Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful

CSR Implementation: Are Consumers

Aware of CSR Initiatives?Alan PomeringSara Dolnicar

ABSTRACT. As a reflection of the values and ethics of

firms, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received a

large amount of research attention over the last decade. A

growing area of this research is the CSR–consumer rela-

tionship. Results of experimental studies indicate that con-

sumer attitudes and purchase intentions are influenced by

CSR initiatives – if consumers are aware of them. In order to

create this awareness, business is increasingly turning to ‘pro-

social’ marketing communications, but such campaigns is met

with scepticism and their effectiveness are therefore uncer-

tain. Consequently, researchers in the field (for example,

Maignan, 2001; Mohr et al., 2001) have called for empirical

studies to determine the level of actual consumer awareness of

CSR initiatives. This study examines the Australian banking

sector, which engages in and promotes its CSR activities,

to help fill this gap. Results from our qualitative study with

bank managers, and our quantitative study with consumers,

indicate low consumer CSR awareness levels. Consumer

understanding of many of the social issues banks engage with

is also low. While CSR is effective in eliciting favourable

consumer attitudes and behaviour in theory, CSR has not

proven its general effectiveness in the marketplace. The low

consumer awareness of the various social issues in which firms

engage with their CSR programs suggests that firms may

need to educate consumers, so they may better contextualise

CSR initiatives communicated. However, better context

may amount to little if claimed CSR initiatives are perceived

as inconsistent with other facets of the business that reflect its

values and ethics.

KEY WORDS: banks, communication, consumer

awareness, corporate social responsibility

Introduction

Values, ethics and corporate social responsibility

(CSR) are linked in the culture and management of

a firm (Joyner and Payne, 2002). CSR is ‘the

commitment of business to contribute to sustainable

economic development, working with employees,

their families, the local community and society at

large to improve their quality of life’ (World Busi-

ness Council for Sustainable Development, 2004).

As an ethical business philosophy, CSR might be

thought of as the minimisation of negative exter-

nalities of a firm’s operating activities and the max-

imisation of beneficial impacts on society (for

example, Mohr et al., 2001). While attempts to

justify CSR on purely normative grounds were open

to criticism, particularly from neo-classical econo-

mists like Friedman (1970) who saw such practice as

a breach of the manager’s fiduciary duty to the firm’s

owners, the establishment of a link between CSR

and financial performance (Orlitzky et al., 2003) has

now provided the ‘business case’ for CSR, what

Mintzberg (1983) calls ‘enlightened self-interest’, as a

powerful justification for firms engaging in CSR

initiatives. For this business philosophy to be suc-

cessful then, and this success sustained, it must ulti-

mately be rewarded in the marketplace by

consumers through their purchase behaviour. For

consumers to act as ‘rewarding and punishing

authorities’, who, through their purchase decisions,

‘influence the profits of competing firms, and indi-

rectly also the direction of the economy’ (Hansen

and Schrader, 1997, p. 447), however, it is important

they are informed of which firms are and are not

socially responsible.

Marketplace polls report that consumers not only

expect businesses to be socially responsible, but they

also want to be informed about what firms are doing,

and will support firms that pursue CSR initiatives. A

23-nation poll of public attitudes to CSR found that

Journal of Business Ethics � Springer 2008DOI 10.1007/s10551-008-9729-9

Australians have amongst the highest CSR expectations

of business (Environics, 1999). Cone Inc. (2004)

found that 86% of American respondents said

companies should tell them how they support social

issues. In the UK, 74% of respondents indicated that

more information on a company’s social and ethical

behaviour would influence their purchasing deci-

sions, and 86% thought companies should actively

communicate their CSR activities (Dawkins, 2004).

These survey results show a strong consumer

demand for CSR information and imply that CSR

information could significantly affect consumer

behaviour, leading to what Hansen and Schrader

(1997, p. 444) describe as ‘consumer responsibility’.

CSR’s ability to produce positive consumer atti-

tudes and purchase behaviour has been extensively

investigated, particularly using the experimental ap-

proach, where consumer awareness represents the

independent variable that is experimentally manip-

ulated (see for example, Auger et al., 2003; Brown

and Dacin, 1997; Creyer and Ross, 1997; Sen and

Bhattacharya, 2001). Consequently, ‘awareness’

plays a major role in previous research into CSR

effectiveness. While the effect of awareness has been

demonstrated in laboratory settings, it remains un-

clear whether real consumers are aware of CSR

activities when facing real consumption decisions,

leaving a gap in our understanding of the CSR–

consumer nexus. If consumer awareness is low, the

effect of CSR initiatives on purchasing behaviour is

only of theoretical, not practical, relevance. This has

prompted several researchers (for example, Maignan,

2001; Mohr et al., 2001) to call for research to

determine the true level of CSR awareness among

consumers.

This study primarily aims to investigate this

knowledge gap, as it presents a key inhibition to the

rewarding and punishing influence of consumer

responsibility. It also aims to gain an insight into

consumer CSR information demands, including

identifying the most trusted media opportunities for

CSR communication. Our study acknowledges the

ethical issue of whether CSR should be used cyni-

cally for ‘public relations’ benefits, especially when it

is not representative of the values and ethics of the

firm, but does not include discussion of this issue

here. Instead, our approach recognises that firms face

a difficult task in seeking to publicise particularly

sensitive areas of their business, such as their CSR

programs, and we investigate issues around the

effectiveness of such communication behaviours

(Pomering and Dolnicar, 2007). Given the unveri-

fiable, or ‘credence’ nature of many CSR claims,

such information obtained directly from firms is

likely to be treated with a greater degree of scepti-

cism than more provable ‘search’ and ‘experience’

claims.

We examine these questions in the context of the

Australian banking sector, chosen because (1) it rep-

resents the single-most active business sector with

respect to CSR, illustrated by the fact that Westpac has

dominated Australia’s annual Corporate Responsi-

bility Index since its introduction in 2003. Other

banks now imitate Westpac’s positioning approach.

(2) For the consumer, banking is a high-involvement

service, characterised by being important to the con-

sumer, risky, and infrequently purchased. Note that

the purchase in this case does not refer to day-to-day

banking interactions but the decision to become a

customer of a bank. This is typically a very infrequent

decision and bank customers tend to stay loyal to their

banks over long periods of time. As a consequence,

consumers engage in complex buying behaviour

(Kotler et al., 2006). Investigating a high-involvement

category is important because consumers process

information actively before making a purchase deci-

sion. It can, therefore, be assumed that CSR infor-

mation would also be processed as part of the decision

making process. In a low-involvement case, cognitive

processing is minimal, and therefore CSR should have

little, if any, effect on purchase decisions. (3) The

consumer has an ongoing relationship with their bank.

Consequently, the bank has considerable potential for

customer contact and marketing communications via

numerous high-contact (Lovelock et al., 2004) ‘touch

points’, including customer interactions with bank

staff in retail branches, and lower-contact interactions

via, for example, Internet banking, automatic teller

machines and account correspondence. (4) The

Australian banking sector has experienced consider-

able consumer disaffection over the past decade, due

to unpopular operational practices, such as the intro-

duction of fees and the closure of retail branches in

rural areas (Kohler, 2003).

As a result of this disaffection, banks thus see CSR

as a suitable avenue to re-engage with communities

and improve their corporate images. While Porter

and Kramer (2002) argue that CSR objectives can

Alan Pomering and Sara Dolnicar

produce competitive advantage, and Auger et al.

(2003) and McWilliams and Siegel (2001) emphasise

that if CSR is to act as a point of differentiation in a

competitive ‘tiebreaker’ situation, awareness of a

firm’s CSR activities is crucial. Claims of socially

responsible behaviour that conflict with consumers’

perceptions of banks, based on their marketplace

knowledge, may not be accepted, however. Where

CSR programs are cynically perceived to be used as

a corporate image tactic, rather than a genuine

reflection of a firm’s values and ethical commitment,

such claims may backfire. Our study does not

measure the depth of such scepticism or cynicism,

but seeks instead to highlight the effectiveness of

CSR communication efforts. Nor does our study

examine the ethicality of banks’ informing con-

sumers of their CSR activities; such ethicality is

assumed, given consumers’ need for information to

be able to act as citizen consumers, rewarding ethical

firms and punishing unethical firms, and firms’

obvious benefit in making such information avail-

able. We contribute to knowledge by determining

the true level of CSR awareness among consumers

in an industry sector in which member firms actively

disseminate CSR information to influence percep-

tions of corporate image, and hence consumer

favour. We see consumer awareness as the required

precondition for consumers rewarding businesses for

ethical behaviour. Such reward is critical as it helps

to make ethical business philosophy compatible with

profit maximization aims and therefore sustainable.

Prior work

This section reviews prior work underpinning the

present study, specifically in the areas of firms’ CSR

communication strategies, consumer awareness of

CSR initiatives, consumer CSR information

demands, as well as the extent to which consumers

trust alternative communication channels for such

information.

Regarding the role of awareness, Mohr et al.

(2001) note that academic research into consumer

response to CSR activities typically either assumes

consumers awareness, or artificially creates it under

experimental conditions. Among such studies are

those of Brown and Dacin (1997), Creyer and Ross

(1997), and Sen and Bhattacharya (2001). Brown

and Dacin find that a company’s CSR record creates

a general context, for the evaluation of its products.

Creyer and Ross, focusing on ethics rather than

CSR, demonstrate that preference for a company’s

products is linked to the extent the company’s eth-

ical behaviour exceeds consumer expectations. Sen

and Bhattacharya reiterate the general context result

of Brown and Dacin, and conclude that consumers’

positive response to CSR is mediated by their self-

company congruence, and moderated by their sup-

port for the specific CSR domain, but the impact on

consumers may lessen if CSR is perceived to be at

the expense of product quality.

Maignan (2001) criticises the above studies for

drawing conclusions on too narrow a conceptuali-

sation of CSR and focusing only on one or two

CSR activities. Commenting on Brown and Dacin’s

(1997) findings, Maignan (2001, p. 58) acknowl-

edges that, while typical of philanthropic responsi-

bility, the two activities manipulated as the

independent variable (corporate giving and com-

munity involvement) ‘do not represent the full

spectrum of CSR initiatives’, leading her to con-

clude that past research offers very limited insights

into consumers’ views of CSR behaviour. Instead,

extant studies typically focus on one or two ‘social’

dimensions, which are then often taken to be an

expression of CSR.

Mohr et al. (2001, p. 48) state that there is a

distinct lack of studies which measure general con-

sumer awareness of CSR initiatives, presumably

because ‘CSR is a broad and complex concept that is

challenging to measure’. Auger et al. (2003) move

towards filling this gap. In a cross-cultural choice

experiment focusing on the athletic shoes and soap

product categories, Auger et al. find that, while

consumers are reasonably confident in their knowl-

edge of the functional features of the products they

currently buy, they have difficulty recalling some of

the most basic ethical characteristics of these same

products. Of subjects from Hong Kong, for exam-

ple, 90% could not recall the ethical features of their

current bath soap, and only 5% could recall the

ethical attributes of their athletic shoes. By com-

parison, Australian subjects had slightly higher recall

of 80% and 10% respectively.

A lack of awareness and understanding of com-

panies’ CSR achievements is one explanation for

the disconnection observed between attitude and

Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation

actual behaviour (Mohr et al., 2001; Bhattacharya

and Sen, 2004). Bhattacharya and Sen (2004, p. 14)

also report from focus group and survey research

that, apart from a handful of ‘CSR mavens’, ‘large

swaths of consumers do not seem to be aware that by

and large most companies engage in CSR initia-

tives’. According to Mohr et al. (2001), consumers

have difficulty acquiring and storing CSR informa-

tion about the firms they buy from. Dawkins (2004,

p. 4) identifies the problem at an earlier stage of the

process – the corporate communication stage –

proposing that effective communication of firms’

CSR programs is ‘a rare achievement’. Roberts

(1996, p. 80) suggests that socially conscious attitudes

may not result in behaviour, because ‘scant data exist

on how most companies perform on any number

of social criteria that might affect a consumer’s

decision’.

While Auger et al. (2003, p. 299) also highlight a

lack of consumer awareness of firms’ CSR records,

they go further, noting that ethical awareness levels –

that is, knowledge of the ethical and social issues

around which firms are framing their CSR initiatives –

are surprisingly low, especially given the ‘occasion-

ally extensive media coverage afforded to ethical

issues’. They conclude that consumers may act very

differently when CSR information is provided.

While prior work indicates that consumer

awareness levels of CSR initiatives are not very high,

Dawkins (2004) concludes that consumers are in fact

quite interested in learning more about CSR ini-

tiatives and that, consequently, CSR-related mar-

keting communications present an opportunity to

shape organisational image and brand beliefs. ‘Pro-

social’ marketing initiatives can form a market-

differentiating strategy (McWilliams and Siegel,

2001), build brand equity (Hoeffler and Keller,

2002), and lead to customer loyalty and other posi-

tive post-purchase outcomes (Bhattacharya and Sen,

2003).

In a Danish study, for example, Schultz and

Morsing (2003) found the use of CSR engagement

for marketing communication purposes distasteful to

some consumers, even though, ironically, consumers

may otherwise possess little if any detailed knowl-

edge about a firm’s CSR activities. Due to the

sensitive nature of CSR communications, Schultz

and Morsing conclude that CSR initiatives cannot

be advertised in the same way as products, services or

brands typically are, thus posing a much more

complex challenge to marketers. Drumwright (1996,

p. 71) finds that ‘company advertisements with social

dimension have been among the most controversial

of marketing approaches,’ seen on the one hand as

‘marketing’s greatest contribution to society,’ while

on the other, ‘as marketing’s most unabashed

exploitation.’ Highlighting the risks of such per-

ceived exploitation, Morsing (2006, p. 176) reports

that despite the Danish telecom giant TDC’s repo-

sitioning from a high-profit shareholder driven

company to a more socially responsible organisation,

with an extensively communicated CEO-endorsed

CSR commitment and several CSR initiatives,

TDC’s CSR message has been ‘met with scepticism,

disbelief, and accusations of window-dressing.’

Communicating CSR initiatives is problematic.

Trust in the information source is critical for CSR

communication success (for example, Maignan and

Ferrell, 2001). Consumers have a natural tendency

to be sceptical of advertising, more so than towards

other information sources (Obermiller and Span-

genberg, 1998). Consumers also react to marketers’

perceived attempts to persuade, as explained by

Friestad and Wright’s (1994) Persuasion Knowledge

Model. Communicating CSR through traditional

advertising is perceived by many consumers as over-

accentuating the good deeds of the company, which

can lead to scepticism about the message, and cyn-

icism towards the firm’s motives. Webb and Mohr

(1998, p. 237), for example, find that cause-related

marketing, where the firm contributes an amount of

money per unit sold to a non-profit partner orga-

nisation, is the ‘easiest way for a company to educate

the consumer about its philanthropic activities, yet

the involvement of advertising, a particularly dis-

trusted form of communication, amplifies cynicism’.

While consumers express the desire for information

on firms’ CSR records, the communication of CSR

initiatives is therefore a challenge for the CSR

marketing communicator. Morsing and Schultz

(2006) find that consumers prefer CSR initiatives to

be communicated through so-called ‘minimal

release’ channels (such as annual reports and web-

sites) over the use of traditional communication

channels. Given these informational issues, we might

only guess at the levels of consumer awareness of

firms’ CSR initiatives in the marketplace. While

Auger et al. (2003) report consumer knowledge of

Alan Pomering and Sara Dolnicar

the ethical features of products they purchase, and

the actual ethical issues involved, is low, the precise

level of this unawareness remains uncertain.

Assuming the responsible consumer needs this

information in order to make critical, economy-

directing purchase decisions, we investigate an

industry sector that claims it is actively engaged in

CSR initiatives in order to address this gap.

Methodology

Regardless of consumer support for particular CSR

domains and perceived trade-offs with functional

attributes (such as price and quality), prior work

suggests that the lack of consumer response to firms’

CSR initiatives has two primary sources. Companies

have not strongly communicated their CSR initia-

tives (Carrigan, 1997; Dawkins, 2004; Work

Foundation, 2004). Or companies have communi-

cated their CSR initiatives, yet consumers are una-

ware of them, which could be due to a multitude of

reasons including bad communication campaigns,

lack of attention by consumers, inability of con-

sumers to place CSR information into relevant

context, etc.

If organisations do not even attempt to commu-

nicate their CSR initiatives, high consumer aware-

ness would not be expected to develop (although it

may well develop though word of mouth or other

channels of communication which are not under the

direct influence of the organisation). If organisations

do communicate their CSR activities, it may be

assumed that consumers will be at least somewhat

aware of them. This assumption underpins most

prior work in CSR, where information is provided

to respondents and the effect on purchase intentions

is measured as outcome. This study investigates

whether this assumption is supported empirically,

and examines a business sector in which active

engagement in attempts to communicate CSR

activities is common. Note that the assumption of

CSR advertising effectiveness is not trivial, as the

main object of communication is typically enhanc-

ing the product, service or brand, not the CSR

initiative. It is therefore possible that CSR adver-

tising efforts are not successful because consumers

pay attention only to the core information relating to

the product, service or brand rather than the infor-

mation on CSR initiatives.

Stage 1: Qualitative study of corporate communication

behaviour

We conducted personal interviews with the ‘big

four’ Australian banks’ executives with responsibility

for CSR programs to gain insight into their CSR

activities and communication strategies. We con-

ducted personal interviews in order to identify

which CSR knowledge consumers could theoreti-

cally have if communication programs achieved their

goals, and to understand fully the ‘supply side’ of

these banks’ CSR communications.

Personal interviews followed a pre-tested question

protocol, and each were approximately 60–90 min-

utes long. These were later cross-referenced to

written material outlining the brand’s CSR com-

munications, such as websites, annual CSR reports

and employee newsletters.

Questions sought insights into the following areas:

how the bank defines its responsibility to society;

why the bank defines a responsibility to society

beyond that of its responsibility to shareholders;

within which domains and through what activities

that responsibility is articulated; to whom the bank

communicates about its CSR record; what gets

communicated; how this is done; whether commu-

nication objectives are in place and results measured;

and whether the bank believes it has an educative

role in informing consumers about CSR issues.

Stage 2: Quantitative study of consumer awareness

The second stage of the study involved a consumer

survey to gain insight into the ‘demand side’ of CSR

communications. We used an Australian permission-

based Internet panel to conduct the fieldwork. The

approximately 120,000 panel members are recruited

through a number of channels to be representative of

Australia’s population based on census statistics. We

assumed a 40% response rate, and 1,000 randomly

drawn panel members were invited to participate.

The online interface was closed when the required

number of responses was achieved. The final sample

Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation

consisted of 415 respondents. Respondents were

qualified by their use of an Australian banking ser-

vice provider to participate in the survey.

The following questions were included in the

survey:

1. Specific verbal CSR recall was used to measure

specific CSR awareness of respondents. We

developed a list of 20 social initiatives of

Australia’s big four banks, using the banks’

websites and information from the inter-

views. One example for such a list item was

‘Partners with Good Shepherd Youth and

Family Services’. Respondents were asked

to assign each initiative to a particular bank,

or to state that they were unsure which

bank was engaging in this initiative.

2. Specific graphical CSR recall served as the sec-

ond measure of specific CSR awareness.

The question structure for this question was

similar to the verbal recall question, except

it contained 16 graphical stimuli (logos of

CSR partners). This approach is particularly

realistic, since partners’ logos typically

appear in the banks’ marketing communica-

tions, such as websites, point-of-sale displays

in retail branches, and correspondence.

3. General awareness of CSR initiatives was mea-

sured using the question: ‘Are you familiar

with any initiatives your bank is involved in

which are aimed at improving social or envi-

ronmental conditions in your community?’

Respondents were asked to answer using a

full binary (yes/no) answer format. Note that

it may have been interesting to include an-

other question which would aim at under-

standing whether consumers have even more

general associations about banks engaging in

CSR without even being able to state a spe-

cific initiative. The value of such a question

was highlighted by a reviewer, but we were

at this stage not able to include it in the sur-

vey. We discuss this possibility of interesting

follow-up research relating to this idea in the

Conclusions section.

4. Consumers’ interest in bank-related information

was measured by asking respondents which

kind of information they would like to be

regularly informed about by their bank.

A list of nine bank-related pieces of infor-

mation was provided, relating both to the

core product (for example, fees and charges)

and CSR initiatives (for example, support

for the arts).

5. Current information received was measured by

asking respondents to respond on a binary

scale to: ‘Does your bank regularly inform

you about…’ Respondents were presented

with the same list as described above (in 4),

in order to compare information needs/

demands with banks’ current information

supply.

6. Information source trust. As source trust is

important in information processing (for

example, Maignan and Ferrell, 2001), and

influences strategy for optimal communica-

tion, we asked respondents which informa-

tion sources they would trust for learning

about their bank’s performance on social is-

sues, and which information sources they

would trust for learning about financial prod-

ucts, fees and interest rates. Respondents

were presented with a list of options, includ-

ing ‘family and friends’. Respondents were

asked to respond by ticking ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

7. Information source use was measured by asking

respondents to state for each of the above-

listed information sources to answer: ‘From

which information sources have you learned

a lot about your bank?’ Respondents

responded by ticking ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

8. Awareness of social issues. Prior research sug-

gests that higher levels of knowledge about

social issues lead to a greater response to

CSR activities (see for example, Auger

et al., 2003). Respondents had a list of 12

social issues (for example, financial skills of

indigenous Australians) which appeared on

bank websites in relation to their CSR ini-

tiatives. Respondents indicated their per-

ceived level of awareness of each issue on a

seven-point scale ranging between ‘very

low’ and ‘very high’.

9. Consumers’ evaluations of CSR responsibilities

were measured using four items from a 16-

item, four-factor scale (Maignan, 2001)

covering all areas of business responsibility

identified by Carroll (1991): economic,

Alan Pomering and Sara Dolnicar

legal, ethical and discretionary. On a seven-

point scale ranging between ‘strongly

disagree’ and ‘strongly agree’, respondents

rated the following statements: (1) To what

extent do you believe businesses must maxi-

mise profits? (2) To what extent do you

believe businesses must play a role in our

society that goes beyond the mere genera-

tion of profits? (3) To what extent do you

believe businesses must refrain from bend-

ing the law even if this helps improve per-

formance? and (4) To what extent do you

believe businesses must be ethical even if it

negatively affects economic performance?

10. Consumers’ stated support of socially responsible

businesses was measured by asking respon-

dents, on a seven-point scale, ranging

between ‘strongly disagree’ and ‘strongly

agree,’ to rate the following statements: (1)

I would pay more to buy products from a

socially responsible company; (2) I consider

the ethical reputation of businesses when I

shop; (3) I avoid buying products from

companies that have engaged in immoral

action; (4) I would pay more to buy the

products of a company that shows caring

for the wellbeing of our society; and (5) If

the price and quality of two products are

the same, I would buy from the firm that

has a socially responsible reputation.

Results

Stage 1: Qualitative study of corporate communication

behaviour

Banks typically defined their responsibility to society

in utilitarian terms of profitability and shareholders,

achieved via considering the needs of other stake-

holders. A universal thread in the four executives’

responses was the recent acknowledgement that

different stakeholders could affect the business’s

overall performance. In the words of one executive,

the need for CSR was precipitated by a crisis:

Banks were hated, banks could do no right. Around

2000, we realised we couldn’t continue to operate

without listening to customers and key stakeholders…If we’d have been less arrogant as a corporation, we

probably wouldn’t have found ourselves in this sort of

situation.

The CSR was articulated via various domains,

from environmental management to philanthropic

support of the arts. The development of the com-

munity’s financial literacy, especially for society’s

more disadvantaged members, was captured in sev-

eral banks’ CSR programs, as was responsible lend-

ing. Activities within these domains included

employee volunteering, matched giving programs,

financial support for sport, the arts and medical

research, and engaging employees with environ-

mental concerns. Employee support was generally

seen as an important first step to securing customer

support, with low staff satisfaction levels prior to

CSR program introduction cited by several inter-

viewees. Several interviewees stressed the impor-

tance of internal communications and getting all

employees to ‘live the values’, reflected in this

comment:

We had to get our house in order first, to live the

values, so our values were evident in every interaction

with us.

Banks typically provided information about their

CSR activities to internal and key stakeholder groups.

In an effort to improve employee satisfaction and

leverage that satisfaction to influence service transac-

tions with customers and customer satisfaction, CSR

was seen as an important internal marketing issue.

Employee–customer relationships could be deepened

through value-driven personal selling, aimed at

‘restoring customer faith’, as one bank executive re-

ferred to it. One interviewee commented on her

bank’s point-of-purchase communications:

Ultimately what we really want to do in this area is

make this a point of competitive differentiation. We

want people to go: ‘Well, all the banks seem pretty

much the same, but this bank has got a great product

and I know they are an ethical and responsible com-

pany, therefore, I will choose them.

Intranets and staff magazines disseminated the

message internally, while websites and locally

focused in-branch poster and brochure promotions

communicated the stories out to customers. One

Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation

executive reported that most of their bank’s advertising

was brand related or financial product related, but in

its point-of sale promotional materials the bank fo-

cused on what it was doing in the community and

for its staff. Another executive described how print

advertising was undertaken to acknowledge and

thank employees – the bank’s ‘family’ – for their role

in the success:

It was basically our way of trying to advertise that we

got to number one [in the annual Corporate Repu-

tation Index], without advertising the fact that we got

to number one. We’re very, very cautious.

The banks typically perceived distinct external

stakeholder audiences, and communicated accord-

ingly. Finance industry analysts and shareholders, for

example, were considered key recipients of more

formal and detailed reports, such as Westpac’s Stake-

holder Impact Report and websites. Consumers were

exposed to CSR information primarily within the

retail branch network – particularly through local

community initiatives which local staff might par-

ticipate in – or through mass communication

advertising campaigns, such as the ANZ’s Seeds of

Renewal television campaign, promoting the bank’s

support for rural communities.

While interviewees generally acknowledged that

specific objectives were set for CSR communica-

tions, these were generally framed in terms of

delivering on general business objectives, such as

increasing staff satisfaction. One bank, having

designed the internal marketing program Living the

Values, said they used a ‘cultural diagnostic tool’ to

measure how successfully they were communicating

the Living the Values theme. While all interviewees

agreed their banks had not yet positioned the brand

around CSR, the opportunity for such marketing

communication was under consideration:

CSR has become an issue that matters; it’s a very

different time and space for the bank, especially under

the new CEO.

The banks are at different stages in how they see

their CSR ‘sense-giving’ role. On whether banks

saw an educative role for their CSR communica-

tions. One executive said:

That’s what we try to do. Often when we participate,

or fund research, we’re doing it with the explicit intent

of growing the maturity of the consumer or financial

markets around understanding these initiatives.

Sounding a cautionary note, however, another

offered:

I’m not sure if customers want to know all that detail.

As a customer of the bank, am I more concerned about

the open and honest structuring of the cost of your

services?

The interviews with CSR executives in four

major Australian banks led the researchers to con-

clude that: (1) banks were using CSR to help

respond to a crisis in marketplace confidence; (2)

banks’ CSR communications were primarily aimed

at internal customers; (3) banks communicated their

CSR initiatives at the local branch level; (4) banks

communicated to specialist audiences, for example,

shareholders and finance industry analysts, via their

websites and special reports; and (5) banks’ overt

communication of their good deeds via advertising

campaigns was tempered with caution for a poten-

tially sceptical marketplace.

All four banks are communicating their CSR

activities to the general public, making them suitable

entities for the consumer awareness study.

Stage 2: Quantitative study of consumer awareness

Awareness of CSR initiatives

The verbal and graphical recall questions (the vari-

ables used to measure consumers’ specific awareness

levels) were analysed from two perspectives. We

used the number of correct assignments of CSR

initiatives with banks, then analysed how many

respondents stated that they were unsure about the

answer. This latter response option indicated not

only that a respondent was unable to provide the

correct response, but also that they were aware of

their inability to make a correct assignment.

Figure 1 provides the results for the number of

correct assignments, and shows that the level of

specific awareness is very low. Two-thirds of all

assignments of logos and banks were incorrect. The

pattern is very similar for both the verbal and the

graphical stimuli.

The results from the analysis of the number of

respondents who ticked the ‘unsure’ answer options

Alan Pomering and Sara Dolnicar

for both verbal and graphical recall items support the

above findings, in terms of the generally low level of

awareness for CSR activities. On average, respon-

dents stated unsureness about 13 of the 20 verbal

stimuli. Forty per cent of respondents stated they

were unsure about every one of the verbal items

presented. Across all 14 graphical recall items,

respondents stated on average they were unsure

about 12. Fifty per cent stated they were unsure

about 14 of the 16 graphical items presented.

The two most-recalled verbal items were ‘spon-

soring of Cricket Australia by the Commonwealth

Bank of Australia’ (13%) and ‘Beyond Survival

Workshops for women’ offered by Westpac (7%).

The most-recalled graphical items were ‘the Aus-

tralian of the Year’ (12%) supported by Common-

wealth Bank of Australia, and ‘the Starlight Children

Foundation Australia’ (6%) supported by the ANZ

Banking Group.

For most of the recall items that achieved the

highest recall values, it is likely that the respondents

who recalled them correctly represent a very specific

market segment. Chi-square tests indicate that

respondents who recalled the sponsorship of Cricket

Australia correctly were significantly more fre-

quently under the age of 45 (p < 0.01) and were

more likely to have a university degree (p < 0.01).

While the percentage among men was 16, and only

eight among women, this difference did not lead to a

significant test result when all answer options were

included. When testing correct versus incorrect

answers only, men gave the correct answer signifi-

cantly more frequently (p < 0.05) than women. A

significantly higher proportion (p < 0.01) of

respondents between 29 and 45 years could assign

the logo for the Starlight Children Foundation

Australia correctly. Although parenthood status was

not asked, this age bracket covers the parenting life

stage of respondents.

The specific awareness tasks are very detailed, but

general awareness of banks’ CSR activities could also

influence consumer behaviour. Analysis of the

general awareness question supports the findings

related to specific awareness: general awareness was

low. Only 7% of respondents stated they were

familiar with any initiatives their bank was involved

in at all.

The results relating to consumer awareness do not

mirror the advertising campaigns which were run-

ning on several banks’ CSR activities during the

fieldwork stage of the project. The fieldwork was

conducted at the close of the summer cricket season,

and this may account for a proportion of respondents

who could recall the Cricket Australia bank brand

association correctly. However, such a correlation

was certainly not evident for the recall of a funding

initiative for small rural communities. This was

recalled by the fewest respondents – a surprising

result because it was featured in a national television

advertising campaign just before the fieldwork was

conducted.

Customising CSR activities to clearly defined

market segments may be a communication approach

superior to broadly communicating a CSR activity

which is not directly relevant to the majority of the

public through the mass media.

Consumer interest in bank-related information

When asked which kind of information respondents

would be interested in obtaining regularly from their

bank, the vast majority were – not surprisingly –

interested in information related to the core banking

products (accounts, interest rates, fees and charges).

The first-mentioned CSR initiatives, confidentiality

followed by environmental initiatives, were related

directly to consumer concerns. Only 19% stated they

were interested in being informed about their bank’s

sponsorship activities, and only 13% were interested

in information about equal employment opportunity

initiatives of their bank. Figure 2 provides the full

ranking of information needs.

Figure 2 also contains respondents’ assessment of

the kind of information regularly provided to them

by banks. While the banks generally satisfied the

66

16

73 5

1 1 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0

70

16

73 3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Inco

rrect

Corre

ct:1

Corre

ct:2

Corre

ct: 3

Corre

ct:4

Corre

ct:5

Corre

ct: 6

Corre

ct:7

Corre

ct: 8

Corre

ct:9

Corre

ct: 1

0

Corre

ct: 1

1

Verbal recall itemsGraphical recall items

%

Figure 1. Percentage of correct assignments of verbal

and graphical CSR initiatives to banks.

Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation

needs for product-related information, major infor-

mation provision gaps emerged in the area of CSR

communication. Most strikingly, consumers wanted

to know more about executive pay levels: approxi-

mately one third of the respondents stated that they

would like to receive more information about

executive pay levels and only 3% stated that they

have been provided with this information. This

mirrors the high level of scepticism Australians have

about banks in general (Kohler, 2003). Informing

consumers about the safety and confidentiality of

their data was identified as a second area in which

banks should improve their communication with

consumers. Another ‘information gap’ emerged in

the area of the banks’ environmental improvements

or recycling efforts.

These results indicate that the information needs

of consumers are not currently met. Although only a

minority of consumers showed interest in regularly

receiving CSR information, this market segment, of

between 10 and 20%, represents a group that could

potentially influence the demand for CSR initiatives

among other less information-sensitive consumers.

Price, Feick and Higie (1987, p. 330) attribute this

potential to the ‘web of word-of-mouth’. In con-

sidering the demand-side effects of informed con-

sumers, Price et al., 1987, pp. 328–329) contend that

‘even a significant minority of informed buyers who

gather and use information in their personal pur-

chases’ can encourage business to ‘alter product

offerings to appeal to them, and other consumers

will accrue the benefits of informed consumers’

market vigilance’. The reluctance of banks to match

consumer demands for information on key operating

activities, such as executive remuneration, may be

interpreted as a lack of commitment to the values

claimed in publicised CSR initiatives, undermining

the legitimacy of those claims.

Information source trust

Interesting insights were gained from responses to

the question about which sources of information

respondents would trust (see Figure 3). Major dif-

ferences in trustworthiness exist between different

information sources under the control of the bank.

Forty per cent of the respondents stated that they

trusted their bank’s website, but only half as many

(20%) trusted bank advertising. Bank employees

were trusted by 26%; banks’ direct mail by 24%; and

information available at the branch by 21%. How-

ever, sources not within direct control of the bank

played a major role, if not the dominant role, in

87%

58%

53%

35%

31%

19%

18%

17%

13%

74%

47%

22%

10%

3%

14%

2%

4%

2%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Interest rates, fees & charges

Details on different products and access methods

Customer safety, confidentiality

Environmental improvements or recycling efforts

Executive pay levels

Support for the arts, sport, education, charity etc.

Improvements in job security or employee development

Support for communities overseas

Support for employees based on gender, race etc.Interested

Provided

Y

Figure 2. Consumers’ information demand and supply.

Alan Pomering and Sara Dolnicar

the communication of CSR initiatives: almost half of

respondents trusted independent experts, and infor-

mation obtained from newspapers and TV news was

evaluated as trustworthy by about one-third of

respondents. This indicates that banks might con-

sider an increased public relations effort to com-

municate their CSR initiatives, as opposed to

advertising campaigns, which are more prone to

consumer scepticism (Obermiller and Spangenberg,

1998). This recommendation is supported by the

difference between the stated trust regarding infor-

mation about CSR and product-related information.

Newspaper and magazine articles, TV news

and radio announcers were perceived as more

trustworthy sources of information about social

issues compared with bank-controlled information

sources.

Figure 3 contains the information sources used by

respondents. Two-thirds used the Internet as an

information source in banking matters; and almost

half of the respondents stated bank advertisements,

followed by information provided in the branches

and through direct mail were used. Family and

friends (word-of-mouth) were used by one-third of

respondents. That our sample was collected through

an online panel is relevant here because, while it was

representative of the Australian population in all

major socio-demographics, it was clearly skewed

towards individuals who tended to use the Internet.

The high level of trust and use of the bank website

should therefore be interpreted with care, because of

the sample’s likely higher Internet use than the

general population’s.

Association with CSR-related personal characteristics

We conducted correlation analyses to test our

hypotheses that consumer awareness of social issues,

their evaluations of CSR responsibilities, and their

stated support of socially responsible businesses are

associated with their awareness of CSR initiatives.

Consumers generally reported a low level of

awareness of social issues. The percentage of

respondents who reported a ‘very high awareness’

of the 12 social issues taken from banks’ websites fell

between one and 9%. The greatest number of

respondents felt familiar with environmental issues –

unsurprising, given the emphasis on green issues

over the past several decades (for example, King and

Mackinnon, 2002), including the work of organi-

sations such as Greenpeace and discussions about the

effects of global warming. Between eight and 34% of

respondents reported a ‘very low awareness’ of the

12 social issues, with corporate funding of the arts

the least familiar.

46%

40%

39%

34%

27%

26%

24%

21%

20%

19%

13%

8%

41%

58%

52%

31%

12%

41%

29%

37%

29%

18%

12%

3%

6%

62%

33%

16%

18%

30%

32%

35%

44%

7%

6%

4%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Independent experts

Bank’s website

Family/ friends

Newspaper articles

Television news

Bank employees

Bank’s direct mail (including email)

Information available inside bank branches

Bank’s advertising

Magazine articles

Other internet sites

Radio announcers

Trustworthy - social issuesTrustworthy - product infoUsed

Figure 3. Consumers’ trust in information sources and information source use.

Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation

Positive correlations emerged between consumer

awareness of social issues and their correct answers to

awareness recall items. The association with the

verbal recall items is statistically significant at the

0.05 level (Pearson correlation: 0.119), but not sig-

nificant for the graphical recall items. No association

was detected regarding consumers’ evaluations of

CSR responsibilities and consumers’ stated support

of socially responsible businesses. These results sug-

gest that focusing on individuals with specific

interests (sports, charities and so on) is currently the

superior strategy compared to trying to identify

‘generally socially responsible’ consumers, and trying

to customise CSR communications for this hetero-

geneous group.

Discussion

While CSR has been acknowledged to have positive

influences on consumers’ attitudes when awareness is

created under experimental conditions, several

researchers (for example, Maignan, 2001; Mohr

et al., 2001) have called for research to determine the

level of consumer awareness of CSR initiatives in

real marketplaces. This study addresses this call by

investigating Australian consumers’ awareness of and

dispositions toward banks’ CSR programs.

The qualitative phase of our study provided

insights into the main four Australian banks’ per-

spective on CSR: the Australian banking sector

views CSR initiatives as a promising strategy to re-

build relationships with key stakeholder groups,

particularly employees and consumers, damaged

over the past decade or so as a result of employee and

service reductions, and price increases, through fees

and charges. Consumer disaffection with the bank-

ing sector, and its source, was acknowledged in the

first stage of our research – as one interviewed

manager put it:

We were arrogant toward customers.

Several of the managers interviewed conceded

that the increased interest in engaging in and com-

municating CSR initiatives is also due to the com-

petitive pressure which newer community-based

banks have exerted as they have entered the market

and grown their customer bases. While it may be

easy for new brands to enter markets positioned as

community-friendly and unencumbered by negative

associations, repositioning a tainted brand is likely to

prove more challenging. The major banks risk

cynical consumers agreeing with the Public Rela-

tions Watch view that industry’s current infatuation

with CSR has been seen as simply a response to ‘the

worst orgy of corporate irresponsibility in at least the

past half century’ (www.prrwatch.org, 2006).

Although one of the interviewed executives

anticipated consumers would see little difference

between banks and would choose one they knew

had a great product and was ethical and socially

responsible, the stain of past, self-confessed arro-

gance towards customers may in fact disadvantage

the established banks which have been perceived to

act irresponsibly in the past, giving new entrants a

comparative advantage in CSR differentiation, at

least in the short term. Research into consumer

boycott behaviour indicates that animosity may be

maintained towards a perceived egregious organisa-

tion long after the organisation has ceased its egre-

gious behaviour (for example, Ettenson and Klein,

2003), indicating that the competitive disadvantage

of the established banks may even have longer-term

consequences.

Nonetheless, all the ‘big four’ banks, to varying

degrees, have now accepted CSR as a new com-

petitive frontier and are attempting to position their

brands as contributing more broadly to society.

Since these banks have taken the same approach of

using CSR to improve their position in the mar-

ketplace, however, merely engaging in CSR cannot

be expected to lead to a competitive advantage.

Engaging in different kinds of CSR initiatives is

necessary to successfully use CSR for market posi-

tioning purposes, and this appears to be what is

happening in Australia. Westpac, for example,

emphasizes having signed the Equator Principles

which commits them to not lend money to socially

irresponsible corporations, whereas ANZ positions

itself as supporting indigenous issues, such as build-

ing financial literacy, and providing scholarships

and employment opportunities for Aboriginal

Australians.

Results from the consumer awareness study

indicate that: (1) both general and specific awareness

levels of banks’ CSR initiatives are low, despite

communication efforts made by Australian banks;

Alan Pomering and Sara Dolnicar

(2) banks currently do not satisfy consumers’ interest

in receiving CSR-related information; (3) while

bank-controlled communication channels are per-

ceived as highly trustworthy with respect to prod-

uct-related information, independent sources, such

as the media, are more trusted regarding information

about CSR; and (4) differences in respondents’

interests are a possible basis for improving CSR

communication effectiveness through segmentation

approaches.

The banks’ moves to reposition their brands as

socially responsible may be based on the generally

positive results of recent CSR–consumer research,

but such results have been based on consumer

awareness of firms’ CSR records being either as-

sumed or artificially created rather than real. Also

presumed is that consumers are sufficiently familiar

with the pertinent social issues to be able to discern

the CSR initiative’s contribution to addressing the

issue. Low awareness of banks’ CSR initiatives may

therefore be due to CSR issues generally having low

salience for Australian consumers. One manager

interviewed expressed this as:

I think we – the Australian consumer market – are not

as developed or mature as our European counterparts.

The people living in very small crowded countries have

the immediacy of environmental concerns right in their

face. This has changed in the last few years, particularly

around water shortages, and people are much more

aware that they need to be thinking about these issues,

but they are not buying on the basis of them yet.

Increased salience, brought about by external

pressures, such as water shortages or other environ-

mental or social crises, may heighten the importance

of CSR as a purchase criterion. Current results

support this assumption, because respondents with

higher levels of interest in certain CSR domains

demonstrate significantly higher awareness levels.

A focus on consumer segments which are par-

ticularly interested in certain CSR areas appears to

be the most promising CSR communication strat-

egy. Little prior research has been undertaken

investigating the potential of market segmentation to

improve the effectiveness of communicating CSR

initiatives. Roberts (1996), while not investigating

the issue of CSR advertising effectiveness specifi-

cally, concludes that socially responsible consumers

exist, but that they cannot be easily profiled by

criteria such as socio-demographics. Mohr et al.

(2001) constructed four consumer segments on the

basis of their responsiveness to CSR and described

differences between them with respect to respon-

dents’ CSR expectations, their attitude towards so-

cially responsible firms, their general attitude

towards business, and their perceived attributions of

the firm’s motivation for being socially responsible.

While this study demonstrates the high degree of

heterogeneity in the marketplace with respect to

CSR, it provides little guidance to companies as all

variables under study are psychographic. Our results,

however, indicate that CSR messages have to be

matched to people’s interests. For instance, interest

in the sport of cricket does not primarily have any-

thing to do with CSR, but someone who likes

cricket may notice that their bank supports cricket in

their community, which leads to CSR awareness

and, consequently, can be expected to translate into

attitudes and even purchasing behaviour favourable

to the organisation engaging in such CSR initiatives.

Our findings are in line with conclusions drawn by

Sen and Bhattacharya (2001) who found that support

for the firm’s CSR was linked to people’s support for

the CSR domain. Sen and Bhattacharya conse-

quently recommend aligning CSR initiatives with

the firm’s competitive positioning and the positions

of its ‘key stakeholder groups on alternative CSR

issues’ (p. 238).

Low general consumer awareness of the many

social issues banks and other businesses engage with

through their CSR programs must be of concern to

businesses seeking advantage from the communica-

tion of their good deeds, since this is an important

antecedent for consumer appreciation of the firm’s

social contribution. However, should CSR simply

be about engaging with social issues that are salient

to particular market segments the firm wishes to

pursue? Should CSR be opportunistic in terms of

addressing the social problems bank customers are

most familiar with, or should CSR aim at helping

where help is most needed, whether or not the

public is acutely aware of these problems? The ANZ

bank, for example, has made the development of

indigenous community financial literacy the cor-

nerstone of its current CSR program, although the

majority of Australians are not familiar with the

financial literacy problems of indigenous Australians.

One way of weakening the trade-off between

Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation

‘opportunistic CSR’ and CSR initiatives less effec-

tive in promoting the bank’s core business, because

customers are not familiar with the social problem

addresses, is to educate bank customers and con-

sumers about the importance of social issue they may

be less familiar with. This approach – ‘growing the

maturity of consumers’ – has been identified by one

of the bank managers we interviewed, and has been

proposed by Auger et al. (2003) as one solution to

the problem of consumers being quite unfamiliar

with social, or ethical, issues. Otherwise, informa-

tion about responsible corporate behaviour may only

have little effect on their buying behaviour. If

marketing communications managers are to expect

greater persuasion effects from their CSR campaigns

their role of social-issue educator may need to re-

ceive greater attention. This is likely to be new and

challenging terrain for marketing professionals, a

requisite situation acknowledged by Schultz and

Morsing (2003).

While banks may not be communicating their

CSR achievements effectively at present, there is an

identifiable segment of consumers that want to learn

what social good their bank is doing. According to

one of the executives we interviewed the level of

demand for such information may be at odds with

banks’ current perceptions. Based on our results

regarding source trust for CSR information, how

the story is told may be more important than what

story is told. One specific area of interest for banks,

given the importance of frontline personnel in cus-

tomer interactions in service settings such as retail

banking, is the low level of trust our respondents

place in bank employees relative to other CSR

information sources. This is also of concern given

the bank executives we interviewed indicate the

importance of their employees as a key audience for

their CSR communications and conduit for the

CSR message getting across to customers. Employ-

ees, the banks believe, must be sold the message

before external customers could be expected to be

convinced. It may be that our ‘online’ panel of

respondents have been ‘pushed’ online by past

unsatisfactory contacts with bank personnel as well as

‘pulled’ online by the convenience and value this

low-contact medium offers, but since frontline ser-

vice staff act as the ‘sales force’ for businesses such as

banks, understanding why they are trusted so little

should be of managerial interest.

Conclusions, limitations and future work

This study investigated Australians’ level of aware-

ness of CSR activities undertaken by Australian

banks, and their dispositions towards these activities.

We examined consumers’ interest in receiving more

information on CSR activities, and the extent to

which they trust different sources of information

regarding CSR initiatives.

We chose the banking sector because of its pioneer

role in CSR, likely prompted by banks’ poor reputa-

tion and the low level of product differentiation, the

sector’s possibilities for both high- and low-contact

interactions with customers over ongoing relation-

ships, and because choosing a bank is a high-involve-

ment decision for consumers, calling for effortful

cognitive processing in the decision-making process.

The study contained a qualitative stage which

studied banks’ CSR activities and communication

strategies, and a quantitative stage which investigated

Australians’ awareness, their information needs, and

levels of trust in a range of information sources.

The main results show that awareness levels are

low; Australians’ information needs about CSR

initiatives are currently unmet. Since independent

sources of information are more trusted than com-

munication channels controlled by the banks, banks

might find it advantageous to direct the emphasis of

their CSR communication efforts away from

advertising to public relations. If advertising is to be

used however, careful thought must be given to the

executional factors used in order to reduce scepti-

cism. While consumers are generally sceptical to-

wards advertising, CSR advertising appeals induce

specific situational dimensions of scepticism and

cynicism to weaken message persuasibility. Given

variations in consumers’ abilities to process infor-

mation, and informational needs, market segmenta-

tion could be a promising approach to improve CSR

communications and increase the awareness among

consumers specifically interested in certain areas

supported by CSR initiatives. This awareness should

include information about social issues, particularly

their gravitas, in order to allow firms’ CSR initia-

tives to be seen in the context of their contribution

to reducing a social problem.

Our findings are limited in the following ways: (1)

in scope – the study is confined to the Australian

banking sector. Replication studies in other countries

Alan Pomering and Sara Dolnicar

and industries would be valuable, to increase under-

standing of the gap in awareness for the effective use of

CSR in gaining competitive advantage. (2) We col-

lected data through a permission-based Internet panel,

which, while representative of Australian population

in terms of socio-demographic census data, is biased

towards Internet users. The high level of trust and use

of the Internet cannot be assumed to hold for the

Australian population. (3) The dependent variable of

interest in our study was awareness, which does not

discriminate between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ attitude

resulting from awareness. Consumers who are aware

are often highly sceptical of the CSR messages com-

municated, and consequently, the successful transla-

tion from communication via awareness to purchasing

behaviour could be interrupted. (4) Our study does

not measure the depth of scepticism or cynicism to-

ward banks’ CSR claims, though, from bank execu-

tives’ comments, and growth in the popularity of

newer ‘community’ banks and non-bank financial

organisations, this is presumed to be quite high. (5)

We have not provided an analysis of the ethical obli-

gations of banks to provide information about their

CSR activities, but have instead concentrated on the

effectiveness of what CSR information is communi-

cated in this sector. Given that customers require CSR

information to act as rewarding and punishing

authorities, it makes practical sense for those firms that

are acting responsibly to do so. With increasing con-

sumer demand for such information, firms might

benefit by treating this communication task more

strategically, acknowledging the different cognitive

abilities and motivations of different segments of

consumers in doing so. The prospect of information

diffusion by more information-sensitive market ma-

vens, as discussed by Price et al. (1987), endorses such

an approach. Socially responsible firms should in-

crease awareness of their initiatives in order to raise the

minimum standard consumers learn to expect in a

particular product sector. Information, as these au-

thors note (p. 328), is ‘crucial to the operation of

efficient markets’, and this is an obvious ethical

outcome, as it allows consumers to reward ethical

business philosophies and, in doing so, contribute to

the sustainability of CSR initiatives because CSR

initiatives can be seen as compatible with profit aims.

Differentiating resultant attitudes from different

methods of awareness creation would provide an

interesting area of future research to improve our

understanding of the CSR–consumer nexus. Given

the variety of high- and low-contact communication

channels open to banks, the ‘what’, ‘when’ and

‘how’ of CSR information for optimum commu-

nication effects for different audiences offers fertile

ground for future study. Our findings regarding

most-trusted media sources and demands for CSR

information point to these being useful bases for

future segmentation studies.

Whether marketing communications managers

can educate their audiences about pertinent social

issue topics, and the gravitas of these issues, and what

methods might prove most beneficial in this chal-

lenge, provides another interesting avenue for fur-

ther research. Adding a social dimension to

traditional brand communications is attributed to

adding complexity to the consumer’s information

processing task (for example, Drumwright, 1996).

The field of cognitive psychology, in particular

information processing theories related to context

and cognitive resource matching, may be fruitful

directions for investigating how this complexity

might be reduced.

Another interesting area of research would be to

investigate a less detailed knowledge of banks’ CSR

initiatives by simply asking whether consumers are

aware of certain banks engaging in CSR. This ap-

proach would be in line with brand image studies

where the perception matters, rather than the actual

knowledge. The results of such a study may help us

to shed more light on how consumers store CSR

knowledge. Maybe they do so in a more diffuse way

then the one investigated in the current study.

Given that firms are increasingly seeking to in-

form and persuade consumers of their CSR initia-

tives via direct means (as reflected in the CSR

advertising campaign undertaken by Westpac just

after the completion of our study in which Westpac

claimed to be a socially responsible lender to busi-

ness), ways of improving the advertising effectiveness

of CSR messages should be researched in future.

One interesting perspective – which reflects the

need for bank customers and consumers to be

familiar with social issues before CSR initiative

addressing those issues can be effective – is that

proposed by resource matching theory (for example,

Anand and Sternthal, 1989). This theory proposes

that advertising effectiveness is highest when people

have the cognitive resources available that are

Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation

required to process the message (Keller and Block,

1997). While in the past the motivation to process

the message was used to operationalise the available

cognitive resources, future work in CSR should use

knowledge about social issues as the measure of

available cognitive resources and investigate the

effect of such knowledge on CSR advertising

effectiveness.

A final caveat is the acknowledgement of the

possibility that the reason the banks are failing to get

their message across is because their approach to

CSR is perceived as very mercenary and insincere.

The depth of this scepticism and its role in influ-

encing consumer judgments must be of critical

importance to the banking sector. Heightened

scepticism would indicate that CSR may not be the

effective corporate image tool the banks hope it to

be, and, as a corollary, banks must pursue more

ethical behaviours if they expect their CSR claims to

be accepted. Since the banking sector’s reputation

has been damaged in recent years, replication studies

in other product categories may reveal lower levels

of scepticism and, subsequently, greater effectiveness

of CSR communication strategies. Such studies

could verify Bhattacharya and Sen’s (2004) sugges-

tion that the effects of CSR on consumers may be

dampened by their cynicism towards certain indus-

tries. We might interpret consumers’ low awareness

of banks’ CSR programs as a surrogate for the

scepticism and cynicism induced by the banking

sector’s perceived inconsistent values, but further

research is needed to validate such an interpretation.

Acknowledgements

This study was completed with assistance of a Faculty of

Research Grant from the Faculty of Commerce, Uni-

versity of Wollongong, Australia. Preliminary results

have been presented that the Australian and New

Zealand Marketing Academy Conference in 2007.

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Assessing the Prerequisite of Successful CSR Implementation