New branding strategy meets corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Can we give preference to products with a social meaning over those with a cheap price on them, even though we still feel the effects of the final crisis? Do brand strategies coincide with the philosophy of social corporate responsibility? After globalization, will we (companies and customers) turn back to local brands and products? Can national and regional products be successful with the new marketing mix based on the „4E”? Since the final crisis all companies feel the acute need for ideas and strategies to avoid losing customers and to find new means of survival and success. The classical marketing mix based on the 4 P's has been changed; the new way is „the 4E strategy = environment, education, empathy, ethics”. More and more customers are becoming socially conscious and rejecting exploitation of human beings and the environment. The Japanese AEON supermarket chain–like many other Japanese companies–has chosen a new, modern way of thinking and a new branding strategy: the „4E” method. The marketing executive of AEON states that donations and marketing communication with a social basis are not „costs” in a company, but rather „investments for the future,” which will be profitable in the long term. The results of my empirical researches, made in Japan and in several Austrian companies from 2006 to 2010, are very exciting and useful for all companies interested in new ideas and paths to future success. Keywords: social corporate responsibility, branding strategy, marketing mix