I. Abstract
The study aims to explore and determine the importance of philanthropic marketing in business strategy with the help of understanding its concept in the literature as well as assessing the real world practice of the organizations. The philanthropic marketing is one of the new and most focused approaches in the field of marketing that is aimed to incorporate the business strategy in the social interest and welfare.
Manulife Cambodia is the insurance company in Cambodia that is mainly involved in community involvement and development using philanthropic marketing techniques such as donations to the schools, welfare of women in Cambodia, etc. These practices of the company are found as aligned with the aim to improve the company’s image among the clients within the country and to meet the expectations of stakeholders.
On the whole, it is concluded that philanthropic marketing is directly meant to address the expectations of stakeholders either clients or employee satisfaction and community development. The companies should practice these marketing techniques in the modern world, where, the customers are more focused towards the social issues, and the brand image and identity is being developed based on the participation of the companies in social issues.
II. Acknowledgment
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my Professor that provided me with the opportunity to improve and polish my skills of learning using the self ability to research about the particular topic within the marketing aspects.
I also wish to thank all the writers, authors, and researchers with the help of whom, I have found the extensive data and information about the particular issue of philanthropic marketing. I also like to sincerely express my appreciation and recognition of the company with the help of its website and reports available in the public domain that helped me to assess its practices.
I also thank my family and friends who always support my learning and different projects leaving me with some time and space to spend on my studies.
Introduction
Marketing is one of the major aspects of the business strategy that is directly aimed to develop customer value in the most effective and efficient way. Over the period of time, the marketing has been evolved from pure advertising to a broader sense of promoting business to create value in the context of profit making motive. Within this evolution, a new marketing concept has emerged as philanthropic marketing. Philanthropy is a new approach to business marketing that is simply a unique and prevailing way of combining the goals of marketing with the desires to increase the activities towards the welfare of the humanity. Philanthropic marketing is also known as cause-related marketing or strategic philanthropy. No matter of what and how it is known, the purpose of this specific marketing is to link the company with the not for profit aims and causes (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). In such a way, the company emerges as being helpful towards achieving the common welfare of the society or community. Therefore, the paper is going to review the concept of this new marketing approach to assess that either it is adopted by business or how it impacts to achieve the marketing expectations of the companies.
Research Objectives
As the marketing approach of the companies are evolving with the new form of promoting the business value among the customers using the well being of humanity and community strategy. Therefore, the paper is going to conduct research about the concept of philanthropic marketing to understand that how it is being taken in the literature and studies and people think about it. Based on this aim and purpose, the primary objectives of the study are as follows:
Findings
Concept of Philanthropic Marketing
The idea of philanthropic marketing has already been defined by many researchers, scholars and experts as a new form of marketing that is aimed to develop activities for the welfare and well being of humanity on the basis of rationalizing its giving in the motivation of profit. Many new and current studies have found philanthropic marketing as the techniques of marketing around the objectives of a company such as increasing sales, improving identify of brand and building and developing a brand, etc. In general, Fioravante (2010) has defined the concept as the integration of the business sector with the society or social sector. Many people usually confused between the philanthropic marketing and corporate social responsibility. In the matter of this confusion, it has cleared by File & Prince, (1998) that philanthropic marketing is entirely different from the corporate social responsibility as the corporate responsibility and green marketing are more focused towards the concerns of the consumers about the environmental issues and problems.
Philanthropic marketing is a completely new approach that is actually meant to connect the brand or corporate identity with the real roots, social benefits, nonprofit and welfare issues with the help of joint venture marketing and raising funds. Although, the concept and approach emerge as the part of the marketing tools and mix of the large corporations, however, the information and data is still limited to the use of such marketing techniques in the small and privately owned companies.
Connecting the marketing objectives of the enterprise with the not-for-profit causes and becoming helpful towards the good of the community, the business receives the corresponding benefits. One of the significant benefits to the companies or businesses using philanthropic marketing includes identity, exposure, retention of employees, the satisfaction of customers, leading generations and improvements in the productivity and performance. The benefits can also include the profits to the bottom-line of the company (Porter & Kumar, 2002).
The primary and the principal forms of engagement of the businesses in philanthropic include donating funds for the school education, donations to offer gifts in religious events and schools, making contributions for the refreshments at the community event, sponsoring teams of sports in different schools. No business either large or small can afford to pay for the requests, it receives for such activities of donations, and therefore, the firms decide to say yes or no based on their preferences and choices. The study has argued that the creative marketing with strategic philanthropic can lead the organizations to become able to say yes to every request.
Reasons of why business shift towards being Philanthropic
The customers in the modern world have become more concerned about the social issues and problems. It is one of the major reasons that led the corporations to shift their marketing towards philanthropic marketing. The companies now see the philanthropic marketing as the best techniques of marketing such as advertising and developing public relations through sponsorships. The involvement of the companies in the marketing techniques is considered as the best way to promote the brand and brand identity as the primary marketing objectives of the enterprise (Porter & Kumar, 2002).
Based on the benefits of philanthropic marketing and strategy to both society and business, the firms and corporations are needed to implement and adopt this marketing approach to realize and enjoy the benefits and gains of this marketing approach. Philanthropic beginnings and initiatives are critical to lead the business towards a socioeconomic relationship. The public and people expectations are diverting more towards social welfare, and therefore, it becomes the social responsibility of the companies to define themselves within these public expectations. Whenever the company builds the strategy, the benefits to the stakeholders and society, in general, are being considered as important (Fioravante, 2010). In line with these considerations, those companies achieve success more undoubtedly that balance the company needs with those of the customers and society. It means to achieve success in the marketplace; the firms are required to adopt philanthropic marketing.
Analysis
Manulife Cambodia & its Philanthropic Strategy in Marketing Development
Manulife Cambodia is one of the leading insurance companies in Cambodia. The company is highly committed to facilitate its clients much of their needs and expectation in the context of offering products and services of financial protection. The company provides insurance products to the customers and mainly focusing on the family insurance considering the family protection as the major need of the clients in the country (Manulife, 2015a).
The company is highly committed to support and hold the communities where it operates and exists. In line with these commitments of the enterprise, Manulife mainly focuses on three areas to support community include education, volunteers, and health wellness. The company in 2014 has donated 150 bicycles and 150 helmets to the students of the school of Pour un Sourire d’Enfant organization to support their academic year (Manulife, 2015b).
Like this activity, the company is also involvement in various other activities such as organizing seminars on the healthcare, women protection and financial planning to support the community to develop. All these community engagement activities of Manulife show that the company is involved in the philanthropic marketing to help the communities to develop themselves for not to profit purposes. Simply donations to school are one of the major basics of philanthropic marketing as the leading corporations of the world are also involved in the philanthropic strategy by making donations to schools (Porter & Kramer, 2002). This is how the company is implementing these approaches in its marketing development.
Incorporation of Philanthropic Marketing to meet the Expectations of Stakeholders
The company using philanthropic strategy in its marketing development is actually aimed to address the expectations of the various stakeholders as the expectations of the stakeholders are included the major aspects of philanthropic marketing. Giving back to the community is the belief behind the adoption of the philanthropic in the strategic actions of the business. This is how; Manulife being the largest company of insurance in Cambodia has developed itself as the company offering the development, wellbeing and welfare of the community.
The owners and investors are usually considered bottom line benefits of the strategic actions (Godfrey, 2005). The philanthropic activities of Manulife are remained abreast with the expectations of the owners and investors in terms of the clients’ value with the help of developing a brand identity and brand image. For instance, the company organized a seminar for health protection of women, targeting more than 200 women of Cambodia to improve their health and financial security using insurance. This is how the company using philanthropic strategy actually promoted its product to develop its sales, loyal clients and improve company’s image.
In addition to this, other stakeholders such as representatives, families, organizations and media also participate in its events and sponsorships and donation programs that also help the company to meet the expectations of these stakeholders. This is how Manulife is promoting its business and products using nonprofit techniques in marketing.
Conclusion
The findings and analysis of the study show that the philanthropic marketing has emerged and evolved as one of the established and important parts of the marketing mix for the corporations and privately held firms. The companies are involved in adopting this new approach in the marketing development and adopting with the purpose of achieving their marketing objectives using not for profit techniques and strategy by meeting the expectation of the stakeholders. It is concluded from the analysis and findings that philanthropic marketing is different from corporate social responsibility.
It is concluded from the study that the company has successfully met the expectations of its stakeholders such as owners, clients, community, and media. The company has improved its brand image and attracted customers using philanthropic strategy to meet the expectations of the owners and investors as well as worked on the social issues such as women protection, health problems and education to address the expectations of clients, community and media. Hence, the company complied with the expectations of the stakeholders.
Recommendation
It is recommended to the businesses and corporations based on the findings and analysis of the paper that they should incorporate philanthropic strategy in their marketing mix as the primary element to achieve success and efficiency. To be successful in the market, it is important for the companies to integrate their business sector with social sector to solve social issues for not to profit to achieve the marketing objectives of the enterprise.
References
Fioravante, P. L. (2010). Corporate philanthropy: A strategic marketing consideration. The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 11(3), 91.
Godfrey, P. C. (2005). The relationship between corporate philanthropy and shareholder wealth: A risk management perspective. Academy of management review, 30(4), 777-798.
Manulife. (2015a). Community Involvement. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from https://www.manulife.com.kh/Community-Involvement
Manulife. (2015b). Manulife promotes access to education for underprivileged students. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from https://www.manulife.com.kh/Community-Involvement-Article7
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2002). The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy. Harvard business review, 80(12), 56-68.
Varadarajan, P. R., & Menon, A. (1988). Cause-related marketing: A coalignment of marketing strategy and corporate philanthropy. The Journal of Marketing, 58-74.
