De la marketingul social la responsabilitatea socială a companiei

Autori:

Alin Stancu, Academia de Studii Economice, Facultatea de Marketing,

alinstancu@mk.ase.ro

Mihai Ioan Roşca, Academia de Studii Economice, Facultatea de Marketing,

mirosca@ase.ro

Domeniul de specializare: Responsabilitate socială, etică şi protecţia consumatorului

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=994207

De la marketingul social la responsabilitatea socială a companiei

From social marketing towards corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Within the international literature there are presented various examples, of good

practices in terms of the implication of the companies in the community as well as several

negative examples such as the ENRON, NIKE case and others. The most recent negative case

in Romania is that of the company Ernst & Young.

Although in its declaration related to social responsibility the company Ernst &

Young stated that its main aim is the responsibility towards its employees through their

development in a flexible and friendly environment at the beginning of 2007 the company

was the subject of a public discreditation campaign, being accused of overloading the

personal, with job tasks that would have represented the cause out of which one of the

employee died.

The following paper is about the social responsibility of the company from a

marketing perspective, aiming at a conceptual delimitation of this field.

Keywords: social responsibility of a company, company social initiatives, societal marketing,

social marketing

JEL: M14, M31

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=994207

De la marketingul social la responsabilitatea socială a companiei

From social marketing towards corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Within the international literature there are presented various examples, of good

practices in terms of the implication of the companies in the community as well as several

negative examples such as the ENRON, NIKE case and others. The most recent negative case

in Romania is that of the company Ernst & Young.

Although in its declaration related to social responsibility the company Ernst &

Young stated that its main aim is the responsibility towards its employees through their

development in a flexible and friendly environment at the beginning of 2007 the company

was the subject of a public discreditation campaign, being accused of overloading the

personal, with job tasks that would have represented the cause out of which one of the

employee died.

The following paper is about the social responsibility of the company from a

marketing perspective, aiming at a conceptual delimitation of this field.

Keywords: social responsibility of a company, company social initiatives, societal marketing,

social marketing

JEL: M14, M31

American Association of marketing defines marketing as “Marketing is an organizational

function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to

customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and

its stakeholders”. Whereas in the definition from 1985 the stress was put on the elements

through which the science of marketing was manifested (goods, ideas and services) and

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having as objectives both the satisfaction of the needs of the consumers and the organization,

the last definition of AMA puts forward a new orientation of marketing.

This definition completes the old ones not only by bringing the perspective related to

the customer relationship management, but also by putting forward the concept of

stakeholder. In this way the company is responsible not only towards its clients but also

towards the other “interested persons.”

The concept of societal marketing was introduced for the first time by Kotler in 1972

in the prestigious publication Harvard Business Review. The initial definition of societal

marketing put forward by Kotler (1972) mentioned a new element for the marketing

specialists namely that the companies should have taken into account, besides the satisfaction

of the consumers needs and the maximization of profit also long-run consumer welfare.

In the 2000 millennium edition of his book Marketing Management, Kotler reworks

the definition put forward in 1972 by shifting from the long-run consumer welfare to society

welfare. Therefore societal marketing presupposes that the marketing specialists to build

social and ethical values in the practice of marketing (Kotler, 2000). (Thus, "the societal

marketing concept calls upon marketers to build social and ethical considerations into their

marketing practices" (Kotler, 2000, p. 25).

Abratt andSacks (1989) state the fact that the notion of societal marketing is not yet

widespread in the business language. There were other concepts that had a greater impact in

the business medium such as: social responsibility, ethic in business, corporate citizenship.

Even other terms from marketing like social marketing, green marketing, ethic marketing and

cause related marketing have received greater attention than societal marketing.

In Romania the term “societal” had problems in entering the academic and business

mediums. In the first edition, translated in 1997 in Romanian of the book, Marketing

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Management written by Kotler, the term societal was translated “social” keeping therefore

the confusion.

Social marketing as a specific field of applying marketing, was defined in 1971 by Kotler and

Zaltman as “it represents the design, implementation,

and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving

considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing

research.”(Kotler, Zaltman; 1971).

Kotler pays again attention to this definition(Stancu, 2007) and succeeds to clarify it adding

that social marketing is “made by nonprofit or guvernamental organisations in order to

promote a social cause” (Kotler, 2006).

All in all (Zaharia, 2002) it could be said, that social marketing is realized by social

organizations that desire the achievement of some social objectives.

According to Carroll (1983) “corporate social responsibility involves the conduct of a

business so that it is economically profitable, law abiding, ethical and socially supportive. To

be socially responsible then means that profitability and obedience to the law are foremost

conditions when discussing the firm’s ethics and the extent to which it supports the society in

which it exists with contributions of money, time and talent”.

The economic responsibilities of a company is to produce goods and services of value for

society so as that the company reward its creditors and stakeholders.

Legal responsibilities are those defined by the government through the legislation that

should be respected by the management of a company.

Ethical responsibilities of a company are elements that should be followed by the

management and are related to a certain mode of behavior in society

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Philanthropic responsibilities are strictly volunteer elements that a company assumes. The

pyramid put forward by Carroll could be considered an adaptation of the Maslow pyramid

related to the business medium. In this case it has only four layers.

Philanthropic responsibilities
To be a good corporate citizen.
To contribute with resources in
communities, to increase the
quality of life.

Ethical responsibilities
To be ethical.
The obligation to do what’s
good.

Legal responsibilities
To respect the law.

Economica responsibilities
To be profitable. It represents the base
of all those other components.

Caroll’s pyramid of social responsibility

Sursa: Carroll, A. B. 1991. The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility: Toward the

Moral Management of Organizational Stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34: 39-48.

In 1999, Caroll stated that “ the corporate social responsibility concept will remain as

an essential part of the language and practice of businesses. The author puts forward that this

domain is one extremely consistent and complex and in order to justify this argument, brings

forward the increasing pretensions of the communities towards the business sector. Kotler

(2002) defines the social responsibility of the company as « a commitment of the company to

increase the wellfare of the community by business practices and discretionary contributions

from company’s resources ». And because this definition could be considered too narrow,

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Kotler adds the fact that throught the welfare of the community he makes reference as well to

the stakeholders of the company (employees, etc) among other elements related to the

environment. These social initiatives of the company are the main instruments throught

which a company realizes the activities of social responsibility. The elements of social

initiatives of companies are :

• Cause Promotions

• Cause Related Marketing

• Corporate Social Marketing

• Corporate Philanthropy

• Community Volunteering

• Socially Responsible Business Practices

A Cause Promotion implies an action initiated by a company in order to support its growing

notoriété and its preoccupation for a social cause through supporting fundraising actions,

participation or recruitment of volunteers. The campaign could use as the instrument to

promot a cause: sponsorship or in-kind contributions. Within this context, a good example is

AVON company that choose to be active in the fight againt breast cancer. Starting from 1992

the cosmetic products company AVON Romania associated its name with a promotion of a

social cause, namely the fight against breast cancer. Starting from a medical reality related to

the fate of women, the breast cancer being the most frequent form of cancer among women,

the company devised a marketing program based on the promotion of this cause, having as

central element the fact that this form of cancer could be prevented and treated.

AVON company realized a series of activities in the society in order to promote this social

cause such as the campaign “one in eight women.” Besides this, the company started a series

of philanthropic actions consisting in donations dedicated to specialized hospitals. The results

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of the campaign surpassed the proposed objectives: 87% notoriety of the company from 57%,

the value of the funds raised was with 40% greater than the previsions.

Cause Realated Marketing it's a type of social responsibility program through which

a company decides to donate a certain amount of money for a social cause which depends on

the turnover realized in a certain period. The marketing related to a cause makes a link

between the company and that specific cause or a nonprofit organization which is afiliated to

that cause(Trimble, 2006).

In 2005 Vodafone initiated in partnership with the Association Mare Nostrum the program

"Clean Seaside". The aim of this program was to stimulate an ecologic behavior and to bring

forwars the importance of a cleaner environment. The idea for the project was inspired by the

situation of the beaches from the Romanian seaside during summertime, where a lot of waste

from the tourists is accumulated, especially plastic. This pollution has negative consequences

for the environment, for the tourists comfort and for the economic potential of the area. In

Romania there is not yet a culture of recycling, not to mention the selective collection of

waste. Therefore the importance of recycling for the protection of the environment is

neglected. The main activities of the project where to put trash bins for selective collection of

trash. In 2005 the number of such trash bins was 300, and in 2006 the number increased to

450. (according to the website: www.responsabilitatesociala.ro)

Corporate Social Marketing it's a way throgh which a company tries to change a

negative behavior and to convince the public to adopt a positive one. Althought within the

program strategies aiming to increase the information and education level are used, the main

aim is represented by the changement of behavior.

Colgate company has launched a compain to change the behavior of the citizens,

related to dental hygiene. Throught this campaign Colgate was not interested in maximizing

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the selling for its own product, but rather in developing the market for toothpaste in Romania

because the consumed toothpaste level in Romania was the lowest in the European Union.

Corporate Philantropy it's a direct contribution of a company to a collecting fond or

to a cause, with money or products. Corporate Philantropy could be defined as an act from

the company to donate a share of its resources or profit for a nonprofit cause or to a nonprofit

organization (Milam, 2005 quoted it in Wymer, 2006).

Community Volunteering It is a type of initiative through which a company

encourages its employees, collaborators to act as volunteers for the community. This form of

social responsibility is widespread in the educational sector (universities). Many times

company representatives are coming to teach seminars pro bono for students.

Socially Responsible Business Practices are initiatives of the companies through

which these adopt and manage discretionary practices of business and investments that

support social causes in order to improve social welfare and for the protection of the

environment.

An important element to be analyzed is the level of financial social involvement of the

companies. The Donors’ Forum a nongovernmental organization from Romania, with

branches in other countries, have realized a classification of the first ten companies that

invest in society in Romania, Hungary, Cehia and Slovakia.

Corporate philantrophy in România ( EUR)

BRD – Group Societe General 1.300.000,00

GlaxoSmithKline 562.927,00

Zentiva 362.401,00

A&D Pharma 209.100,00

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Commercial Bank HVB 200.000,00

IMPACT 110.000,00

Ductil 67.500,00

Lindab 65.000,00

Ozone Laboratories 50.000,00

Arctic 37.000,00

Total TOP 10 2.963.928,00

Corporate philantrophy in Cehia (EUR)

ČEZ 7.470.263,00

Česká pojišsťovna (Czech Insurance Company) 5.535.714,00

Mittal Steel Ostrava 4.148.918,00

Česká spořitelna 1.816.464,00

Johnson&Johnson 1.368.233,00

Philip Morris Czech Rep. 1.166.523,00

RWE Transgas 1.071.428,00

Telefónica CZ 1.022.069,00

Komerční banka 1.020.714,00

Československá obchodní banka 978.571,00

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Total TOP 10 25.598.897,00

Corporate philantrophy in Slovakia (EUR)

Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (Slovak Gas Industry) 1.367.982,30

Železiarne Podbrezová (Ironworks Podbrezová) 775.404,28

Slovak Telekom 319.623,97

Tipos, národná lotériová spoločnosť (National Gambling 274.060,32

Company)

Tesco Stores SK 225.265,12

GlaxoSmithKline Slovakia 196.416,00

Matador 154.302,50

Východoslovenská energetika (East Slovakia Energetic 73.832,83

Company)

Chemkostav 67.925,00

Continental Matador 55.000,00

Total TOP 10 3.509.812,32

Corporate philantrophy in 2006 in Hungary (EUR)

MOL Magyar Olaj és Gázipari 1.755.725,00

Alcoa Köfém 1.225.191,00

Ericsson Hungary 763.359,00

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Pannon GSM 732.825,00

Chinoin Gyógyszer 503.817,00

Vodafone Hungary 342.367,00

Mátrai Erőmű 324.428,00

Philip Morris Hungary 267.176,00

Porsche Hungary 229.008,00

Auchan Hungary. 209.924,00

Total TOP 10 6.353.820,00

Source Forumul Donatorilor www.donorsforum.ro

This chart demonstrates the fact that in Romania the implication of the companies in

community life is relatively reduced compared with Hungary, Slovalia or Cehia. At the same

time this analysis could show a certain tendency that would be manifested in relation to the

field of social responsibility of the company in our country. As long as the activities of these

companies would spread, and the economy would develop it is normal that the investments in

the community to grow. However, the companies should determine the level at which the

investments in the community could bring the best economic efficiency. Therefore, in some

countries in which the economy has reached a certain level of maturity, like the USA,

researchers bring in the discussion the necessity to determine a model in order to calculate

the efficiency of the social responsibility activities.

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