Corporate Social Responsibility as an International Marketing Approach

Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The purpose of this paper Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as an International Marketing Approach is to identify an approach to merchandize corporate social responsibility on an international level. Solely promoting a company s CSR initiatives and its philosophy globally has not yet been attempted. My intention is to illustrate the possibilities of promoting CSR internationally, due to the fact of the rising interest in the subject and the resulting pressure from the outside world. To pursue this goal, general information about corporate social responsibility will have to be illustrated, along with two basic examples at the beginning, so the reader can understand the main framework of CSR. It is shown how companies can evaluate the potential that lie behind the implementation, demonstrating benefits for the company itself and other parties that can profit from CSR initiatives. Is CSR a product, a service or non of it? Is it possible to promote it as a whole? If not, how can something that is not a product or service be merchandized? These questions will be answered during the course of the paper. Possible problems of this approach during the analysis will be illustrated and swept aside with countermeasures. To demonstrate the possibilities of using CSR as an international marketing tool, the aspects which can be of use to this approach will be identified. The approaches are underlined by examples making it easier for the reader to follow. Moreover parallels of CSR aspects will be demonstrated to clarify the similarities between them. It has to be mentioned as well that there are approaches by companies to mislead consumers with false claims for their own profit. But countermeasures against these black sheep have been taken and the result will be revealed. What role does marketing really play for CSR? The relationship between a company s CSR philosophy and its possible marketing approaches involve different kinds of commitment which will be looked at in detail. But companies also have the possibility to find prominent partners for their efforts to show their social involvement. As a consequence several parties can profit from it due to mutual engagement and goals. In today s times in which globalization plays a big role, a company s CSR initiatives cannot be kept solely on a small scale but must be transferred onto an international level. The question how CSR aspects can be merchandized globally will [...]