Abstract
The Influence of Corporate Advertising and Social Responsibility Activities on
Corporate Image and Brand Attitudes
Yoon, Kak (Associate Professor, Graduate School of
Media Communications, Sogang University)
Suh, Sang-hee (Doctoral Student, Graduate School of Media Communications,
Sogang University)
The purpose of this study was to compare the relative
contributions of corporate social responsibility(CSR)
activities and corporate advertising to the general
image of the sponsoring corporations and consumers'
attitudes toward the brands. The results showed that
CSR activities had stronger influence on the general
corporate image compared with that of corporate advertising
as expected. Also, we found that the effect of corporate
advertising on brand attitudes tended to be more direct
instead of having indirect effect through the general
corporate image. In comparison, the effect of CSR activities
on brand attitudes tended to be indirect through the
general corporate image.
Our study suggests that CSR
activities and corporate advertising can be effective
alternatives for the high cost, low efficiency individual
brand advertising. We do not suggest, of course, that
brand advertising should be replaced by either CSR activities
or corporate advertising. Rather, we argue that companies
should realize that CSR activities and other diverse
communication tools can be effective, and as such they
should be strategically integrated into the overall
promotional mix. Finally, the results of our study offer
a guideline about how to allocate the total promotional
budget into various consumer contact tools such as CSR
activities and corporate advertising.
key word: corporate advertising, corporate social
responsibility activities, corporate image, brand attitudes
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