An Analysis on the Public Perception of the Tobacco Industry's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Marketing Communications

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: ‘Tobacco companies strive for the status of good corporate citizens. However, they need to accept that they are fighting on a different legitimacy battlefield: they practice CSR for the mere right to exist.’ (Palazzo & Richter, 2005) When scanning the trends within the business environment throughout the past decade, a concept that has gained much attention is the increasing involvement of companies in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Companies started to increasingly address and demonstrate their commitment to CSR, yet many businesses struggle with this effort (Lindgreen & Swaen, 2010). More than ever before, corporations are investing a tremendous amount of resources in various social and environmental initiatives (Du et al., 2010). This trend illustrates that nearly 90% of all current Fortune 500 companies explicitly address CSR initiatives and there is an increasing number of companies that report and communicate their CSR involvement (Kotler & Lee, 2005; Crane et al., 2009). CSR as an academic theory and business tool has emerged as a consequence of corporate scandals due to an increasing number of unsafe products, environmental pollution, accounting frauds etc, and brought forward by transnational corporations’ realization to account for and redress their adverse impact on society (Hirschorn, 2004). Another driving force for companies’ CSR engagement is the increasing interest of the public in knowing what company stands behind the products and brands they market, using this knowledge to reward ‘good’ and punish ‘bad’ companies (Bowd and Harris, 2006). In a research conducted by Cone (2007), 87% of American consumers are likely to prefer a brand that is linked with a good cause (Du et al., 2010), which implies a common need for companies to address and communicate CSR related initiatives. Whereas many companies rely on proactive CSR communication, for instance cause related marketing strategies such as Krombacher Beer’s Klimaschutz Projekt, or CSR integrated advertising messages like BP or EON, a great number of companies trust in a more inward CSR communication through e.g. its corporate websites with the focus to inform mainly non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) or other specific stakeholder groups (Hirschland, 2005). This divergence with respect to approaches and adapting CSR communication appears to arise from a perceived sensitiveness of the CSR issue as well as a general ambiguity and lack of [...]