MK7040 Assignment Sample – Marketing in a Digital Age and Corporate Social Responsibility
1. Introduction
The importance of CSR determines the social responsibility of the company which empowers the employees to leverage the corporate resources at its disposal to do well. Therefore, it makes good business sense to operate sustainability. In this report the discussion will be based on the challenges encountered by the UK government during the COVID-19, it has also been described the effectiveness of the British government’s digital marketing.
Recommendations for digital marketing communication strategy are also described and a complete illustration of the practice of CSR policy and the importance of Johnson & Johnson communication in this pandemic situation of COVID-19.
2. Brief identification of challenges that the UK government encountered
2.1 Evaluating UK Government’s challenge in changing peoples’ behaviors during the Covid-19 pandemic
Sudden occurrence of Covid 19 pandemic situation threatens the government of the UK and the living behavior of the people of the UK. The reluctant behavioral actions of the people were the major threat and barrier as well for the UK government while enhancing people’s awareness and concerns for COVID issue.
Due to this issue the COVID rate had been significantly influenced by more than “47%”, in 2020 as some people are not aware of infection risk (Sher 2020). The UK government tries to spread awareness of the pandemic among the people by implementing various sustainable communication strategies, but while creating this awareness the government has encountered various challenges such as people not taking the messages seriously.
Few basic rules and safety measures have been taken by the UK government such as restrictions to maintain social distance, wearing face masks, using sanitizer. The UK government also declared that Covid positive people must be reported in self-quarantine, but it has been identified that only 77.14% of people have followed these restrictions.
n this tenure, the Government has imposed Law and strict orders to control the pandemic situation. It is seen that most of the senior citizens and some adults have not taken it seriously and literacy rate was also a major issue.
2.2 Illustrating the UK government’s challenge in enhancing people’s trust in the vaccine
Another major challenge which the UK government has encountered was public engagement and communications to accompany the effectiveness of vaccines. In this regard, the UK government takes strong action against this kind of behavior to stop the spread of Covid-19.
During the long-term period of home quarantine, people of the UK faced a new challenge named diversifying mental health. Therefore, to promote sustainability against COVID 19, the government eventually caused mental exhaustion.
As per (Wolf et al. 2020), it is human nature, it is absolutely normal to face mental health problems due to not going out of the home. Mental health problems can also be viewed in some people who lost jobs during the pandemic.
The UK government evaluated all the shops, schools, colleges, factories, transportations, and started home delivery of daily essential products. Due to lockdown measures, the government also has encountered challenges with the economical circumstances. The people of the entertainment field are mostly affected by the covid-19.
Entertainment-related people faced mental health problems, caused by not having work during the pandemic situation and due to the policy of no work no pay. The small marketers, shopkeepers facing financial problems due to the pandemic situation, thus it causes the visual of opening the shops not maintaining the Covid protocol. The entire situation created an increased rate of Covid-19 positive cases and death cases.
On the other hand, people who survived the infection from Covid-19, people who do not like them stop talking with them and separate them from society. The entire scenario affects human behavior among the UK people (Drury et al. 2021).
The UK government started influencing the people and spreading positivity among the people through social media. In order to improve the mental health crisis of people, the government and the medical department started the free campaign and appointed public health experts.
The department of social and behavioral sciences supports those people who get victimized after the effect of the pandemic situation.
3. Demonstrating the effectiveness of the British government’s digital, cause-related marketing, communications strategy regarding Covid-19 and vaccine
3.1 Comparison with Australia digital communications strategy with UK’s COVID 19 and vaccine
Various strategies have been implemented by organizations in both Australia and UK to increase the engagement of the audience by the use of digital and communication strategies during Covid-19 and vaccination drive. The Australian government aimed at building trust by communicating on a regular basis across various mediums, this includes using digital platforms and technology to the best effect.
According to Wouters et al. (2021), 77% of the UK respondents went on to say that COVID-19 caused an increase in the digital budget, the corporations in the UK aimed at reassuring its audience by providing clear and correct information. According to Han et al. (2020), it has been identified that both countries have integrated the digital communication strategy (DCS) for sustaining COVID 19 situation and vaccine phenomena. The implementation of DCS of both companies are going to be illustrated in the below section,
UK
The UK government used FTI Consulting Strategic Communications and National Data Strategy to create awareness among the people of the UK. It also helps to leverage its key spokespersons on its channels to provide personal and authentic information. The British Government worked on online events, which eventually promoted the concerns of audiences and also enhanced engagement in a wider manner.
As stated by Thompson et al. (2020), a wider range of e-platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter were used to increase awareness among people regarding the COVID 19 consequences and vaccine related information. “GOV.UK” is the source of the UK government’s access points for advice and services, accepting feedback from the users.
The engagement of the visitors’ was increased by 12% on the authenticated website of the UK government, which is @GOVUK Twitter account during the early stages of the crisis. People also have been advised to visit the government’s official websites for getting reliable information related to the COVID phenomenon and vaccines as well.
GDS adapted and built ‘community management techniques’ on its existing social media handles to meet the demands and questions of the people regarding the government’s lockdown rules and virus, which also can be deemed as a digital communication strategy. It analyzed the nature of queries received, categorized them into seven categories, and agreed on around 70 standard responses (Munro, 2018).
Australia
The Australian government laid emphasis on listening to the concerns of the community via narratives like praising groups or certain sections on the frontline. As stated by Saxena et al. (2020), the pro-activeness of the Australian government in scrutinizing the misinformation as soon as it gains traction pointing out the motives and logical fallacy around it has been a striking feature of its digital communication strategies.
The Australian government considered the varied needs of the people with disabilities when planning its communication strategy, and also integrated AI in the official helpline services. The Australian government mobilized its various social media communication channels, “australia.gov.au.”, Chabot earlier this year for communicating the community in a clearer and organized way. It also introduced the Coronavirus Australia information app for providing additional communication channels to the Australian (Heath-Kelly, 2017).
3.2 Contrasting cause-related marketing in COVID 19 and vaccine
It has been identified that Covid awareness and vaccine awareness has been promoted by the UK government in a sustainable manner, though it is going to be compared with the Australian Government, in terms of cause related marketing tactics.
UK
Vaccinating the entire UK population stands as an enormous challenge for the UK government. In order to deliver a successful vaccination program the English government worked to gain and maintain the trust of the citizens, where it has used a recovery strategy. The government tried to instill and maintain confidence about the security effectiveness of the vaccines in the minds of the people by running campaigns on its various social media platforms and also manually provided the “COVID-19 Secure” guidelines.
In order to deliver a successful vaccination program the UK government supported and partnered community organizations to conduct well managed and extensive community engagement. It took several steps to encounter public hesitancy regarding the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines by releasing timely information on the accomplishments achieved and newly formed vaccination strategies.
The UK government laid stress on coherent and transparent communication with the public to scrutinize the misinformation. It tried to engage the public through several programs and surveys. The UK government also has used a partnership strategy with the NHS, which also has helped to promote the vaccine and covid awareness.
Australia
The Australian government worked on building the confidence of the Australian consumer by spending $24 million on advertising campaigns to deliver a successful vaccination programme. The ad campaign will detail about the timings and rollout of the vaccines in the process assisting the consumers about the working of the vaccine.
The advertising campaign will be released on several channels including social media, television for various groups of people. The confidence regarding the safety and safety of the vaccine is regarded as the most crucial component of any particular vaccine programme, the advertisement will ensure the Australian citizens of the process of immunization being taken and about the importance of the same (dta.gov.au, 2021).
Another key aspect of the advertising campaign is making the people understand about some of the ‘practicalities’, such as who is first in the queue to receive the vaccine and why. The Australian government is working to secure millions of doses of international vaccines for the citizens which will be available to the citizens by 2021.
3.3 Justification against effective strategy with rationale
With what can be considered as an effective strategy in cause-related marketing in COVID 19 and vaccine, the UK government’s approach stands out as better implemented and managed as compared to the Australian strategy. The UK government developed a more simplified and organized way to engage and encourage the people during vaccination drives.
Australian strategy on the other hand lacked proper management of communication with its citizens thus leaving a larger section of the target audience confused and discouraged about the vaccine.
The UK government not only worked on running awareness campaigns on several communication channels but also conducted surveys on its target audience and later developed its advertising campaign accordingly.
The Australian government just focused on creating an advertising campaign which hardly hit targeted audiences leaving a sense of doubt in the minds of the “Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.
The UK government took over the Australian government in terms of providing regular updates and information on the vaccination drive keeping them well-informed of the governmental policies. The advertisement campaign run by the Australian government barely provided regular updates causing confusion in the minds of the people eventually creating vaccine hesitancy among the people.
Lastly, the UK government conducted surveys and questionnaires on its target audience before developing and implementing the vaccine drive. While the Australian government took to the available information on its social media handles to develop its vaccination programme which led to a clear miscommunication and eventually failing to achieve the set targets (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2021).
4. Recommendations for digital marketing communications strategy
4.1 recommendations for promoting a potential third booster dose of the vaccine in the UK
Recommendation 1: Suggestion to find the target audience
The UK government can work on identifying the target audience by using the STP strategy as it is the first step when it comes to developing an effective digital marketing communication strategy. As stated by Vampa (2021), more emphasis should be laid on focusing on the target audience rather than everyone; it gives more scope in being specific about the digital marketing budget.
Education level, age, gender, income, location are some factors to be taken into consideration while deciding on the target audience in order to promote a potential third booster dose of the vaccine(oecd.org, 2021).
Recommendation 2: proposing to use “Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
“Unique Selling Proposition (USP)”, is the factor which differentiates one`s product from another in the market. The UK government should increase its “USP” by stressing more the special benefits of the vaccines it provides.
The UK government spread the message of how the vaccine will help in improving the present situation of the people by developing an able immune system to fight the possible danger of coronavirus.
Recommendation 3: “Establishing a better way of communication”
The UK government can establish a better way of communication with its people by running advertisement campaigns on its official channels across multiple popular channels. As stated by Dwivedi et al. (2020), a well-directed and informative ad campaign will act as a potential boost to the vaccination drive by reaching out to diverse groups.
An informative ad campaign listing timings and rollout of the vaccines will keep consumers updated and aware of the programme, thus making it clear to them where and when one can receive the vaccine (cmo.com.au, 2021).
Recommendation 4: Suggesting promoting Awareness by promotional activities:
After taking two doses still some people do not have the proper vaccination information, and it needs to be promoted by promotional mix strategy. If the government takes strong action in terms of promoting awareness regarding vaccination, it might help to educate everyone with proper information about vaccination.
However, by making some leaflets with proper information, push messages, pop-up notifications and advertisements to newspapers, magazines also can be beneficial for promoting the awareness about the third booster dose of the vaccine in the UK. Additionally the UK government can start some free campaigns in the locality about vaccination.
5. Analyzing change in corporation’s CSR policy, practice and communications of the pharmaceutical industry
5.1 Examining how Covid-19 changed the corporation’s CSR policy
As per the view of Almahrog et al. (2018), CRS stands for corporate social responsibility, which is important to an organization because it enhances people’s trust; it also makes an organization more reliable with all the possibilities for the customers. The main pillar of Johnson & Johnson’s CSR is based on its beliefs which are “it’s our responsibility to improve the communities where we live and work” (Johnson & Johnson, 2021).
Johnson & Johnson has been highly active in the engagement of fighting this pandemic situation, with the enhancing global reach, responsibility, and a unique ability to strengthen the company’s scientific expertise. The company also has an expanded the partnership boundaries to take up the challenge caused by the pandemic situation.
The company also has effectively enhanced the CSR policy by leveraging scientific expertise and extensive partnerships. However, more than 130,000 employees around the globe have been mobilized with urgency to address the critical needs of families, “communities and healthcare providers around the world.”
The company also has invested in vaccine development technology, on a “not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use”. The company also uses Advac Viral Vector Technology to vaccinate the patients which proved to be a huge success. Earlier it was detected by other scientific researchers that it was used to cure Ebola which was approved by the European Commission (Janssen, 2021).
Moreover, the company also has integrated the availability of an “Emergency Use Authorized single-dose COVID-19”, which can be deemed as one of the sustainable CSR. The scientific expertise and global manufacturing capacity provide a foundation to evolve a vaccine candidate and produce the best quality in order to give to those people who are in need, most quickly and safely as possible.
It also reduces the burden placed on healthcare systems and communities. Johnson & Johnson has been actively engaged in fighting this pandemic situation. However, more than 130000 employees around the world mobilize with urgency to address the critical needs of the families. The company’s commitment to the families around the world does not change in the time of crisis: “we’ll never stop taking care of you”.
The company also focuses on the education and learning techniques of the COVID-19 frontline workers with the updated knowledge related to vaccines. Johnson & Johnson is supporting essential vaccine education with the help of external organizations like “American Nursing Association, National Black Nurses Association”. As Johnson & Johnson is the leading global health organization, it has committed to remain in the frontline during this health crisis, bringing all resources and minds to fight against it.
In order to maintain the customer health service during this pandemic situation, the company also focused on adapting the work environment, maintaining the policies and benefits to support the employees by balancing the personal and professional responsibilities and giving importance to emotional, mental, and physical health (Johnson & Johnson, 2021).
The company is determined in blending heart, science, and creativity to completely change the trajectory of health for humanity. The company seeks to have a positive impact on the patients, consumers, and others. The company also serves life-saving medicines, devices as well as looks after its employees.
5.2 Change in practice and communication of pharmaceutical industry (Johnson & Johnson)
It has been analyzed that in the year 2020, social distancing played a vital role in mitigating the spread of the deadly infection of COVID-19, though the Covid repetition by the government also has been imposed some challenges for the pharmaceutical industry and Johnson & Johnson is no exception (Sanders et al. 2020).
These challenges also caused changes in the communication and business practices of Johnson & Johnson. The government of the UK announced lockdowns throughout the country in the previous year 2020 in order to promote social distancing among the people both socially and physically. It has been observed that due to extended lockdown economic trouble worsened, gradually it increased CSR expenditure.
The company changed the mission and vision due to this pandemic situation in order to serve the customers, the company has also brought changes in the current technological system, improved the working process, provided the customers better quality management, and improved the coordination at an interdepartmental level.
However, the UK government encouraged the companies to sustain the existing CRS obligations. Medical communication helps with the better marketing of the company and it develops good connectivity with the patients and healthcare professionals. The communication of the company, Johnson & Johnson plays a vital role in the success of the business during COVID-19.
The company involves the employees and many other stakeholders by implementing different initiatives; for instance, Credo-based communication has been implemented by the company to promote business sustainability. The company’s stakeholder’s engagement includes launching new products, communicating the importance of the innovations, and leading dynamic strategies to elevate the business and social priorities.
However, the goal of the company is to increase the sustainability efforts which are believed by Johnson & Johnson in order to reach the greatest impact, and the implementation of this communication strategy has helped the company to gain a sustainable engagement with the customers as well as stakeholders.
Johnson & Johnson has the highest ethical standards and a sustainable sense of purpose in the work that continuously hits to deepen engagement and trust of the people that the company serves. The company’s ethical standards are mainly based on five principles such as autonomy, justice, beneficence, non-maleficence, and fidelity.
It has been described that the communicators of the company also draw ideas from these ethical standards and use it to understand and reach out to more audiences in an innovative way. Johnson & Johnson has always thought innovatively and strategically and encouraged collaboration across the entire company to bring out positive outcomes.
Further, the company aims to grow new generations of communicators through Johnson & Johnson Internship Program and the company’s industry-leading Graduate Fellowship Program. The company is planning to project with the number of organizations and the societies which are dedicated to developing the future of the pharmaceutical industry such as “ Arthur Page Society”, “PRIME Scholars Program”, “PRSA Foundation”, “United Negro College Fund (UNCF) program” and many more, to increase diversity in the field of communication (Johnson & Johnson, 2021).
According to the current scenario of the company, it has been observed that due to this pandemic situation the purchasing rate of the commodities has gradually increased due to lockdown, and not only the country people are purchasing the product but also the company is selling its product worldwide.
Therefore, this is a huge advantage for the company because earlier the company’s outlet was physically present but now it has reached a larger audience through digital marketing. The company mainly focused on delivering products to the consumers at each doorstep within a fixed time to meet the customer’s satisfaction.
In order to grab more customers on the digital platform, a certain percentage of discounts is being levied on all the products for instance to clear dead stocks the discounts are given. This makes the customers more convincing about the product.
6. Conclusion
Therefore, it has been concluded that the Johnson & Johnson Company faced a number of challenges during the pandemic situation of COVID-19. It saw behavioral change in people in the UK. The UK government also faced different issues regarding the trust for the vaccines.
A comparison has been made between the UK and Australia’s digital marketing communications. Another comparison is observed between the UK and Australia. This report also sheds light on the changed CRS policy, practices, and communications of Johnson & Johnson Company during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. It is also discussed that this pandemic situation offers a wide scope of opportunities for the company to actively engage with the CRS strategies.
Reference list:
Almahrog, Y., Aribi, Z.A. and Arun, T., 2018. Earnings management and corporate social responsibility: UK evidence. Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting.
Costa Dias, M., Joyce, R., Postel‐Vinay, F. and Xu, X., 2020. The challenges for labour market policy during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Fiscal Studies, 41(2), pp.371-382.
Dwivedi, Y.K., Hughes, D.L., Coombs, C., Constantiou, I., Duan, Y., Edwards, J.S., Gupta, B., Lal, B., Misra, S., Prashant, P. and Raman, R., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on information management research and practice: Transforming education, work and life. International Journal of Information Management, 55, p.102211.
Han, E., Tan, M.M.J., Turk, E., Sridhar, D., Leung, G.M., Shibuya, K., Asgari, N., Oh, J., García-Basteiro, A.L., Hanefeld, J. and Cook, A.R., 2020. Lessons learnt from easing COVID-19 restrictions: an analysis of countries and regions in Asia Pacific and Europe. The Lancet.
Heath-Kelly, C., 2017. The geography of pre-criminal space: epidemiological imaginations of radicalisation risk in the UK Prevent Strategy, 2007–2017. Critical studies on terrorism, 10(2), pp.297-319.
Lowry, S., 2019. Digital Services Taxes (DSTs): Policy and Economic Analysis. CRS Report, (R45532).
Munro, M., 2018. The complicity of digital technologies in the marketisation of UK higher education: exploring the implications of a critical discourse analysis of thirteen national digital teaching and learning strategies. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 15(1), pp.1-20.
Sanders, K.B., 2020. British government communication during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: learning from high reliability organizations. Church, Communication and Culture, 5(3), pp.356377.
Saxena, S., Skirrow, H. and Bedford, H., 2020. Routine vaccination during covid-19 pandemic response.
Thompson, R.N., Hollingsworth, T.D., Isham, V., Arribas-Bel, D., Ashby, B., Britton, T., Challenor, P., Chappell, L.H., Clapham, H., Cunniffe, N.J. and Dawid, A.P., 2020. Key questions for modelling COVID-19 exit strategies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287(1932), p.20201405.
Vampa, D., 2021. COVID-19 and Territorial Policy Dynamics in Western Europe: Comparing France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Publius.
Wouters, O.J., Shadlen, K.C., Salcher-Konrad, M., Pollard, A.J., Larson, H.J., Teerawattananon, Y. and Jit, M., 2021. Challenges in ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines: production, affordability, allocation, and deployment. The Lancet.
Website :
Wójcik, D. and Ioannou, S., 2020. COVID‐19 and finance: market developments so far and potential impacts on the financial sector and centres. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 111(3), pp.387-400.
Janssen, 2021, vaccine-technology, available at: https://www.janssen.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/vaccine-technology [accessed on 20th August, 2021]
Johnson and Johnson, 2021, Homepage, available at: https://www.jnj.in/ [accessed on 20th August, 2021]
Johnson and Johnson, 2021, Simplifying the Science of COVID-19: How Adenovector Vaccines Work, available at: https://www.jnj.com/covid-19/media-center [accessed on 20th August, 2021]
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
Thank you for your shening. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your enticle that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me? https://accounts.binance.com/en/register?ref=P9L9FQKY
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks! https://accounts.binance.com/lv/register-person?ref=UM6SMJM3