• ANALYSIS: Build upon the article you wrote last week and analyze how the societal marketing used by the company fits within its overall mission and what type of target audience it is likely to positively affect. Your analysis must be substantiated by research from articles in the library's full-text databases.
• APPLICATION: How can this type of information on consumers be used by the marketing manager in his or her marketing communications and strategy?
Since you are engaging in research, be sure to cite and reference the source(s) in APA format.
THE LAST WEEK ARTICLE -
"The tendency by companies to give back to the community in which they operate is referred to as corporate social responsibility. The philanthropy plays a succinct role in the development of the organizational mission and vision statements as well as the alignment of the same to the decision-making processes so that the organization can meets the expectations of its shareholder (Pearce, & Robinson, 2013). That is what informs the duty of implementing sound corporate social responsibilities (CSR) by different organizations in the effort to embrace organizational responsibility for actions taken. The impact of this is a positive impact through business activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and more importantly the public sphere (Pearce, & Robinson, 2013).
That is what exactly happens at the company of choice, Microsoft Corporation. Various studies on the global CSR reputation place Microsoft in the lead in terms of CSR initiatives and programs and the expenditure on the same. That is because the company has a huge expenditure budget for CSR activities running into more than $1 billion as of the year 2014 including cash donations of approximately $119 million and in-kind donations of averagely $948.6 million. Also, the charitable activities of Bill Gates' Bill & Melinda Gates, a foundation run by one of the founders of Microsoft is highly associated with the company activities (Microsoft, 2015).
The reports from the annual release of Microsoft's Corporate Citizenship Report details the CSR programs and initiatives engaged by the company as a way of committing to its mission of serving the needs of the community globally (Microsoft, 2015). One of the CSR programs include the initiative to reduce its environmental impact where the company has made tremendous steps towards the course by providing receptacles for recycling and composting in its corporate cafeteria. The company's cafeteria's eating utensils are made of compost able materials. Also, the company's environmental team worked with developers of the Windows 7, 8, and 10 Operating Systems to increase their energy-saving functionality and as such, the reduced power usage of these OSes gives the company a new way to market the products.
Another social marketing initiative by Microsoft is the one in Washington where the company has partnered with the state government to provide training to the unemployed and to veterans. Citizens are provided with vouchers to enable them take short courses such as on Microsoft Word so that they gain skills that will help them find work.
References-
Microsoft. (2015). 2015 Annual Report. Retrieved February 19, 2016, from https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar15/index.html
Pearce, J. A., & Robinson, R. B. (2013). Strategic management: Planning for domestic & global competition. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin."