engleski

Marketing at the Point-of-Sale in the Function of Corporate Social Responsibility in Baby Food Category

In many ways corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a mantra for our time (Schmeltz, 2012). Companies that follow the practice of CSR in their business are not achieving only a higher profit, yet they achieve a positive image in the eyes of all stakeholders. Relying on CSR, we expect from companies, apart from the highest quality of their services, the ethics of their activities and a sense of responsibility for their employees, local community and natural environment (Berens, Van Riel, and Van Bruggen, 2005). In the academic world, many theorists and researchers have contributed to the field of CSR investigating how CSR can be used for advertising, especially in products for babies. Everyone wants what’s best for their baby, and that usually means the most natural available forms of care and nutrition. There has been a high level of awareness about the marketing of baby milk substitutes. The purpose of this paper is to examine a way of carrying out CSR at the point of sale in the baby food category, because when choosing products from the shelves, parents need to be confident that the brands act responsibly, in all areas of production and marketing. Nowadays, parents are increasingly looking for organic food for their babies. These are guaranteed to be free from pesticide residues, growth hormones and nitrates that can appear in conventionally-grown foods. They also contain fewer artificial additives, such as E-numbers and flavourings. One strong argument in favour of buying organic food for babies is that they are more vulnerable than adults to toxins such as pesticide residues. This is partly because they eat more food in proportion to their overall body weight than adults, meaning that they will be exposed to a relatively higher level of chemicals (Savage, Orlet Fisher, and Birch, 2007). Despite the importance of the topic, there is a lack of literature on CSR activities at the closest point to consumers - sales points and shelves in a store. As there is an increasing trend of retailers involved in product and brand management, and as they develop their own brand of baby food products (for example, DM and Interspar developed their own brands of organic baby food products), we consider marketing activities directed to consumers at the point-of-sale as very effective ones. Therefore, empirical research on marketing (related to CSR) was conducted using the observation method in ten different stores on the Croatian market from the period of May-June 2017. The results indicate that retailers offer a wide range of organic food products. Also, in their assortment, they offer private organic food labels. Retailers are communicating responsibly in terms of providing product information on declarations and shelves, and other means of CSR communication in the store, however, the results indicate that not all retailers are fully committed to CSR.

corporate social responsibility ; marketing ; point-of-sale ; baby food

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