Improving the Effectiveness and Credibility Of Corporate Social Responsibility Messaging

ABSTRACT

Scholarly work over the past 15 years has demonstrated that corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives can have a positive impact on consumer behavior toward brands. Many consumers, however, claim they are uninformed about CSR. The goal of the current study was to find out what types of CSR-related media and content are more effectively communicated than others. The authors surveyed Austrian consumers for their preferences and compared the CSR communication methods used by international brands. They found that external sources—for instance, notices of prizes and awards for CSR initiatives—generated higher credibility than social media and certain corporate internal-communication methods.