Corporate Social Responsibility as a Positioning Strategy: Evidence from the Ghanaian Telecommunication Industry

Abstract

The telecommunication industry in Ghana has seen a lot of growth over the last decade and with up to six telecommunications companies operating in Ghana currently, there is very little to choose between any two brands. In an overly communicated sector such as the telecom sector, CSR positioning seems to be a better way to differentiate one‘s offering from the rest. With customers more concerned about organisations social responsibility activities and with the telecommunications companies investing huge sums of money in to CSR activities it is imperative to find out if the telecom companies employ CSR (image and ethos) as a positioning strategy. A survey was conducted on the main campus of the University of Ghana Legon in Accra using a non-probability convenience sampling technique. Students who are customers of the telecommunications companies were used for the study and also because they had a better understanding of CSR and positioning issues. Customers were used for the study because positioning is about what is done to the mind of the customer rather than what is done to the product or service also because the customers are the beneficiaries of the CSR activities. The results from the research showed that out of the seven extended generic positioning strategies that were tested (price/quality, image and ethos, attributes, competition, user, application and product class) only two based on the customers perception have been employed by the telecommunications company; these are competition and image and ethos (CSR). However, customers were indifferent about price and quality, application, attribute and product class. User positioning strategy scored the least mean indicating that customers felt that it was not employed. Competition also emerged as the dominant positioning strategy.