Using Education as a Strategic Communication Tool – A Case Study of Raising Financial Literacy and Voluntary Pension Fund Promotion

Abstract

Educating audiences towards positive transformational change and targeted towards the improvement of quality of life in the field of strategic communication is almost a fairy tale. The controversy surrounding the Croatian pension fund system and its reform, low pensions, the negative demographic trends and low levels of financial and retirement literacy has put pension funds in a constant position of dealing with crisis communication strategies. At the same time, strategic communication in the industry is very traditional and is usually unnoticed. Taking a step back from a traditional goal of customer acquisitions, Croatian pension funds have pooled their efforts within the Association of Pension Funds and Pension Fund Insurance Companies in order to act as a unified group when dealing with joint interest. Recognizing the need of society to raise awareness of personal engagement in the process of retirement savings, they have decided to use education as a tool of strategic communication. This chapter has the purpose of showing how purposeful content-based valuable information can be created with the aim of influencing attitudes and behaviours in the field of personal and pension savings. During the project a quantitative study was conducted in order to investigate the effectiveness of the education on the attitudes and knowledge related to pension fund savings. The results of the quasi experiment indicate that the education has increased respondents' knowledge and positive attitudes towards retirement savings.

Citation

Lučić, A., Barbić, D. and Bojčeta Markoja, D. (2020), "Using Education as a Strategic Communication Tool – A Case Study of Raising Financial Literacy and Voluntary Pension Fund Promotion", Verčič, A.T., Tench, R. and Einwiller, S. (Ed.) Joy (Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management, Vol. 5), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 183-200. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-391420200000005013