Unconventional CSR communication and brand narrative construction elements of two case studies: La Fageda and La Casa de Carlota

Abstract

The evolution of social marketing and consumers’ growing demand for a greater involvement of brands with social causes has made CSR communication essential. However, the effectiveness of investing in communication in paid media is debatable or whether, in contrast, it is more profitable to build a brand narrative in owned media and earned media through the creation of content, user experience, or the personal brand of the company’s founders, among other strategies. In this sense, through a qualitative comparative interdisciplinary analysis, this research aims to analyse and determine which elements stimulate the construction and expansion of the brand narrative through two contrasting cases of companies that work with vulnerable groups and that have managed to differentiate themselves in their sectors through the incorporation of diversity as an added value: the La Fageda socio-entrepreneurial project and the transformative project La Casa de Carlota. Based on analytical generalization, we have been able to relate the results of our study with other similar cases with the aim of establishing generalized common guidelines that may form a theoretical basis for application for those companies or institutions wishing to communicate CSR by building and boosting their brand narratives through unpaid media.