Sotsiaalse suunitluse mõju turunduses ettevõtte kuvandile Elioni, Hansapanga ning Selveri näitel
Date
2007
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis was to study the effect of social marketing campaigns
on consumers’ perception of firms. Also, consumers’ interpretation of companies’ social-
oriented marketing activities were studied. The research is based on three Estonian
companies’ cause-related marketing campaigns.
The research was conducted in two parts. The first part was an experiment where 60
students from Tartu were divided into two comparable groups, based on three
sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age and the field of study). For the experiment, the
students first filled in a questionnaire about their perceptions about Elion (a
telecommunications company), Hansapank (the biggest commercial bank in Estonia) and
Selver (a retail supermarket chain). Then, the respondents were shown six print-
advertisements, two of each company’s. The control group was shown a total of six
commercial advertisements, two from each company. The test group saw three cause-
related advertisements and three commercial advertisements, one of both types from each
company. After showing the advertisements, both groups continued filling in the
questionnaire, answering questions about each company’s characteristics and whether
they agree with certain statements about those companies. The purpose was to measure
the effect of the social marketing campaign on test group respondents, when they were
reminded of the campaign with ads.
In the second part of the research, interviews were conducted with three students who
belonged to the test group. During the interview the students were asked about their
perceptions and feelings about companies’ social marketing campaigns and their opinion
about the motives of companies’ social-oriented activities.
Although it’s questionable whether the impact of media messages can be adequately
measured, still, some conclusions can be drawn from the study: the impact of social
marketing on company’s image is conditional, depending on prior knowledge about the
company’s contributions to the social sphere. It also depends on many personality-driven
and situative factors. However, a small positive change in the test group’s perceptions towards these companies occured. Also, the test subjects didn’t emphasize adjectives that
are associated with social dimension. Instead they found generally positive adjectives
more characteristic to the companies that were studied. When seeing the cause-related
advertisement for the first time, no impact on perceptions occurs, but the person will most
probably notice and memorize the information about the firms’ contributions to the social
sphere. Although it seems that consumers in general are not familiar with the firms’
social marketing activities, they have positive attitudes towards it. What is more,
consumers have no illusions about firms’ motives, interpreting them as a way for
companies to earn profit. The consumers do not sense the connection between cause-
related marketing and corporate social responsibility, the reason for it might be that social
responsibility as a topic is new for them and they cannot think of, or make, any kind of
associations in that context.
In the future a nationwide research about the impact of social marketing among
consumers should be conducted, because there are no previous data about the topic in
Estonia.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd, ettevõtted, turundus, sotsiaalne turundus, sotsiaalne vastutus, sotsiaalreklaam, Selver (kauplustekett), Hansapank, Elion