CSR and Its Impact on Strategic Branding

Author: Prof Vatsala Bose

Co-Author: Prof Sunaina Sangwan

SIES College of Management Studies, Nerul

CSR

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is generally used to describe business’s efforts to achieve sustainable outcomes by committing to good business practices and standards.

• According to the definition of Angelidis and

Ibrahim (1993), corporate social responsibility is ‘corporate social actions whose purpose is to satisfy social needs’.

Branding

• Its the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product (good or service) / organization in the consumers’ mind, through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme or intensive marketing

Objectives

To analyze whether CSR activities help the organizations:

(i) To Brand itself

(ii) To differentiate from competitors and make a mark in the market

Methodology

• The Secondary Data of three different companies from different sectors that are Pharmaceuticals(Ranbaxy), Automobile(Tata) and Telecom(Bharti). Data is collected from websites and Journals.

• The Primary Data is collected with Telephonic Interview with Head HR of Bharti Airtel.

Limitations

• There is limited academic literature examining how organizations incorporate CSR activities into their brand. Future research needs to be undertaken to explore the facts.

Findings

• Indirectly CSR has helped the organizations to brand themselves in domestic and international arena.

• Positive CSR experiences build confidence and goodwill with stakeholders. Many organizations have developed clear CSR efforts as strategic branding and management approach in achieving a win-win outcome.

Conclusion

• CSR is welfare for society. India took along time to understand the welfare of Society, but still we are lacking behind.

• Consumers today are more sophisticated, becoming more selective and sensitive to a company’s image and CSR efforts. So, a distinctive CSR profile serves as a strategic branding tool.

References

Books:• Kevin Lane Keller , Building , Measuring,

and Managing Brand Equity Second Edition

• John R.SCHRMERHORN Introduction to Management

 • Philip Kotler Introduction to CSR Third

Edition 2009 Publication

ReferencesWebsites:•

Retrieved from http://www.ranbaxy.com/socialresposbility Topic Importance of CSR

• Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharti_Foundation CSR activites of Bharti Foundation

• Retrieved from www.bhartifoundation.org/.../bhartifoundation/BhartiFoundation/ Activites of Bharti Foundation

• Retrieved from http://timesfoundation.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1376265.cms CSR activites of TATA

• Retrieved from http://www.tata.com/article.aspx?artid=Rmjp4NJztqU

• Retrieved from www.mallenbaker.net/csr/definition.php• Retrieved from (

http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/10/sustainable-brands-seminar-series-opportunity-deeper/)

References

Journals:

• The Key to Successful Corporate Social Responsibility in India

• Journal of International Management Special Issue on CSR