Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Responsive CSR: involves acting as a good corporate citizen, reflecting the social con-
cerns of stakeholders in the company, and also mitigating the existing or predicted 
adverse effects of business activities. The domain is generic social impacts and value 
chain social impacts. The limitation of many citizenship initiatives remains that however 
beneficial the social effects, such programmes tend to remain incidental to the company’s 
business. The key to mitigating value chain social impacts is best practice, though com-
petitive advantage through such endeavours is likely to be temporary.
● 
Strategic CSR: moves beyond good citizenship and value chain impacts to initiatives with 
large and distinctive effects. The goals are the transformation of value chain activities to 
benefit society, while at the same time reinforcing the company’s strategy, and strategic 
moves that leverage corporate capabilities to improve areas of competitive context. Stra-
tegic CSR may involve the introduction of radically different new products – the Toyota 
Prius hybrid car and now electric cars respond to consumer concerns about car emissions 
pollution, and provide both competitive advantage for Toyota and other innovators such 
as Tesla, and environmental benefits. However, the broader goal of strategic CSR is to 
invest in social aspects of the company’s context to strengthen company competitiveness. 
This is achieved, in part, by adding a social dimension to the company’s value proposi-
tion and ways of doing business. Only a small number of the social issues that could be 
addressed have this potential to make a real difference to society and build competitive 
advantage.
As a framework for examining these distinctions and differences, the Porter and Kramer 
logic is summarised in Figure 17.4.
Further, using the example of Whole Foods Market in the USA (which has since been 
purchased by Amazon), Porter and Kramer underline the competitive strength created by 
creating a social dimension to the value proposition. They suggest that the heart of strat-
egy is a value proposition that rests on the set of needs that a company can uniquely meet 
for its chosen customers. The most strategic CSR adds a dimension to the value proposi-
tion, such that social impact is central to strategy. The value proposition at Whole Foods 
Market is to sell natural, organic, healthy food products to consumers who are orientated 
to healthy eating and the environment. The company’s stance on social issues is central to 
what makes them unique in food retailing and able to ask premium prices. For example: 
sourcing emphasises purchasing at store level from local farmers; buyers screen-out ingredi-
ents considered unhealthy or environmentally damaging; the company offsets its electricity 
consumption; spoilt produce goes to regional centres for composting; vehicles are being 
converted to run on bio-fuels; and cleaning products in stores are environmentally friendly. 
The effect is that every aspect of the company’s value chain reinforces the social dimensions 
of its value proposition, and provides strong differentiation from its competitors. That said, 
the company has struggled somewhat with its image as an expensive store for middle-class 
foodies, and is sometimes known as ‘whole paycheck’ in the USA because of its high prices. 

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