Appropriate marketing strategies for Corporate Social Investment in South Africa
Date
2014-02-19
Authors
Petzer, Sean
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Abstract
The new South Africa presents vast opportunities for companies and people. At the same time, there are significant societal needs and in an attempt to alleviate them, companies devise Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives. Often these initiatives are carried out by companies under duress, or at least reluctantly, in response to legal and consumer pressure. In many cases, the initiatives are implemented to generate support from investors and from the market in which the company operates. In most cases, CSI is perceived as an obligation and an imposition; moreover, it is not seen as exhilarating or interesting when compared to marketing. Therefore, CSI is often unkempt or given little attention and a small budget.
Sports and affinity marketing are well known global practices that operate with huge budgets and teams in order to create brand awareness, brand loyalty and affiliation for the brands; these practices support popular sporting events, teams and players, as well as good causes. All these activities and their budget spend are for the good of the company and ultimately, higher profit, which is a priority for any company.
There is a very real need to identify a way of generating greater support for and investment into CSI that makes it worthwhile for companies as well as being more beneficial for CSI initiatives. The author believes that there is an imbalance of funds in South Africa, a country and economy in dire need of major development and growth support at the grass roots level. Therefore, the author investigates if there are strategies and techniques used by sports and affinity marketing that can be applied to CSI in order to achieve a company’s primary marketing objectives concerning their brands and image. The author asks that whether common elements between marketing and CSI could be identified: if so, could CSI then learn from and apply marketing techniques and strategies in a manner that also benefits the company’s primary needs on a much larger scale?
The research described in this report was qualitative in nature. An explanatory interview using a questionnaire was conducted after selecting a sample of the South African media with specific focus on Primedia.
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The author concluded that it is possible to apply marketing tactics, techniques, processes and methods quite successfully in order to achieve the objectives of the CSI initiative, as well as basic marketing objectives such as brand awareness, brand loyalty and improvement of image. However, it was concluded that this outcome may be short-lived and the good perception of the company and its brand image may be tarnished if it is perceived or proven that the company is manipulating and exploiting the CSI initiative for the company’s own purposes.
Therefore, CSI should be set apart from marketing and should have its own budget, team and infrastructure, in a well-co-ordinated operation, well supported by top management and if possible, aligned with key market initiatives in order to ensure long-term and effective CSI implementation.
If managed properly, the long-term positive impact of CSI on a company’s brand and image and overall goodwill will be significant, worthwhile, and easily sustainable.
Description
MBA thesis
Keywords
Corporate social investments, Marketing