Strategies moulding brand reputation building in the early 21st century

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, the changing political, economic and social environment and globalisation have contributed to change business behaviour in South Africa. Nowadays, business strategies are built alongside sustainable business goals, with renewed emphasis on quality and brand reputation management. Business intelligence (BI) systems and research demand show clear emphasis on customer brand franchising and brand citizenship in particular. Brands are no longer used only as marketing communication tools. Nowadays, brand companies seem well aware of stakeholders’ concerns with non-financial business aspects and are responding through re-branding, improved customer relations and good corporate citizenship behaviour. Consequently, direct customer feedback via customer satisfaction and franchise-building research, as well as corporate citizenship image and perception surveys have emerged as key research tools that generate business intelligence used to build and protect company reputation. The way in which contemporary research designs are constructed to guide reputation building and protection, and how these inputs are used to guide business reputation strategies form the core of this article. The discussion reveals that corporate reputation and brand management functions are increasingly being synchronised in support of customer-based brand equity, customer franchise and reputation building. This suggests substantial communality between the management functions relating to corporate reputation and branding. Corporate branding and reputation are anticipated to evolve as a core business strategy aimed at building and protecting corporate identity and image. To meet this endeavour, companies will continue to brand their identity and image and create brand awareness and customer relations to enable stakeholders to differentiate company products, services and features from competitor offerings, but will simultaneously strive to enhance customer loyalty. Customer care and ethical behaviour will probably lead the thrust in creating positive corporate reputation. As long as corporate reputation building and branding are pursued, the demand for business intelligence information related to these topics will remain a priority and will guide future marketing and communication strategies in building and protecting corporate reputation.     

Challenges in donor–NPO relationships in the context of corporate social investment

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to highlight challenges in the relationship between corporate donors and recipient NPOs within the context of corporate social investment (CSI) in South Africa and to link the relational challenges to problems NPOs face in general. It is theoretically argued that CSI forms an important part of sustainable development and that NPOs, in turn, form an integral part of many organisations’ social investment. The challenges faced by them need addressing for the sake of NPOs, donors and society as a whole. It was found that although the stakeholder relationship generally shows both positive and negative perceptions of the parties involved, the challenges that exist can be traced to challenges in the everyday functioning of NPOs, including resource limitations and dependence; staffing problems; and strategy, management and environmental challenges. These challenges facing NPOs manifest in their relationship with donors and can be seen in the power imbalance in the relationship that favours donors, the lack of transparency by NPOs, divergent views on commitment, the questioned competence of NPOs, time constraints in the execution of activities, a perceived incomprehension by NPOs of the realities of the business world, and an unwillingness on the part of donors to allow NPOs some decision-making power.     

Strategic integrated communication: An alternative perspective of integrated marketing communication?

Abstract

In spite of the increased emphasis being placed on integrated marketing communication (IMC), limited attempts have been made to critically analyse existing viewpoints, the evolution of the concept and its application. The research problem of this article is based on this limited mindset, which has arguably created a problem in understanding IMC as a process and in the integration of actions, which appear to be superficial in most cases. The main objective here is to contribute to these viewpoints by addressing the problem through an analysis of existing literature, to stimulate much-needed necessary debate on this phenomenon and advance IMC thinking, which is increasingly being challenged from the perspective of the emerging paradigm of strategic communication. This is done through a combined categorical, theoretical and integrated communicative perspective. The author highlights the need to approach IMC thinking from a strategic and corporate brand perspective, which could help engender dramatically changing expectations and demands across organisations, for a clear understanding of IMC practice and theory. Subsequently, taking an alternative re-orientated strategic perspective, based on all current approaches, is proposed into what is termed ‘strategic integrated communication’ (SIC). The focus in SIC is on the strategic intent of the organisation to enhance strategic, integrated communication and knowledge management of information through creative media strategies and environmental scanning. All of this should be based on trust, loyalty, integrity and credibility, to maintain valuable long-term stakeholder relationships.     

试论影响印度软件产业发展的市场环境因素

印度软件产业是在一定的市场环境中生存与发展起来的,因而认识影响印度软件产业发展的一系列市场环境因素,以及探索其环境影响因素的变动趋势,制定趋利避害的战略,是促使印度软件产业发展的基础和条件保证。     

NGO–business collaboration following the Indian CSR Bill 2013: trust-building collaborative social sector partnerships

The CSR Bill of 2013 introduced systematic corporate participation into social development in India. In the light of this law, this article argues that NGOs will play a decisive role in determining the benefits of corporate involvement and recommends that NGO–business partnerships are needed for meaningful social change. The article identifies a trust deficit between NGOs and businesses in India as a key obstacle to the success of NGO–business collaborations in the social sector. It suggests practices that could be adopted by NGOs to build trust in their partnerships with business partners, using a case study of one NGO, SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action).     

Integrated Web-based marketing communication: An institutional tracking study

ABSTRACT

Online media have had a great impact on communications and given birth to new paradigms of marketing and marketing communication. Most significant amongst these is the paradigm of integration. Web-based communication permits comprehensive integration and it has raised integration to the status of a business imperative. If integration is indeed so central to the success of the corporate endeavour it becomes increasingly important to evaluate its application and quality. This article explores the assessment of Web-based marketing communication integration. Integrated Web-based marketing communication (IWMC) is conceptualised and the theoretical assumptions of integration are related to Web-based communication. The methodology of the investigation, the analysis of the data and the results of the tracking study are presented and discussed.     

Dissonance or dialogue: Changing relations with the corporate sector

In recent years, both the corporate sector and civil society organisations, particularly international NGOs, have become more influential in shaping development debates and policies. There is increasing awareness within the corporate sector of the need to demonstrate social responsibility; and growing acceptance among NGOs that business is essential to the economic growth which will fuel social development. This paper shows how the two sectors can engage constructively in order to establish and monitor standards, though it also argues the need for some pressure groups to retain an uncompromising and radical agenda in order to keep the critical debates alive.     

Medicating the salaryman lifestyle: fear-based marketing of liver stimulant drugs in postwar Japan

This article studies the heretofore unexplored fear-based print marketing campaigns for postwar hangover remedies and liver drugs sold by Japan's leading drug manufacturers of the 1950s, including Chūgai, Takeda, Tanabe, Sankyō, and Yamanouchi. It reveals that these drugs were creatively and predatorily marketed to salarymen and their wives in hundreds of newspaper and magazine ads that raised the spectre of liver damage and related diseases due to overconsumption of alcohol and tobacco. It demonstrates that the makers claimed not only that their formulations could remedy liver damage, but could even serve as prophylactics that would guard against the dangers of alcohol and nicotine poisoning and enable users to drink and smoke to excess without fear. The robust copy and clever imagery appearing in the ads also illustrate the social pressures facing salarymen to drink with colleagues after work on an almost nightly basis, as well as at a series of seasonal office parties and gatherings throughout the year. This article is the first to examine how drug makers took aim at some of postwar Japan's leading causes of ill health, alcohol and tobacco abuse, as well as chemical poisonings and even morning sickness, by selling an array of ineffectual drugs based on untested and dubious claims. It charts the drug makers' increasingly outlandish ads, the slow realization that their drugs were potentially hazardous, and their swift withdrawal from the market by 1960. It argues that, amidst a rise in alcohol overconsumption and comparatively lax testing and marketing regulations, Japan's postwar pharmaceutical firms exaggerated and preyed upon consumer health concerns in hundreds of frightening and pseudoscientific ads for largely untested and potentially hazardous drugs.     

Firestorm Response: Managing Brand Reputation during an nWOM Firestorm by Responding to Online Complaints Individually or as a Cluster

ABSTRACT

This study provides evidence of how marketers should respond to a sudden discharge of negative word-of-mouth (nWOM) communication that spreads rapidly across social media platforms, known as an online “firestorm.” The study aimed to determine whether a company’s response policy during an online firestorm influenced their brand reputation among observers of the firestorm. An experiment offered three different company approaches to the firestorm. The study used a conclusive quantitative design by manipulating independent variables in a controlled environment in order to infer causality through an online survey to 300 participants. The study shows that when faced with the option of replying to a cluster of complaints or each individual complaint, a more positive brand reputation is engendered through individual replies. While research in digital marketing has progressed to provide companies with strategies to use digital platforms as a marketing tool, the negative side of social media—in this case online firestorms—is still largely left unattended. Addressing the direct issue of how to respond to online firestorms is therefore of significant relevance to marketing practitioners and academics.     

The case for ‘face-time’ in a computer-mediated global economy

Abstract

The structuring of marketing and communication management within key organisations in South Africa is changing. These changes are affecting the relationship between marketing and communication practitioners, as well as the key tasks they are responsible for within the organisation. Globally, companies are downsizing, restructuring and eliminating hierarchy. This article investigates how key South African companies have responded to these changes, by looking at how the marketing and communication functions are structured within the organisation. Marketing and communication managers from top South African companies were interviewed telephonically. Findings from the study indicate that the two functions are progressively moving towards an integrated approach. However, a commonly agreed organisational structure is still not pervasive. Each organisation structured the marketing and communication functions differently, and various perspectives existed on the key tasks of both marketing and communication managers. From these findings, it is evident that the relationship between marketing and communication, as well as the role and tasks of marketing and communication managers, is still very diverse in the South African context.     

Support provided by corporate social responsibility programmes for the creation of universal access to ICT: a content analysis of corporate websites

ABSTRACT

This study analyses messages within corporate web pages as physical indicators of the following: the extent to which sampled companies provide information communication technology (ICT) to the South African society in terms of geographical spread; the types of ICTs they provide; the nature of their support; and the members of society targeted. Through latent coding, it seeks to deduce whether the companies realise their role in social development by focusing their corporate social responsibility programmes on societal needs and to establish whether their support is broadly aligned with government priorities.

Although the study is exploratory in nature, it reveals the following noteworthy issues: The geographical spread indicates that seven of the 11 companies analysed focus their support for ICT on the country as a whole; most companies tend to provide a whole range of technological equipment rather than one type; the provision of equipment is coupled with training; and the support for ICT is largely aimed at schools.

It is inferred that the companies realise their societal obligations; support government priorities; and are committed to social development by creating appropriate mechanisms for access to ICT.     

Is Corporate Social Responsibility a Constructivist Regime? Evidence from Latin America

The paper argues that the emerging norms on corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be theorised as a constructivist regime, specifically a subset of private authority regimes—a transnational private legitimacy regime. The purpose of this regime is the transnational legitimation of globalised private accumulation strategies. It hypothesises that CSR acts as a framework of principles, norms and practices that enables communication, negotiation and contestation between civil society organisations (CSOs) and transnational corporations about the social impact of foreign investment. The regime inadvertently transforms the terrain on which businesses interact with other actors from one of power (where business was clearly dominant) to a terrain of (at least partial) legitimacy. This implies that actors that control “legitimacy resources”, such as CSOs, should see their negotiating power increase vis-à-vis businesses. The paper examines these conjectures through a case study of CSR promotion and advocacy in Latin America.     

Towards an emerging paradigm of strategic communication: Core driving forces

Abstract

Major forces such as globalisation, the digital network revolution and the empowerment of myriad new stakeholders have resulted in a blurring of communication genres such as marketing and corporate communications, and are redefining the role of the communications professional within business and society. Such fundamental changes require that both scholars and practitioners challenge their own assumptions and consider the implications of these paradigm shifts. The values of the modernist age, resulting in linear, top-down, consensus-seeking decision-making behaviour, must be revisited to make way for emerging values such as activism, dialogue, communal values and dissent, which allow for co-creation and a multiplicity of viewpoints. This article reflects on paradigmatic debates and identifies shifts from modern to postmodern organisational practice, and how these impact on communication practices and integrated communication. Consideration is given to some theoretical, practical, research and educational implications of these shifts as core driving forces towards the new emerging paradigm of strategic communication, which can best be conceptualised as purposeful communication to realise the organisational mission.     

State formation and economic development in post-war Somaliland: the impact of the private sector in an unrecognised state

ABSTRACT

Unrecognised internationally, Somaliland operates as a hybrid political order where a range of state and non-state entities provide security, representation and social services. Local business elites have impacted state formation after war by lobbying against a range of regulations, providing the government with loans and contributions rather than paying sufficient taxes, and by hindering the development of sound financial institutions. The success of such activities has led to de facto protectionism, where foreign ventures have had limited access to the Somaliland market. While such protectionism may have negatively impacted economic development and growth opportunities, recent engagements by multinational corporations in the Berbera port suggest that foreign private investments risk sparking violent conflict. In contrast, domestic businessmen have played a role in preventing or resolving violent conflict at crucial stages in Somaliland’s recent history. Based on fieldwork in Somaliland, we argue that the impact of international corporate actors in post-war contexts needs to be understood in light of local culture and power dynamics, in which the political and economic roles of local business elites are central.     

A conceptual framework of corporate online communication: A marketing public relations (MPR) perspective

Abstract

This study identifies attributes that are perceived by online communicators as contributing to the effectiveness of corporate online communication. A marketing public relations (MPR) perspective is applied to assess the contribution of credibility, trust and long-term relationships to effective corporate online communication.

Q methodology is used as the research method and Q sorting as the means of data collection. Credibility, trust, long-term relationships and their composite factors are tested among 20 communicators and 20 receivers of corporate online communication. The participants' sortings of statements are first compared by means of Q factor analysis and then analysed. Four factors are ultimately identified that are perceived to contribute to effective corporate online communication by communicators and receivers: trust, responsibility, efficiency and meaningful relationships.     

Towards contextualising stakeholder relationship indicators for corporate–community relationships

Abstract

In circumstances that are substantially different from the norm, new ways of thinking about those alternative contexts are necessary. In the context of corporate governance and corporate social investment (CSI) the relationship between corporate donors and community organisations is regarded as important, but the indicators used to describe this relationship need revisiting. The argument in this article is that context-specific indicators are needed to bring the true nature of the corporate–community relationship to the fore. In addition, a suggestion is made that such indicators be both rigorous and relevant in describing the relationship. In an interpretative, qualitative exploration of data from individual interviews it was revealed that well-known relationship indicators were inadequate to describe the relationship between corporate donors and community organisations accurately. The article could serve as the first step in reviewing stakeholder relationship indicators from organisational communication research and adapting these indicators to a specific context.     

CSR and social conflict in the Brazilian extractive sector

ABSTRACT

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important means to address conflicts, support local development and build trust between businesses and civil society. Yet CSR often fails to live up to its ambitions and can even exacerbate conflicts between companies and communities. In this article we consider how changing CSR strategies over the past four decades between Brazilian company Vale to Norwegian company Hydro have fomented or mitigated company–community conflicts in Northern Brazil. We find that paternalistic and philanthropic approaches of Vale over time led to deep resentment and mistrust due to underdevelopment and environmental damages. Moreover, while Hydro’s more modern CSR strategies sought to deepen community engagement and build legitimacy, the company has struggled in addressing the legacies inherited from Vale and past and current civil society grievances. The case suggests that even forward-thinking CSR approaches are vulnerable to failure where they prioritise business risk over community engagement, neglect to account for past legacies in areas of operation, and fail to create a shared vision of future development. It suggests that EI companies should both understand and engage with their social and environmental impacts in the past, present, and future and create shared economic benefits in the short and long term in order to address social conflicts.     

Rethinking Ethical Journalism in the Worsening Socio-Economic and Political Crisis in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This article reviews the practice of ethical journalism in Zimbabwe. It reports on a study that engaged with both public and private journalists through in-depth interviews, to rethink ethical journalism in the worsening socio-economic and political situation in Zimbabwe. The study used thematic analysis informed by the communal approach or sociology of journalism ethics to analyse journalists’ perspectives. Several factors were found to be causes for unethical journalism practice, namely, political interference; poor economy; corruption; biased editorial policies; political activism; and interests of media owners or funders. The findings of the study reflect parallelism or antagonism between the public and private media in Zimbabwe. Therefore, the article calls for a common view based on the communal approach. It argues that social responsibility must be the norm in the face of corruption and economic challenges. An independent media body should be appointed by the Zimbabwean government to preside over the public media as the first step towards ethical journalism.     

Corporate citizenship: Creating social capacity in developing countries

A corporation has only limited ability to create social capital through philanthropic activity, and, in the context of a decline in official aid, the corporate sector is increasingly assuming a de facto developmental role. The presence of social capital assists communities in moving towards sustainable development and may contribute to the business case for corporate–community partnerships. While it is not the role of corporations to deliver social services, their ability to enhance social capital by partnering with community organisations can contribute both to development and work to their own commercial advantage. Such partnerships, whether philanthropic or commercial, will be more effective if delivered through balanced and transparent relationships with community organisations that help to create social capacity at the local level.     

European small states' military policies after the Cold War: from territorial to niche strategies

This article looks at the evolution of European small states' military policies after the Cold War. Traditionally, small states faced a security dilemma between favouring influence and guaranteeing sovereignty. These security options were embodied by the strategy of alliance and the policy of neutrality. This article argues that in today's unipolar world small states' security policy must be cooperative either in the form of joining a security institution or an ad hoc coalition. This has two consequences for small states' military policies. These can either favour niche or lead/framework nation strategies. This in turn, depends on the strategic ambitions of the small states, which are ultimately mediated by their strategic culture. This article concludes by looking at the military policies of Cold War neutral states after the Cold War.