Sotsiaalse suunitluse mõju turunduses ettevõtte kuvandile Elioni, Hansapanga ning Selveri näitel

Date

2007

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

Citation