Abstract
Today many companies communicate their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities via huge advertising campaigns, demonstrating to be a “good company" to their stakeholder groups. For instance, Pepsi’s “Refresh Project" gained attention when the company passed up running a commercial during the Super Bowl 2010 and spend the millions saved to a CSR campaign. In grants every month they spend $ 1.3 million to fund public-selected ideas which will "refresh our world" (Forbes, 2010). Coca-Cola invests lots of money in CSR campaigns, for example they included on their iconic red cans a seasonal white polar bear in order to raise awareness and money for the World Wildlife Fond. Furthermore, they sponsored the so-called ’red dress campaign’ with Heidi Klum for women’s heart health (Diet Coke, 2012). Moreover, almost every automotive manufacturer invests in "blue efficiency” (e.g., Volkswagen’s ”Golf Blue-e-motion”). By doing so, companies hope to improve their corporate image and increase consumer purchase intentions as well as their willingness to pay more money for the company’s products.
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Fit is the perceived context between CSR activity and product, corporate image, corporate positioning and/or target group (Varadajan and Menon, 1988).
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Brunner, C., Esch, FR., Kinscher, N. (2012). Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility: Empty Promises or Smart Strategy?. In: Eisend, M., Langner, T., Okazaki, S. (eds) Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. III). European Advertising Academy. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-4291-3_9
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