session 1, pomering, johnson & noble
TRANSCRIPT
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Manipulating message variables for best practice in advertising CSR
Alan Pomering Lester W. JohnsonGary Noble
CSR Communication, Amsterdam, 2011
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Introduction
An investigation of two message variables believed necessary for effective advertising about CSR initiatives:
Social topic information CSR Commitment information
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Literature Review
Increasing stakeholder expectation for CSR
Consumers report such information will influence their purchase behaviour (Cone/Echo, 2011)
– “Consumers globally believe companies have an explicit responsibility to change the world.” – 10,000 consumers in 10 countries
Consumer responsibility can influence the fate of individual firms, but also the direction of industries and economies (Hansen and Schrader,1997)
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Communicating CSR because…
Offers a new frontier of competitive advantage (Becker-
Olsen, Cudmore, and Hill, 2006; Pirsch, Gupta, and Landreth Grau, 2007) Enhance brand differentiation (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001) Brand equity (Hoeffler and Keller, 2002) Competitive advantage (Porter and Kramer, 2002) Customer loyalty (Bhattacharya and Sen 2003; Maignan, Ferrell
and Hult, 1999) Superior financial performance (Orlitzky, Schmidt, and
Rynes, 2003)
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CSR-based Marcoms Examples
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But
“If consumer response to CSR was reliable and strong, most companies would have embraced the concept by now”
(Mohr and Webb, 2005, p. 124)
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Research Problem
Firms want to inform key audiences (e.g. consumers) about their CSR initiatives
Using corporate image advertising Obstacles to effectiveness
– E.g. Scepticism/cynicism
How to improve effectiveness?
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Scepticism a Problem
Scepticism hinders persuasion Firms typically fail to specify the impact of their CSR
achievements, preferring vague or abstract claims instead (Pracejus, Olsen, and Brown, 2003/4)
Self-promoter’s paradox (Ashforth and Gibbs, 1990) Cognitive response theory (Wright, 1973) and social
judgment theory (Eagly &Chaiken, 1993) CSR claims are typically credence information
situations (Darby and Karni, 1973), so trust is important
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Inhibiting Scepticism
Through the message?
An experimental test
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Hypotheses
Social topic information H1: Social Topic Information should interact with (and
contextualise) CSR Commitment information to reduce scepticism
CSR Commitment information H2: Should have a main effect on scepticism toward
CSR advertising claims - greater specificity should reduce scepticism
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Our Approach
Unknown brand
Global arms trade (social issue)
Message elements:– Social topic – CSR Commitment
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Manipulating Message Variables
3 levels of Social Topic
3 levels of CSR Commitment
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Method Scenario: a UK bank considering entering the Australian market Between-subjects design 3x3 full factorial design N=417 (18 years +) from an online consumer panel Pre- and post-exposure questions Effects of Ad Skepticism, Product Category Attitude (x2: Banks
and Arms trade), and CSR Attitude removed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA)
Manipulation checks * Qs counter-balanced
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Method: Dependent Variable
Scepticism toward CSR ad claims (4-item scale)– One item from Forehand and Grier’s (2003) firm evaluation
scale, “Premier seems like the kind of bank I can trust.”– Two items from Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen’s (2007) CSR
beliefs scale: “I think Premier is a socially responsible business.” and “Premier has had real impacts through its initiatives against the arms trade.”
– A fourth item was added which not only investigates overall belief but also situates Premier Bank within its competitive set: “Premier seems like the sort of bank I can believe.”
All items were measured on a seven-point scale (Strongly disagree/Strongly agree), and showed a PCA univariate solution, with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93, with item loadings ranged from 0.89 to 0.94
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Results
No interaction effect observed (F=0.67; df=2; p=0.51)
H1 could not be supported
Main effect of CSR Commitment information was statistically significant (F=3.38, df=2; p=0.04)
H2 supported
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Discussion
Social topic information’s role is likely issue-dependent (familiarity and attitude important)
Consumer scepticism can be inhibited with more specific message content (rather than information on policies)
An intuitive result
Question of message framing through image
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Limitations
A single case (product, issue)
Unknown brand
Extreme social issue
Australian marketplace
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Future Research
Check known brands
Good v. bad company reputation
Range of CSR issues
Role of image frame
Current work
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Questions
Thank you for your attention!