Defined as fundamental actions carried out by a company to support social causes and to respect its promises to CSR (Kotler and Lee 2005a), marketing and corporate social initiatives are part of Corporate Social Responsibility. Those social causes are: health, safety, education, employment, environment, community and economic development and other philological and physical needs of the individual (Kotler and Lee 2005a).
According to Hessekiel et al. (cited in companiesandcausescanada 2017), there are six CSR initiatives, but some fall under the umbrella of marketing initiatives as well: Corporate Sponsorships, Cause-related Marketing, Corporate Social Marketing (CSM), Corporate Philanthropy, Community Volunteering and Socially Responsible Business Practices (Hessekiel 2012; Caneva 2015). While the others aim for fundraisings, benevolence and raising awareness for a cause or brand, CSM’s target is behavioural change (Kotler and Lee 2005b). Additionally, it also brings more marketing profit than the other initiatives (Kotler and Lee 2004).
Corporate Social Marketing:
Marketing or CSR? BOTH!
Corporate Social Marketing is a mix of marketing and CSR that aims for positive change and influences social behaviour (Awa 2013; Stewart 2015). More exactly, (Kotler and Lee 2004, p. 14) defines it as “a powerful, if often misunderstood, strategy that uses marketing principles and techniques to foster behaviour change in a target population, improving society while at the same time building markets for products or services”.
Corporate Social Marketing campaigns bring benefits both to the society and the company (Kotler and Lee 2005b).
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
 |