development. Morerecently, growing public awareness of the often controversial economic, social andenvironmental impacts of their activities has seen a number of major food retailersemphasise and report their commitment to CSR as a means of addressing theseimpacts. This brief case study has revealed considerable variations in the extent towhich the UK’s top ten food retailers use CSR themes to communicate with theircustomers and to build retail brand awareness within stores. The major CSR themescurrently used within stores are organic and Fairtrade products, healthy living ranges,local produce and community issues. CSR information printed on product labels andpackaging, shelf edge marking, information leaflets, banners and posters are used tocommunicate CSR messages. Looking to the future if more of the leading food retailersseek to make increasing commitments to CSR then they may also look to harness itsmarketing communication potential within their stores.

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Corresponding authorPeter Jones can be contacted at: pjones@glos.ac.uk

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