기업의 사회공헌활동과 기업광고가 기업이미지와 브랜드태도 형성에 미치는 영향력에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative contributions of corporate social responsibility(CSR) activities and corporate advertising to the general image of the sponsoring corporations and consumers' attitudes toward the brands. The results showed that CSR activities had stronger influence on the general corporate image compared with that of corporate advertising as expected. Also, we found that the effect of corporate advertising on brand attitudes tended to be more direct instead of having indirect effect through the general corporate image. In comparison, the effect of CSR activities on brand attitudes tended to be indirect through the general corporate image. Our study suggests that CSR activities and corporate advertising can be effective alternatives for the high cost, low efficiency individual brand advertising. We do not suggest, of course, that brand advertising should be replaced by either CSR activities or corporate advertising. Rather, we argue that companies should realize that CSR activities and other diverse communication tools can be effective, and as such they should be strategically integrated into the overall promotional mix. Finally, the results of our study offer a guideline about how to allocate the total promotional budget into various consumer contact tools such as CSR activities and corporate advertising.