Challenging Competition with CSR: Going Beyond the Marketing Mix to Make a Difference

Du Shuili () and Sen Sankar ()
Additional contact information
Du Shuili: Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Sen Sankar: Professor of Marketing, Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, USA

NIM Marketing Intelligence Review, 2016, vol. 8, issue 1, 18-23

Abstract: Social initiatives that make a difference for the consumers are able to win consumers’ hearts and build close and lasting relationships. A program that offers real participation and goes beyond the standard marketing mix can therefore effectively reshape the competitive game with a market leader. Key consumer/societal problems present unprecedented opportunities for companies to gain long-term competitive advantages by creating both social and business value. We show how making a noticeable difference in the quality of oral health care of the children in Hispanic immigrant communities helped an American brand gain significant ground in this market. Rather than competing head-to-head against the market leader by making incremental improvements in product attributes or relying on price promotions, the challenging brand resorted to an innovative CSR initiative.

Keywords: CSR; Competitive Advantage; Differentiation; Relationship Marketing; Communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/gfkmir-2016-0003 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:gfkmir:v:8:y:2016:i:1:p:18-23:n:1003

DOI: 10.1515/gfkmir-2016-0003

Access Statistics for this article

NIM Marketing Intelligence Review is currently edited by Christine Kittinger-Rosanelli

More articles in NIM Marketing Intelligence Review from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().