Altius Shodh Journal of Management and Commerce

ISSN 2348 8891

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SELECTED SOCIAL AWARENESS ADVERTISEMENTS

*Prof. Dipti Kurmi, **Diksha Kurmi, ***Prof. Karan Nainani
*Assistant Professor, Altius Institute of Universal Studies, Indore.
**Student
*** Assistant Professor, Altius Institute of Universal Studies, Indore

Abstract
This study is descriptive in nature undertaken to investigate the respondents view towards social awareness
advertisement and its effectiveness. A sample size of 150 respondents has been taken to carry out the research
and check the effectiveness of social awareness advertisement. The study states that people like social
advertisements. Respondents understand and assign social responsibilities to nongovernment organisations
as well as to business and feel that organisations must participate in activities of social development as it is
the most important constituent of the society. social development as it is the most important constituent of the
society. These advertisements are effective in creating awareness in the mass and also to educate them
about the social issues which otherwise would have been left ignored .This is a noble cause and will definitely
benefit the society and the business also in long run.
Keywords: Marketing, Brand, Media, Social Awareness.

Introduction:
Social Marketing
Social marketing is the planning and implementation of
programs designed to bring about social change using
concepts from commercial marketing, putting people at
the heart of policy, communications and delivery to
encourage behaviour change.
The term social marketing was first coined in the 1970s
and refers to the application of marketing to the solution
of social and health problems. However, over the years
there has been a growing perception that it is being
confused with generic marketing especially recently with
the advent of on line tools such as social media and
behavioural targeting.
Increasingly social marketing is being described as having
two parents - a social parent = social sciences and
social policy, and a marketing parent = commercial and
public sector marketing approaches.
Social marketing is the systematic application of
marketingalongwithotherconceptsandtechniques,to
achieve specific behavioural goals for a social good. Social
marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to
make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote
societys well-being as a whole. For example, this may
include asking people not to smoke in public areas, asking
them to use seat belts, or prompting to make them follow
speed limits .Although social marketing is sometimes
seen only as using standard commercial marketing

practices to achieve non-commercial goals, this is

anover-simplification.
The primary aim of social marketing is social good;
while in commercial marketing the aim is primarily
fina ncial. This do es no t mea n tha t co mm ercia l
marketers cannot contribute to achievement of social
good.
Beginning in the 1970s, it has in the last decade matured
into a much more integrative andinclusive discipline that
draws on the full range of social sciences and social
policyapproaches as well as marketing. Social marketing
must not be confused with social media marketing.

Advertising
Advertisingisthebusinessofdrawingpublicattentionto
goods and services, and is performed through a variety
of media. Advertising als o benefits the individual
consumer, providing information regarding products prior
to purchase, as well as publicizing (and consequently
lowering) prices. Advertising can thus be seen to have
positive results, both for those developing a market for
their products and for society in general. On the negative
side, however, advertising is partly responsible for
increasing materialistic consumerism, as people are
tempted to buy items they have no real need for. While
enco uragingcreativ ity, without mo ral a nd ethical
guidelines, advertising has tended to exploit the baser
human desires, advancing hedonism. Advertisers, as all
those involved in the field of communication must
recognize their responsibility to uphold societal standards
and thus contribute to the improvement of human society.

Altius Shodh Journal of Management and Commerce

Advertising effectiveness: Degree to which an

advertisement or advertising campaign achieves its
statedobjectives. Advertising effectivenessis typically
ga uge d
by
m ea s uri ng
acampaignsimpactonsales,brand awarenessand/
ormarket share.
Reasons to examine advertising effectiveness:
1.

2.

Avoiding costly mistakes

Understanding how well money is being spent

Opportunity loss due to poor communications

M e a s ur ing th e
communications

of

po o r

Evaluating alternative strategies

3.

ef f ec tiv e nes s

Which strategy is most effective

Increasing the efficiency of advertising in general

Problem with losing sight of the message and

expecting the audience to understand

Commercial social advertising

The second type of social advertisement is corporate
social advertisement. Commercial Social Advertising
refers to those advertising efforts which are done as a
part of social responsibility by such entities as advertising
agencies, as well as other business organizations. There
are various social advertisements which are being
communicated through mass media in India. They are
classified into major groups such as:

Family planning

Health care

Technology mission

Environmental awareness

Social beliefs

Safety

Government advertisements on saving and legal

aspects

The companies worked out the strategies to increase

sales they also added the rider that a percentage of
money would go towards the noble cause. There were
several funds set-up and enough publicity given to them
through T.V. , radio and print ads gave benefit to the
corporate and the country at large .
Few examples of this type of advertisement are:

Tata Tea Jaago Re Commercial Advertisements

Idea Save Paper Advertisement

With the la tes t buz z a b o ut clim a te cha ng e a nd

environmental friendliness several campaigns have

ISSN 2348 8891

emerged recently targeting awareness of various social

causes. Historically, such CSR initiatives by companies
like e-choupal by ITC or the Shiksha campaign by P&G
has been more about doing than telling. Against this
background such campaigns arent a novel concept though
with HULs save water ads a few years ago. It is
expected that the primary stakeholders as well as
beneficiaries would be the company itself. The secondary
benefits are certain to be derived by the social cause
which the brand promotes. However, such benefits come
mostly in the form of consumer awareness, which though
might be the first step, usually isnt sufficient to redress
the core issue. On the hand, such campaigns does promise
concrete benefits to the company by enhancing their
brand image through positive brand association. This
concept firs t becam e popula r among fast mo ving
consumer goods (FMCG) firms such as Hindustan Unilever
Ltd(HUL),ITCLtdandProcterandGambleCo.(P&G)that
advertised their companys cause-marketing initiatives
which involved donating a certain percentage of sales
on select items towards a social cause. ITCs Aashirwaad
brand of wheat and flour, Sunfeast biscuits and Classmate
s tatio nery hav e s uppo rted ra inw a ter ha rv es ting,
a f fo resta tio n and rura l educa tion thro ugh caus e
marketing, while HULs Surf Excel and Ponds cream
promoted education through scholarships and fought for
womens empowerment through collaboration with the
United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem).
For instance, cola companies that have been blamed for
depleting water resources and exploiting child labour have
messages that counter such perceptions. Coca-Cola India
Inc.s recent Drops of Joy campaign features an
emotional narrative from one of the 80 men of the
Benares Deaf and Dumb Institute who have been given
employment as bottle inspectors at Coca-Colas bottling
plant at Varanasi. And rival Pepsico India Holdings Pvt.
Ltdis also in the process of seeking approval from its
head office to roll out a campaign based on its corporate
social responsibility (CSR) activities on water and waste
management, a senior executive of the company, who
did not wish to be named, confirmed.
Co rpo r a te
s o cia l
re s po n s ib ilit y ( CSR ,
also
calledcorporateconscience,corporatecitizenship,social
performance, or sustainable responsible business)[1]is
a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into
abusinessmodel.CSRpolicyfunctionsasabuilt-in,selfregulating mechanism whereby business monitors and
ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law,
ethical standards, and international norms. The goal of
CSR is to embrace responsibility for the companys actions
and encourage a positive impact through its activities on
th e
en v iro nm e nt,
co ns um er s ,
em pl o y ee s ,
communities,stakeholdersand all other members of
thepublicsphere.Furthermore,CSR-focusedbusinesses
w ould proa ctiv ely pro mo te the public interes t by
encouraging community growth and development, and
voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public
sphere, regardless of legality. CSR is the deliberate
inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making,
that is, the core business of the company or firm, and
the honouring of a triple bottom line: people, planet,

Altius Shodh Journal of Management and Commerce

profit. The term corporate social responsibility came

in to common use in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
after many multinational corporations formed. Public
sector organizations (the United Nations for example)
adhere to the triple bottom line (TBL). It is widely
accepted that CSR adheres to similar principles but with
no formal act of legislation. The unhas developed
thePrinciples for Responsible Investmentas guidelines
for investing entities
Corporate and Social Responsibility Reports (CSRR)
provide an overview of the social, environmental,
and economic impacts of a companys operations
and products. While not a required filing type,
publicly traded companies increasingly produce
these documents to provide transparency to
customers and shareholders.
Standard financial reports such as the Annual Report do
not reveal all the risks, liabilities, or advantages associated
with a corporations activities. Think Mining, Tobacco,
and Oil firms. To get the full picture of a company
operations, opportunities, and risks, a CSR report is a
must.

Rationale of the study:

Gone are the days when the marketers expected to carry
out their business the way they liked best. Today it is
being realised that business has a definite role in the
welfare and well-being of the society. Their role is to
help the society and people to fight against prevailing
social problems. One of the challenging tasks today, is
communication of social causes to the masses. Absence
of proper communication about social problems not only
leads to unawareness, ignorance about the concept but
a l s o a ggr a v a tes the pro ble m i n qu es t io n . M o s t
advertisements floated by businesses are commercially
oriented. Studies have been conducted with relation to
use of social advertising but no studies assessed the
gender / age perception towards social advertisements
and in specific commercial social advertisements. This
study aims to analyse the effectiveness of the social
awareness advertisement on the respondents.

Review of the Literature:

Although many researches have been done on consumer
adv ertis ing but v ery f ew have s tress ed o n social
a w a re nes s a d v er tis e m en t o r co m m e rci a l s o ci a l
a d v ert is e m en t. I n o rde r to m a k e m a rk eti ng
communication techniques more effective for public and
non- profit sector problems, Roth Child (1979) uses
the dif ferences involved due to product, pricing,
s e gm e nta t io n be tw e en p riv a te a n d n o n- p ro f it
organisations. He suggests that the classification of social
causes can be done on the basis of level of involvement
for that cause. There are three types of organisations
involved in social advertising the efforts made by
companies in the social advertising could be categorised
into two :

ISSN 2348 8891

Efforts which are sporadic, ad hoc and reactive

Sustained efforts which are results of directed

philosophy of philanthropy.

For some, the idea is to gain mileage out of these efforts.

Well planned press meetings are arranged to let their
employees know their companies involvement with the
social issues. Social research is yet a developing field.
When conducting this research utmost sensitivity is
required on the part of the researcher. The author
examines company advertising campaigns with social
dimensions and compares them to matched standard, or
non-social, campaigns. The author investigates the
managers objectives for the campaigns with social
dimensions, examines the processes creating them, and
develops a model for explaining success factors.
This study examined the effects of positive and negative
news about a corpora tions a dverting practice on
consumers assessments of the corporations ethical,
discretionary and relational practices, three dimensions
of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. The
results suggested while the effect of positive news might
be minimal, the persuasiveness of negative news should
not be overlooked. However, the negative news effect is
content specific, depending on assessments toward
different dimensions of CSR practices. Consumers were
able to separate the negative news effect and attribute
specific negativity to their assessments of different CSR
pra ctic es . (Dime n s io n s o f C o rpo ra t e So cia l
Responsibility and Advertising Practice Alex Wang
Department of Communication Sciences, University
of Connecticut-Stamford , Stamford , CT , USA)

Objective of the Study:

The aim of the study is to identify A STUDY OF
EFFECTIVENESS OF SELECT SOCIAL AWARENESS
ADVERTISEMENTS. The main focus of social advertising
is on matters of social importance. The study aims:

To s tudy the eff ectivenes s of selected so cial

advertisements and see if they are helpful in
changing the viewers behaviour.

Methodology:
The study
The study is descriptive in nature, undertaken to
inv estigate the respo ndents v iew tow a rds so cia l
awareness advertisement and its effectiveness.

The sample:
A sample size of 150 respondents has been taken to carry
out the research and check the effectiveness of social
awareness advertisement.

Altius Shodh Journal of Management and Commerce

The Tools:

ISSN 2348 8891

People in India really look up to celebrities and

consider them as their role models .The effect of
celebrity creates an impact on the respondents to
some extent . (mean 3.9867)

To day every one wa nts to play a role in the

betterment of society on a whole. The respondents
believe that if they see a commercial advertisement
with an intention or a step taken by any corporate
house for the betterment of the society then these
a d s ca n ch a ng e th e co ns um er pref eren ce
(mean 3.3867) to some extent .

Respondents are not very sure of the concern factor

about the issue that the company is putting up an
advertisement about. The respondents are sceptical
about real intention (mean 3.58)

The respondents are quite sure about the fact that

accompany comes up with the commercial social
advertisements to draw attention towards their own
product. (mean 3.96667).

The respondents really believe that the commercial

social advertisements are more often remembered
as compared to the general ads of the same product
.(mean 3.82667)

The respondents also think that the social awareness

advertisement is an easy and effective way of
maintaining long term relations with public and also
it hel ps t he o rga n is a t io n to i ncre a s e s a le s .
(mean 3.9)

R e s po n den ts to a gr ea t er e x te nt f eel th a t
organisation only use social issue as a part of
corporate image building and are only interested in
en cashing social issue to make higher profits and a
speck and span image in the minds of the public (
mean 3.87333).

Data collection:
A self designed questionnaire has been drafted to collect
the primary data necessary to complete the research.
The questionnaire is designed on five point Likert scale.

Data analysis:
The data which is collected through questionnaire has
been analysed through mean.

Results
The primary data collected for the research work has
been analysed by using mean. The data was collected
on the s elf designed ques tionna ire on w hich f or
responses five point likert scale was used. The mean
helped us to determine the effectiveness of the social
advertisement based on the questions drafted in the
questionnaire .The mean of the questions related to the
general opinion of the respondents towards the social
awareness advertisement came out to be 3.887. The
result of the general question has come out to be quite
favourable but not completely in favour has the mean
calculated is far from 5 so definitely the respondents are
not completely satisfied or motivated by the social
awareness advertisements .

QUE STION

MEAN

4
5

4.01333
4.14667

3.98667

7
8

3.68667
3.58

9
10

3.96667
3.82667

11
12

3.9
3.87333

13
14

4.17333
4.26667

15
16

4.45333
3.68

17

4.54

18
19

4.06
4.42667

20

4.36667

Interpretation

The respondents to a real great extent like watching

social awareness advertisements as the mean of the
responses received has come out to be 4.01333.
Majority of the respondents (mean 4.14667) feel
that the social awareness advertisement and the
corporate social awareness advertisement are very
helpful in creating awareness .

Tata Tea Jaago Re Commercial

The advertisement is effective as the mean of the
questions are in favour (mean 4.22)

Respondents believe the fact that corruption is wrong

and it shouldnt be entertained any longer in the
country like India anymore. People seem to be very
happy with the Jaago Re commercial of Tata Tea
.The youth is motivated to stand against corruption
as by getting influenced by the advertisement. (mean
4.17333)

There is an active patriotism in the minds of public

as taking bribe should strictly be stopped and people
who take bribe should not be dealt with lightly but
must be taught a lesson with no delays if we wish to
see a better brighter India . ( mean 4.26667)

Idea Save Paper

The advertisement is effective as the mean of the
questions are in favour (mean 4.06667)

Altius Shodh Journal of Management and Commerce

The respondents are very aware and active about

not wasting paper. The respondents are aware of
the fact after watching the advertisement as to how
important it is necessary to save paper. If we waste
paper it will result in cutting of trees which harms
o u r ec o lo gic a l b a la nce to a g rea t ex ten t.
(mean 4.45333)

In spite of being extremely aware of the fact that

paper should not be wasted the advertisement is
not very effective in getting the respondents to stop
using paper to a greater extent. (mean 3.68 )

Polio Do Boond Zindagi Ki

The advertisement is effective as the mean of the
questions are in favour (mean 4.3)

The social advertisement on polio has been very

effective in creating the awareness about the
necessity of polio drops for kids under the age of 5
years. (mean 4.54)
The polio advertisement has been very effective as
it has made the public about taking their kids for
polio dates on the stipulated dates and also if not
their kids at least they have been an important and
a key player in making their pear aware about the
benefits of getting the polio drops done to the kids
under the age of 5 years. (mean 4.06)

Atithi Devo Bhava

The advertisement is effective as the mean of the

questions are in favour (mean 4.397)

The advertisement has played an important role

in accepting that treating the foreign tourists
properly is a moral responsibility and also that they
are an important factor in filling our countrys
treasure . When foreign tourists come to our country
it is important that they take a positive feedback and
also they will spread good word of mouth resulting
in more tourism to our country. (mean 4.42667)

After viewing the advertisement the respondents are

aware about the fact that it is our moral responsibility
to help the foreign visitor rather than misguiding
them. (mean 4.36667)

Conclusion:
The objective of the study was to study the effectiveness
of the viewers towards social advertisement and social
awareness advertisement. The study finds that people
like social advertisements. Respondents understand and
a ss ign so cia l respo ns ibilities to no n gov ernm ent
organisations as well as to business and feel that
organisations must participate in activities of social
development as it is the most important constituent of
the society. The study indicates that these forms of
advertisements gain common likeness and the feeling of

ISSN 2348 8891

social responsibility and view towards business is similarly

envisaged. Although companies have been publishing
their CSR initiatives for a long time now, it has basically
been only through their annual reports and websites. This
new trend of CSR advertising takes the message to the
consumer directly. Personally, I do not see anything wrong
in such campaigning, provided it is done with legitimate
CSR backing. Also, the message should be equally
distributed between the initiative, the underlying cause
for it, and the product or service. This makes the
trem endous contribution fro m TATA gtoup, Dabur
(Sundesh) etc. all the more noteworthy. If organizations
want to help the society by contributing towards its
development why do we have to attach a business
motivebut it wouldnt be wrong to say that these
a dv ertis em ents a re rem embered mo re a nd if a n
organisation has a business motive involved in it they
should make a balance as to giving importance to the
social issue and also their profit motive.
If we see that people have liking for the betterment of
s o ciet y, it m a y be t he res ults o f the Ta ta Tea
advertisement or Idea Save paper advertisement and
a l s o to w a rds th e re s ul ts o f s o ci a l a w a r ene s s
advertisement put up by government for betterment of
society they are all favourable. The respondents definitely
have a slight more inclination towards the advertisement
put up by government as they feel they dont have a profit
motive attached to it as they feel these ads are just for
the benefit of the country at a whole, but this is no way
lessens the importance of the business organisations
coming up with the initiative to create awareness of the
social issues of the country.

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