Volkswagen's 2015 crisis. A new challenge for CSR and excuse for consumers' scepticism - Communication and actions that could reduce consumers' scepticism

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 72, University of Brighton (Business School), course: Digital Marketing, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss some reasons why consumers remain sceptical about corporate social responsibility actions and motives, and how to diminish scepticism towards a company and its CSR actions. Moreover, based on the example of Volkswagen's ongoing crisis there is a new challenge for CSR and many companies. This paper will be divided into three parts. The first part gives a brief overview of CSR and illustrates the attention of consumers to it and explains why they are sceptical towards corporate social responsibility and certain inner motives of profit-based organisations. The second part highlights evidence about the types of communication that could be effective in reducing scepticism and stresses how people react to companies' misbehaviour. The third part emphasizes a brief summary regarding the outcome of Volkswagen's 2015 crisis, and highlights the new demands of consumers and society towards companies and their CSR.