Reputation & CSR: Learning from case-studies

1. Selling to the Unconvinced
Marketing Socially Responsible Products
Ingrid Davis MA, MBA
(MVG Medienproduktion, Aachen, Germany)

2. Research Questions
 Are consumers  What concepts and
interested in factors constitute
socially responsible viable grounds for
companies and the successful
their products? development of
What are their marketing
priorities? strategies for
socially responsible
products (SRP)?

3. Consumer Interest in SRP / Consumer
Behaviour

4. Ethical Consumers -
Really?
Social Desirability Bias
Research setups not relating
significantly to the object of
study
Assumption that attitudes /
intentions or professed
behaviour predict actual
behaviour

5. Consumers don‘t
care

6. Consumer Survey 2009 (Havas
Media)
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Claim to reward CSR Prepared to pay more

7. Repr. Panel Study 2009 (Online)
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Approve of Corporate Main Purchasing
Social Behaviour Criterion: Price

8. Consumers‘ Actual Priorities
Convenience
Price
Quality
Brand Familiarity
Trends
Brand Image

9. Consequences
 Marketing to the Mainstream
 Marketing
based on features salient to
consumers

10. Consumer Behaviour
 Mostly inconsistent
 Strongly
determined by conditions of
purchasing situation
 Consequences:
Study purchasing situation
Robust retail and distribution strategies

11. Purchasing Criteria
 Differwidely between product sectors ->
contingency approach
 Peattie‘s matrix:
Variable 1: degree of compromise involved
Variable 2: degree of confidence generated
in [ethical] benefits of particular product
 Meyer: Cost-Benefit-Analysis

12. Toeholds
 Self-Interest
 Perceived customer effectiveness
(PCE)

13. Marketing / Advertising
 Full
range of marketing instruments
rather than relying solely on labels
Advertising:
 MECCAS model (Kärnä et al)
 Emotional appeals rather than
information (Picket-Baker and Ozaki)

14. Marketing Online
 Empowerment of the consumer: The
power to determine what they want to
see
 No Interest  No Search  No Hits
 Findsalient features to put SRP in the
way of consumer searches on the web
 No Salience  No Hits  No Sales

15. Future Research

16.  Focus on the purchase rather than the
purchaser.
 Interpretive paradigm = recognition
and integration of the social functions /
aims / determinants of consumption.
 A systematic investigation into
appropriate research methodologies.

17.  Investigation
of robustness of product
sectors as a classification criterion for
marketing strategies.
 Develop SRP-retail and distribution
strategies selling to the mainstream
rather than the happy few – from
corporate strategies down to the very
details of POS promotion.

18.  Common denominator of all marketing
research activities = salience to
consumers.
 Insights needed into:
 context-specific and situational
priorities
 perceived costs and benefits
 salient themes, topics and features
usable in communication and
advertising campaigns.

19.  SRP-marketing research has to put a
stronger focus on new communication
technologies and how they are used
by ‘ordinary shoppers’.
 Without structured and robust
investigations in this area, SRP
marketing will miss the train into
the future.

20. Thank You!