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Unlocking Corporate Social Responsibility Through Integrated Marketing Communication

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Abstract

The stakeholder awareness of the CSR policies and practices could result in strategic and financial benefits for the businesses themselves. Therefore, companies’ marketers need to possess a thorough understanding on their stakeholders as this will impact on the effectiveness of their CSR communications. The value of their communications platform lies in their ability to open up lines of dialogue with varied stakeholders through stories and ideas that will reflect their interests. Hence, CSR communications could enrich how stakeholders interact with the business and its offerings. This engagement helps the business to improve its customer relationships, by lowering acquisition costs whilst improving on their consumers’ trust and loyalty among other benefits. Notwithstanding, a genuine commitment to ongoing CSR communications may also result in stronger employee engagement. Therefore, the corporate communications on environmental and social matters could create a win-win situation for the business and its stakeholders.

Parts of this chapter have appeared in Camilleri, M.A. (2016) Unlocking Corporate Social Responsibility through Digital Media. In Lindgreen, A., Vanhamme, J., Maon, F. and Watkins, R. (eds) The Use and Effectiveness of CSR Communication through Digital Platforms. Gower Publishing (Forthcoming).

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Camilleri, M.A. (2017). Unlocking Corporate Social Responsibility Through Integrated Marketing Communication. In: Corporate Sustainability, Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46849-5_3

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