Effective CSR communication: Engaging consumers’ prosocial behavior

By Baobao Song, doctoral student at the University of Florida, and Mary Ann Ferguson, professor at the University of Florida

Today corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been highlighted in the center of business operations by companies around the globe. As consumers become savvier in examining companies’ ethical and philanthropic behaviors, simply pouring resources into CSR will not earn companies much praise from consumers. Nowadays, companies need to seriously consider how to earn recognition for their prosocial identity among consumers and how to maximize the impact of their CSR investment.

The main goal of CSR for most business entities is undoubtedly to build a good corporate reputation and eventually increase profits. However, companies should always be reminded of the “secondary” purpose of CSR, which is to benefit their social causes. In that sense, other than corporate reputation and company evaluation, CSR outcome measurement should also account for the impact on two key publics of CSR communication – consumers and advocates of social causes, which vary from protecting our planet to helping the underprivileged. To maximize the impact of companies’ CSR investment on these two aforementioned publics, we suggest companies to actively engage consumers into a collaborative CSR effort of helping the social causes. By marshaling the power of consumers, in such ways as donating and volunteering, companies are no longer a “one man army” in CSR commitment. In fact, having consumers by the company’s side could also increase consumers’ feeling of identification with the company, which further transforms into better company evaluation.

Funded by the Page Legacy Scholar Grant from the Arthur W. Page Center, our study will draw from cognitive psychology, management and communication theories to examine the effect of the CSR communication strategy that focuses on the effects of their prosocial motivations on consumers’ prosocial behavioral engagement and contribution to CSR programs. In addition, our study will evaluate the influence of successful prosocial behavior engagement on consumers’ perception of CSR authenticity and company evaluation. Through this project, we hope to build a consumer and social cause-oriented CSR communication strategy, so that the benefits for social causes and company bottom-lines are both maximized.