Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for Master‟s Degree of Technology: Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2007. Thesis (M.Tech.: Marketing)-Dept. of Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2007. xv, 205 leaves / Cause related marketing (CRM) is becoming a popular marketing strategy used by brand managers, retailers and service companies. It can be described as a marketing strategy that links charities or ‘causes’ with the sales of a product, brand or service. The charity is mentioned in promotional campaigns and a certain percentage is donated to the cause in accordance with unit sales or turnover. A study was conducted in the eThekweni region of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa to gather information on this issue. The study was a quantitative survey and data was collected by means of an interview process. The overall objective of this study was to gain an understanding of consumer behaviour towards companies using CRM in the greater eThekweni region. This objective was made up of three sub-objectives. The first subobjective was to identify whether eThwekeni consumers would switch brands to a company involved with CRM, if price and quality were equal. This was followed by subobjective two, which was to establish whether particular socio-demographic characteristics of consumers would be related to their evaluation of a CRM offer. Finally, sub-objective three was to establish whether those same socio-demographic characteristics would be related to the selection of specific causes. / M

Thesis (M.Tech.: Marketing)-Dept. of Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2007. xv, 205 leaves / Cause related marketing (CRM) is becoming a popular marketing strategy used by brand managers, retailers and service companies. It can be described as a marketing strategy that links charities or ‘causes’ with the sales of a product, brand or service. The charity is mentioned in promotional campaigns and a certain percentage is donated to the cause in accordance with unit sales or turnover. A study was conducted in the eThekweni region of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa to gather information on this issue. The study was a quantitative survey and data was collected by means of an interview process. The overall objective of this study was to gain an understanding of consumer behaviour towards companies using CRM in the greater eThekweni region. This objective was made up of three sub-objectives. The first subobjective was to identify whether eThwekeni consumers would switch brands to a company involved with CRM, if price and quality were equal. This was followed by subobjective two, which was to establish whether particular socio-demographic characteristics of consumers would be related to their evaluation of a CRM offer. Finally, sub-objective three was to establish whether those same socio-demographic characteristics would be related to the selection of specific causes.

The South African formal education system has undergone many changes since the formulation of the White Paper on Education and Training in 1995. These developments challenge organisations that want to run successful programmes or projects in schools to adapt their social marketing strategies. Against this background, the aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between social marketing strategies and participation of schools in environmental competitions. The goals of the research were to identify issues that have influenced schools participation in the Collect-a-Can Annual Schools Competition, identify and review social marketing strategies used by Collect-a-Can to influence participation of schools in the competition, and identify relationships between issues that influenced school participation in the competition and the Collect-a-Can’s social marketing strategies. A qualitative design that applied an interpretative case study, which focused on the Collect-a-Can’s Annual Schools Competition was used to explore these relationships. Data was generated through interviews, document analysis and a workshop. Nine respondents from nine schools and three Collect-a-Can management staff members participated in the interview process. Twenty participants from twenty schools participated in the workshop. The findings of the research revealed that there were relationships between the social marketing strategies used by Collect-a-Can and participation of schools in the competition. These relationships were found to be linked mainly to policy changes within formal education which Collect-a-Can could not respond to as a result of various reasons which included among others, the core focus of thecompany, lack of funds and a need to operate in a cost-effective way. The recommendations indicate possible areas for improvement and guidelines which could be used by Collect-a-Can for the competition without digressing from its core focus or incurring additional costs. These include a more responsive and adaptive management approach and a stronger educational orientation.

This study aimed to provide South African public relations professionals with insights into the use of the Social Media News Release (SMNR) as a PR 2.0 tool that has the potential to elicit consumer-driven dialogue in social media channels about information, a brand, product or service advocated by the particular social media news release. Drawing on literature from fields such as public relations, new media studies, marketing, and consumer studies, an analysis of two South African SMNR case studies was conducted including the Samsung Omnia i900 SMNR and the Standard Bank Pro20 2008 and 2009 SMNRs. An in-depth content analysis applying limited designations analysis and detailed assertions analysis techniques was performed on selected content from the dedicated social media platforms linked to in the SMNRs to determine the origins, tone and thematic nature of communications on the platforms. A total of 2071 messages was analysed by means of content analysis across six social media platforms in the two case studies. In order to triangulate and support data, an online survey was conducted with 43 social media users as respondents in order to determine social media users’ interactions with the social media platforms and SMNRs. The study found that the social media platforms linked to the SMNRs in the two case studies largely successfully elicited and hosted social media user-generated conversations about the themes advocated by the SMNR. The Blog, Facebook and YouTube platforms proved to be most successful in generating social media conversation, while the Flickr, Twitter and Delicious platforms were less effective among South African consumers. It was found that social media news releases are likely to elicit consumer-driven dialogue on the dedicated social media platforms linked to by the SMNRs if the platforms are managed correctly. Factors that were identified as important management considerations include ensuring the relevancy and timeliness of content on the social media platforms, the involvement by the platform creator in stimulating and encouraging participation from social media users where necessary, as well as the swift response to user comments, deleting of spam comments and pro-active management of negative perceptions that may arise from user comments on the platforms.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Arts, Culture and Heritage Management, 2017 / Arts organisations have found it difficult to survive in an economic climate that offers limited resources towards the arts. Vansa points out that Corporate Social Investment (CSI) funds have become limited thus this has prompted arts organisations to look for funding elsewhere (http://vansa.co.za). This paper explores how arts organisations can benefit from Cause Related Marketing (CRM) as a possible alternative and solution to the problem of funding. Through empirical evidence from a case study of the SHOUT campaign, sponsored by Kia Motors, this research outlines the distinct features of CRM & CSI and also the roles of both arts organisations and corporates in the collaboration. The main findings of this research highlight that there isn’t a clear definition of CRM in a South African context. This poses as a challenge for the development and implementation of the technique in a South African context. Furthermore, some arts administrators were reluctant to implement CRM due to the fear of compromising the integrity of the artistic product. There are vast possibilities for both arts organisations and corporates to benefit from CRM. However it is important for these CRM partnerships to clearly align their products in order to fully benefit from the advantages of CRM. / XL2018

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Lungisisa Indlela Village is a non-profit organisation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It provides holistic residential care for orphaned and vulnerable children in order to “rescue a child, restore a life, raise a leader and release a star”. The village can house 1 000 orphans and the model used is long-term cluster foster care where the children will get a sense of belonging in a homely environment, modelling an African village lifestyle. The houses are built in clusters, each with eight homes surrounding a communal play area. Each home has a fully-trained house mother who may bring two biological children, and will be given up to six children through the Department of Social Welfare. Within a family environment, they will receive unconditional love, spiritual discipleship, care and nurturing. The Lungisisa Indlela Village School is a registered independent school which comprises a play-school, pre-school, primary school and secondary school. Lungisisa Indlela Village is assisting others who have the same vision to build villages in Pretoria, Benoni, Kimberley, Grahamstown, East London and George. The vision of Lungisisa Indlela Village is to build thousands of villages across Africa in order to turn one of the continent’s biggest problems into the solution. The research focus is on the discipline of social marketing. More specifically, how Lungisisa Indlela Village makes use of the principles of social marketing in order to gain support from the community, government, corporate organisations and churches. A case study approach was followed, whereby literature and in-depth interviews were used to compare Lungisisa Indlela Village’s current marketing activities to best practice social marketing principles. The aim of the research was not only to assist Lungisisa Indlela Village with their expansion, but also to assist other orphanages and cause-related marketing organisations in putting together a marketing plan to drive the desired behaviour in both South Africa and the rest of Africa (in countries facing similar challenges). The study, even though aimed at how Lungisisa Indlela Village compares to best practice social marketing principles, revealed that there are many other business and strategic issues to consider. These issues, however, inform how the marketing plan is executed. Leadership, governance, relationship with government and marketing the Lungisisa Indlela Village brand and solution are very important questions, issues and initiatives that need to be addressed before further expansion takes place. The author would like to encourage the reader to watch the following video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSnujMEumrc, before reading the rest of this paper.

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu / Propelled by increased competition with the private sector and other similar organisations, the non-profit sector increasingly faces challenges to create meaningful interactions with stakeholders which, among other benefits, allow for differentiation and the creation of favourable and lasting impressions of the corporate brand. The main research aim of this study was to propose possible elements for a conceptual framework for the integration of non-profit organisations’ social media brand communication. The point of departure was that the achievement of a favourable corporate brand in the non-profit sector could, inter alia, be realised by following an integrated communication approach when utilising social media to communicate with stakeholders. The study is different from prior studies because of its specific interdisciplinary focus on the corporate brand, social media and integrated communication (IC), and the fact that it is merged into one study. The research into the main contribution of the study was based on a thorough literature review focusing on the following objectives: to explore corporate branding and social media; and to describe elements that could constitute an integrated approach to social media brand communication. During the investigation into the topic, the social media focus of the study was framed on the basis of classical theoretical views, and the theory of and perspectives on human action, symbolic interaction and social presence. The absence of a single set of theoretical assumptions of social media necessitated an inductive reasoning process based on identified key elements of social media. Subsequent to the literature review, the empirical research gathered invaluable insights from communication professionals in South African non-profit organisations, and who are responsible for communication by means of social media. Finally, and following the measurement of the proposed elements, the objective of proposing possible elements for the integration of social media brand communication and presenting it in a conceptual framework was achieved. The conceptual framework was based on three foundational principles, namely a corporate brand focus and a philosophy of communication integration, underpinned by social media. The proposed conceptual framework should provide new insights into and contribute to the existing body of knowledge on organisational communication. / Toenemende mededinging in die privaatsektor en tussen ander soortgelyke organisasies, rig ‘n grotewordende uitdaging aan die niewinsgerigte sektor om betekenisvolle wisselwerking met belangegroepe te bewerkstellig, iets wat dit onder andere moontlik maak om te differensieer en om gunstige en blywende indrukke van die korporatiewe handelsmerk te skep. Die belangrikste navorsingsoogmerk van hierdie studie was om moontlike elemente aan die hand te doen vir ʼn konsepsuele raamwerk vir die integrasie van niewinsgerigte organisasies se kommunikasie in sosiale media. Die vertrekpunt was dat ʼn gunstige korporatiewe handelsmerk in die niewinsgerigte sektor onder andere gerealiseer kan word deur middel van ʼn geïntegreerde kommunikasiebenadering wanneer sosiale media gebruik word om met belanghebbendes te kommunikeer. Die studie verskil van vorige studies weens die spesifieke interdissiplinêre fokus op die korporatiewe handelsmerk, sosiale media en geïntegreerde kommunikasie, asook die feit dat dit in een studie geïntegreer is. Die navorsing vir hierdie studie se belangrikste bydrae was gegrond op ʼn deurtastende literatuuroorsig, toegespits daarop om die gebruik van korporatiewe handelsmerke en sosiale media te verken; en om elemente wat ʼn geïntegreerde benadering tot handelsmerkkommunikasie in sosiale media sou kon daarstel, te beskryf. Gedurende die ondersoek na die tema het die studie se sosialemediafokus gerus op klassieke teoretiese sienings en die teorie van en perspektiewe op menslike aksie, simboliese wisselwerking en sosiale teenwoordigheid. Die gebrek aan ʼn enkele stel teoretiese aannames van sosiale media het ʼn proses van induktiewe redenering, gegrond op geïdentifiseerde sleutelelemente van sosiale media, genoodsaak. Voortspruitend uit die literatuuroorsig het die empiriese navorsing uiters waardevolle insigte bekom van kommunikasiekundiges in Suid-Afrikaanse niewinsgerigte organisasies wat deur middel van sosiale media moet kommunikeer. Laastens en na afloop van die meting van die voorgestelde elemente is die oogmerk om moontlike elemente vir die integrasie van kommunikasie van ʼn handelsmerk in sosiale media en die aanbieding daarvan in ʼn konsepsuele raamwerk, bereik. Die konsepsuele raamwerk is op drie beginsels gegrond, naamlik ʼn fokus op die korporatiewe handelsmerk en ʼn filosofie van kommunikasieintegrasie, ondersteun deur sosiale media. Die voorgestelde konsepsuele raamwerk behoort nuwe insigte in en bydraes tot die bestaande kenniskorpus oor organisasiekommunikasie te bied. / Ngokugqugquzelwa ukwanda kokuncitisana kwemikhakha ezimele nezinye izinhlangano ezifanayo, umkhakha ongenzi inzuzo uyaqhubeka njalo nokubhekana nezinselelo zokwenza ukuthi ukuxhumana kahle nabanye ababambe iqhaza okuwukuthi, phakathi kokunye okungazuzwa, kuvumele ukwahlukaniswa kanye nokwakhiwa kwezimpawu zemifanekiso yenkampani ezikahle futhi eziyohlala isikhathi eside. Injongo enkulu yocwaningo lwalesi sifundo kwakuwukuhlongoza imikhakha engaseyenzeke yohlaka olungakapheleli lokuhlanganiswa kophawu lokuxhumana ezinkundleni zokuxhumana zezinhlangano ezingenzi inzuzo. Iphuzu elalisemqoka kwakuwukufeza umgomo wokuthi kwakhiwe uphawu olufanele lwenkampani emkhakheni ongayenzi inzuzo, phakathi kwezinye izinto, ufezeke ngokulandela indlela edidiyelwe yezokuxhumana uma kusetshenziswa izinkundla zokuxhumana ukuxoxisana nababambe iqhaza. Lesi sifundo sihlukile kwezinye esezike zenziwa ngaphambilini ngenxa yokuthi sigxile ngokukhethekile ekusetshenzisweni kophawu lwenkampani, izinkundla zokuxhumana kanye nezindlela zokuxhumana ezididiyelwe, i-integrated communication (i-IC), kanye nephuzu lokuthi kudidiyelwe kwaba ucwaningo olulodwa. Lolu cwaningo kulokho okusemqoka okuwumthelela walesi sifundo lwalugxile kakhulu ekubuyekezweni okujulile kwemibhalo kubhekwe kakhulu kulezi zinjongo ezilandelayo: ukuhlaziya uphawu lwenkampani nezinkundla zokuxhumana; nokuchaza amaphuzu angase akhombise indlela edidiyelwe ekuxhumaneni ngophawu lwezinkundla zokuxhumana. Ngesikhathi kuphenywa ngesihloko, ukugxila ezinkundleni zokuxhumana kulesi sifundo kwabalulwa esizindeni semibono yezinto ezingaphatheki, kanye nethiyori nemiqondo yokwenza komuntu, ukuxhumana ngezimpawu nokubakhona kwabantu basemphakathini. Ukungabibikho kweqoqo elilodwa lokucatshangelwa ngokwenzeka emiqondweni ngokwezinkundla zokuxhumana kwenza ukuthi kube nesidingo senqubo yokuqala ukucabanga ezinze emaphuzwini asemqoka ezinkundla zokuxhumana. Ukulandela ukubuyekezwa kwemibhalo, lolu cwaningo oluphethe ubufakazi obuphathekayo luqoqe ulwazi olusemqoka oluvela kosolwazi bezokuxhumana ezinhlanganweni ezingenzi nzuzo zaseNingizimu Afrika, futhi ezinomsebenzi wokuxhumana ngokusebenzisa izinkundla zokuxhumana. Ekugcineni, futhi ngokulandela izilinganiso zamaphuzu ahlongozwayo, yafezeka injongo yokuhlongoza okungase kube amaphuzu okudidiyela ukuxhumana ngokusebenzisa uphawu lwezinkundla zokuxhumana kanye nokuluveza njengohlaka lokusemqondweni. Uhlaka lokusemqondweni lwalugxile emigomeni eyisisekelo emithathu, okuwukugxila kuphawu lwenkampani nenzululwazi yokudidiyelwa kokuxhumana, nokusekelwe yizinkundla zokuxhumana. Uhlaka olusahlongozwa olungakapheleli kumele luhlinzeke ngemiqondo emisha futhi lube nomthelela esakhiweni solwazi esikhona ekuxhumaneni ngokwenhlangano. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)