Nowadays, there are no distinction between doing business
and doing good. These two concepts must be coherent when companies engage to
CSR activities. According to Maon et al. (2009) the implementation process of
CSR is hard and complicated. Especially, communication of CSR seems to be the
hardest at this process. Companies must communicate with relevant stakeholder
groups. For a long term success it is needed to build corporate image, improve
the corporate relationships with stakeholders and enhance advocacy behaviors of
stakeholders. Corporations must increase the awareness of stakeholders in order
to build favorable attitudes. For this purpose communication is essential to
companies (Du, et al., 2010; Schmeltz, 2012).
It is appropriate to give the definition of communication
first. According to Belch & Belch (2009) communication is defined:
―Passing of information, the exchange of ideas, or the
process of establishing a commonness or oneness of thought between a sender and
a receiver‖ (Belch, Belch, 2009, pg. 145). Based on the definition, there must
be a common thinking between the participants –corporation and its
stakeholders- of the communication activity.
Experts
have realized that building good relationships with customers is beyond
developing a good/quality product, pricing it attractively and making it easily
accessible to the target customer. It is also essential to communicate the
value propositions to customers (Kotler, Armstrong, 2010, pg. 426). In order to
develop an effective communication strategy, all of the communication
activities must be well organized and blended into the integrated marketing
communications (IMC) program. Through IMC program marketers and advertising
agencies can control all promotional activities: advertising,
direct marketing, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations to
produce customer-focused promotional strategy. Besides they offer total
communication solutions to the companies in order to create and sustain
relationships between companies or brands and their customers (Belch, Belch,
2003; Kotler, Armstrong, 2010; Kurtz, Boone, 2011).
Message and
channel are the two key factors in creating communication strategy towards
their target audience. Message must be compatible with the organizational
values. Likewise CSR efforts of the firm must be compatible with the core
organizational values.
There must be a fit between the perceived message and corporation‘s perceived
value by consumers. If the fit is at high level, consumer skepticism is low and
the vice versa. In case of low fit; high consumer skepticism occurs,
perceptions of corporate credibility, corporate position and purchase intention
diminishes (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006). Consequently, the fit between
organizational core values and the social efforts that company engages is
critical for consumer skepticism. If consumers perceive the message that
company is not trustworthy with the adopted social effort than corporate
credibility will be affected negatively and consumers will be skeptical towards
the company. This harms to build and enhance the relationship with consumers
which are the aim of communication strategy (Du et al., 2010).
Channel,
the other key factor in developing communication strategy, can be defined as ―the
method by which the communication travels from the source or sender to
receiver‖. Basically, there are two types of communication channels: personal
and non-personal. Personal channels of communication are direct interpersonal
(face-toface) contact with target individuals or groups. Salespeople are the
example of personal channels of communication. Companies convey their messages
to their customers or buyers through salespeople. Friends, family, neighbours,
colleagues are also personal channels. Non personal channels of communication
are those carry a message without interpersonal contact between sender and
receiver. It refers to as the mass media or mass communications, since the
message is sent to many individuals at one time. Nonpersonal channels of
communication consist of two major types, print and broadcast. Print media
include newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and billboards; broadcast media
include radio and television (Belch, Belch, 2009). Information about CSR
activities of the corporation can be transmitted to customers through these
varieties of channels. For example, a company can communicate through official
documents such as annual reports or press releases, the dedication of a section
on its official website to the CSR, TV commercials, magazine or billboard
advertisements and product packaging to communicate its CSR efforts (Du.,
Bhattacharya, Sen, 2010). Companies can use a combination of these channels in
order to communicate their CSR activities. For example, ETİ developed a project
with Active Leaving Association (Aktif Yaşam Derneği) which is named ―Yellow
Bicycle‖ (Sarı Bisiklet). The aim of the project is to create awareness for a
healthier life by cycling. ETI has released a TV commercial, dedicated a
section for the project on the website and developed a website saribisiklet.com/.
There are many factors that are
changing the ways of today‘s marketing communications. Consumers are changing.
However, the prominent changes occur in technology and internet. Improvement of
technology and internet created new opportunities to companies to communicate
with their consumers. As mass marketing once gave rise to a new generation of
mass-media communications, the new digital media have given birth to a new
marketing communications model (Drury, 2008; Kotler, Armstrong, 2010).
New media differs from
traditional media in some aspects. For example, it is not only controlled by
marketers, but also the consumers can control the message. The message
sometimes can be consumer generated and consumers can control the content of
the communication. Based on the literature the new media provides an
opportunity for two-ways communication between companies and its consumers or
consumers to consumers. Interactivity is the distinguishing and prominent
characteristic of the new media. As it is mentioned above among the traditional
tools of marketing, social channels of marketing such as friends, colleagues,
family, etc. are member of personal channel of marketing and they generate a
powerful resource of information. This is also known word-of-mouth (WOM)
communication and it has a strong effect on corporate credibility, corporate
reputation and consumer attitudes.
However WOM communication is not only limited with the traditional
marketing tools, the new media provides a broad possibility to WOM
communication by interactivity characteristic (Belch, Belch, 2009; Varnalı,
2013; Drury, 2008).
As a consequence, corporations
can develop CSR strategies as they corporate goal however they have to share it
with their target and potential consumers. They need communicate with their
consumers about their CSR practices otherwise those efforts have been put by
companies will not be known by the consumers. Target consumers and potential
consumer will not be aware of the company/brand. So, corporations must plan
their marketing communications strategy carefully. Another point which is
important in marketing communications strategy is the communication tool.
According to literature, with the development of technology marketing
communications restricted with the traditional advertising tools such as
commercials and advertising. The modern tools of marketing communications are
much more effective and have lots of benefits to marketers. Marketers can
develop an effective communication strategy through the combination of these
traditional and modern tools.
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