Impact of corporate societal marketing programmes on brand awareness case of econet wireless Zimbabwe

The study was carried out in Harare and Bulawayo, the capital and second capital cities of Zimbabwe respectively. The study was concerned with investigating the influence of corporate societal marketing on brand awareness with a special focus on Econet Wireless Zimbabwe. Quantitative methodology was used and it enabled the collection of quantitative data. The relationship between corporate societal marketing programmes and brand awareness was established through hypotheses testing. A hypothesis testing was done to establish if there is positive significant influence of CSM programmes on brand awareness. The population for this research study was Econet Wireless Zimbabwe marketing management staff, employees and its customers from its two main branches (Harare and Bulawayo branches). All 16 Econet shops situated in Harare (14) and Bulawayo (2) were selected. One thousand (1000) customers were intercepted as they were going into and out the shops and were requested to complete questionnaires. Eighty three percent (833) of the questionnaires were returned. In sampling Econet employees, it was a census since questionnaires were distributed to all 35 employees in the marketing department and were all returned. The statistical Package SPSS Software Version 21 was used to analyse quantitative data through some t-tests, regression analyses, analysis of variance (ANOVA). Regression analysis was employed to test the hypothesis of the study. The hypothesis was tested and supported that CSM programmes have significant positive influence on brand awareness. Conclusions include that companies that are active in CSM programmes positively influence their brand awareness Major recommendations of the study include the need for companies to consult customers on CSM activities the companies can undertake, the provision of a legal framework by government to regulate social activities for both private and public companies, and publication by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe of a list of CSM programmes beneficiaries who have succeeded to show the impact of its CSM programmes to society. The study also recommends further studies which include the impact of CSM on financial performance and comparative analysis involving more companies, since this study concentrated on one company.