Corporate social responsibility in marketing strategy

CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility for Carcraft Driving School

Corporate social responsibility is necessary not only as an integral part of an organization's culture but as something corporations can demonstrate through her marketing efforts. This can create a delicate balance for firms, who must to be seen as engaging in socially responsible acts solely for the public relations benefits, but who must also ensure that their socially responsible actions are known to consumers and the public at large. Acts of corporate social responsibility can cover a wide range of operational changes, external initiatives, and charitable endeavors. According to one definition, corporate social responsibility in marketing consists of, "marketing activities which acknowledge corporate responsibilities to all stakeholders who may be affected by such activities" (Palmer: 2009). As there are many social issues that Carcraft's operations could impact, its operational and marketing efforts will need to address and acknowledge these responsibilities.

As a service industry that is very much dependent on geographic proximity to customers, Carcraft is in an excellent position to achieve a higher level of social responsibility in local communities by impacting the unemployment rate. Local instructors will need to be hired by the company, and creating more drivers also creates the potential for more job creation and economic growth as skills in the area expand. With unemployment in the United Kingdom currently at over eight percent, using local instructors and otherwise promoting local job and business growth would definitely be a means of living up to corporate social responsibilities (BBC, 2012). Marketing efforts could quite ethically promote this fact.

One of the clearest ways that Carcraft's business relates to a prominent social issue is in the fact that it intimately involves the driving or cars, and thus in almost all cases the use of fossil fuels and the creation of more pollution. Ecological issues are of increasing concern to businesses and individuals the world over, and pollution from automobile use is one of the most prominent and significant sources of ecological problems, and this has several implications for Carcraft's business. Although Carcraft does not produce cars or in any other way contribute directly to pollution, the service provided by the company necessarily encourages driving, and could possibly add cars to the road by making it easier for inexperienced drivers to gain confidence and decide to drive more regularly. As this could have a negative ecological impact on local areas and the world at large, Carcraft should balance this by encouraging the use of hybrids and other vehicles that use less fossil fuels and produce lower volumes of cleaner emissions, thus reducing pollution. Marketing efforts in these areas will both live up to ethical principles of encouraging responsibility and ecological health while also promoting the company's image as environmentally friendly. Carcraft's own fleet should be of hybrid or electric cars, as well, so when learners/customers do not provide their own vehicles they are learning in a more socially responsible manner.