THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIETAL MARKETING AND CONSUMER LOYALTY TOWARDS CORPORATE IMAGE
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Date
2009
Authors
SHUNMUGA SINGHAM, KEVIN THIRULOGA
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Abstract
The societal marketing concept is a form marketing that holds that a company should make good
marketing decisions by considering consumers' wants, the company's requirements and society's
long run interests. It is closely linked with the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility and
of Sustainable Development. The concept has an emphasis on social responsibility and suggests
that it is not sufficient for a company to only focus on exchange relationship with customers
might not be in order to sustain long term success. Marketing strategy rather should deliver value
to customers in a way that maintains or improves both the consumer's and the society'S wellbeing.
Most companies recognize that socially responsible activities improve their image among
customers, stockholders, the financial community, and other relevant pUblics. Ethical and
socially responsible practices are simply good business, resulting not only in favorable image,
but ultimately in increased sales. Societal marketing should not be confused with social
marketing A number of industry surveys attest to the positive effects of societal marketing and
its related concepts on consumer attitudes and behavior throughout various countries. However, a
scarcity of empirical research in this field still exists, especially in Malaysia. The theoretical
implications of this research empirically support the theory that societal marketing has a positive
effect on Malaysian consumers' attitudes toward corporate image. Additionally, that a Malaysian
model of societal marketing's impact on customer's attitudes in relation to corporate image has
been developed. Moreover, that the use of a multidisciplinary research approach and structural
equation modeling in the research of societal marketing impact on corporate image, can now be
supported.
The practical implications of this research promote the provision of better information that will
ensure corporate marketers application of societal marketing in order to differentiate themselves
from competitors. Also, such results can be used as input to government policy makers to
encourage the use of societal marketing programs by business enterprises to both benefit key
stakeholder interests and establish alliances with non-profit organizations to engender the
promotion of their social activities and concerns.
In conclusion, future research was identified in three areas namely, delimitations of scope, then,
a further testing and validation of scales and the model developed and finally, the continued
improvement and refinement of the methodology used.
Ultimately, future investigations should be extended to different societal marketing programs and
strategies across different industries in the Malaysian context.
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Keywords
RELATIONSHIP , SOCIETAL MARKETING