Socially important issues in brand communications: aspects of the influence and contribution to the brand equity

Student: Syagina Irina

Educational Programme: Master

Year of Graduation: 2014

Nowadays society is more concerned with socially important issues, the social responsibility of the company and the brand has been widely considered topic. The problem of this study is insufficient knowledge about the use and implementation of socially important issues in brand communications, including their impact and contribution to the brand equity.The aim of this work – to study the impact of socially important issues in brand communications for consumers and their contribution to the brand equity by the example of brands operating in the market of FMCG-products. The additional aim was to study the impact of the impact of socially important issues on staff in the B2C and B2B market (in this work employees were considered as consumers of company by extension), as well as contribution to the brand equity of considered brands.In accordance with the aim of the work following objectives were determined:1)    to define the essence of the CSR concept (as a concept from which subsequently the use of socially important issues in brand communications was determined) and tools for its implementation;2)    to identify the specificity of the brand social responsibility, its reflection in brand communications;3)    to form a field of socially important issues used and unused by brands in their communications on FMCG-market;4)    to identify the reasons for selecting certain socially important issues used by brands considered in this work;5)    to describe the specifics of social responsibility using by Russian companies;6)    to determine the nature and characteristics of the impact of socially important issues using by considered brands in their communications to the target audience, including staff, and contribution to the capital of these brands;7)    to compare the results of the using of socially important issues in communications by brands considered in this work that operate in the B2C and B2B markets;8)    to develop recommendations on the use of socially important issues in communications by brands, including brands considered in this work.For the literature review in this paper was used analysis of domestic and foreign theoretical sources. The data used in the analytical part of the paper were collected using desk research, analysis of practical examples (case studies), media monitoring, expert interviews and formalized survey (online). Such methods, as comparative analysis and factor analysis were also used.The empirical base of the research were:–   corporate reports of Nielsen social activities implementation for 2011-2013;–   materials from corporate websites of Unilever and Nielsen;–   base of collected cases about using socially important issues by brands in the FMCG market (20 cases);–   base of cases about social responsibility practice by Russian companies collected through media monitoring (were analyzed 28 articles);–   results of the expert interviews with Nielsen and Dove managers;–   results of the formalized survey of Dove target audience, Unilever's staff and personnel of Nielsen.Based on the desk research we revealed the positive impact of the use of socially important issues in brand communications on consumer behavior and positive contribution to the brand equity, but the results of empirical research, where Nielsen and Dove were selected for the analysis, have not confirmed this fact completely. Despite the positive attitude toward the brand used socially important issues (affective level; brand associations, brand awareness), the level of consumer awareness (cognitive level) in the FMCG-market on socially important brand policy was low, moreover, consumers are not willing to do anything for social responsible brand, they are not ready to switch, to pay a higher price, to make repeat purchase, to act as a volunteer (behavioral level; brand loyalty). Using of socially important issues by brand was insignificant factor when choosing a product (perceived quality of the brand).

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