The Impact of Peace Marketing on Customer Well-Being: Insights from Zain Iraq Telecommunications

Peace marketing is one of the modern marketing concepts that refers to non-profit marketing, social marketing, or marketing that aims to establish the foundations of peace in the world (Youssef, 2021). The first to talk about peace marketing was Kotler, and in 2016 the World Peace Business Conference was held, through which he proposed meeting the basic needs of individuals to achieve stability, security, and world peace (The Hiroshima, 2016). Pavlát and Knihová (2019) see peace marketing as part of societal marketing, and peace marketing activities should focus on educating customers to shift their behavior from self-focus to community focus. At the same time, Bejan (2017) calls it humanitarian marketing because its goals are humanitarian in achieving justice and a decent life for all. Gajdošík et al. (2022) classify peace marketing within international marketing due to the connection of its effects internationally and globally while Nedelea and Nedelea (2015) assert that peace marketing is classified within non-profit marketing because its goals are noble and do not aim for profit, but rather for the welfare and stability of society. It is the use of a set of marketing techniques that help persuade customers to change their behavior from individual interest to societal interest and establish the principles of peace and welfare for society (Todua & Jashi, 2016). Peace marketing enhances the effects on human behavior toward social peace and makes the world free of conflict, terrorism, genocide, violence, war, and acts of destruction (Nedelea & Nedelea, 2018, p. 23). Peace marketing aims to transform society towards prosperity, welfare, and comprehensive peace for the world, and for marketing programs and campaigns to play a pivotal role in resolving conflicts that lead to peace and political, social, and individual sustainability (Youssef, 2021). Peace marketing is based on two principles: the first is the conflict principle, which means finding a balance between interests and capabilities, and the second principle is the spiral principle, which indicates that the intensity of the conflict begins to gradually disappear and the crisis ends little by little, opening the way for organisations and countries to increase their solidarity and cooperation (Bejan, 2017).

Anucha (2022) believes that marketers and companies should distribute the message of peace in areas of violence that need peace, just as they do in distributing their products and services to customer areas that need them. Peace marketing seeks to satisfy individual needs, achieve happiness and well-being in society, and spread peace among all (Almagtome et al., 2020). The importance of peace marketing is highlighted in preserving the rights of customers and granting them the right to choose, the right to safety and security, and the right to obtain information, in addition to transparency in dealing, respect, fulfilment of obligations, and striving to achieve the well-being and happiness of the customer (Al-Taie & Al-Hadrawi, 2021). The idea of peace marketing is non-profit, its goal is societal and global, and the goals of the peace marketing mix differ from the traditional marketing mix in terms of nonprofit, achieving peace and well-being, achieving social sustainability, and making the world a better place (Chukwu et al., 2018). Deceptive marketing practices are responsible for building a society based on greed, conflict, and exploitation (Al-Heali, 2020). Current marketing practices also encourage excessive consumption and unfair profit, thus encouraging chaos in societies (Al-Khazraje, 2024). There are many ethical observations on the marketing activities of a large number of companies (AlJabouri & Mohammed, 2020). Peace marketing and social marketing are relied upon to address economic and social crises and achieve well-being and peace (Išoraitė, 2019). From the above, the following hypothesis can be formulated:

H1: There is a positive impact relationship at a significant level (<0.05) for peace marketing on customer well-being.

Both Youssef (2021) and Al-Taie and Al-Hadrawi (2021) agree that the first dimension of peace marketing is economic development, which refers to the process through which the economic well-being and standard of living of people are improved (Jiao & Sun, 2021). Companies seek to achieve economic and financial development for society and its individuals by taking steps aimed at reducing unemployment, enhancing customer value, and changing consumption patterns (Abbas & Khan, 2023). Companies have become more focused on achieving sustainable economic development by focusing on reducing costs, exploiting resources, recycling, consuming less energy, treating emissions, and protecting community resources (Hassan et al., 2023). Luo et al. (2023) posit that economic development is the direction of optimal use of human, material, and social resources to raise the economic value of society to improve the quality and quality of life and achieve consumer well-being. According to the above, the following hypothesis can be developed:

H2: There is a positive impact relationship at a significant level (<0.05) for economic development on customer well-being.

The second dimension is transparency, which is defined as the degree to which the company, its owners, officials, employees, values, culture, and results of its business operations share with the customer and make him aware of all the information he needs (Youssef, 2021). Peace marketing seeks, through its commitment to transparency, to build a base of trust between it and customers in granting them their full rights, fulfilling obligations, and pledging transparency in the offer, cost, organisation, and providing complete information to customers (Al-Taie & Al-Hadrawi, 2021). Ghafoor et al. (2023) believe that companies that follow the principle of transparency and disclosure are the ones that put the customer's interest in mind and seek to satisfy their desires and needs with complete transparency and seek to achieve the customer's well-being and happiness to enhance trust and loyalty. According to the previous proposals, the following hypothesis can be formulated:

H3: There is a positive impact relationship at a significant level (<0.05) for transparency on customer well-being.

Finally, the third dimension is customer rights, which is defined as the company's commitment to protecting the customer and ensuring their rights to obtain products and services, not harming or deceiving them, and adhering to transparency and disclosure in all stages of marketing so that the customer can make his decision without pressure (Al-Taie & Al-Hadrawi, 2021). Senior leaders in companies should take serious steps to inform customers of their rights, intensify efforts to protect them and move towards assuming social responsibility (Bello et al., 2021).

H4: There is a positive impact relationship at a significant level (<0.05) for customer rights on customer well-being.

The concept of well-being refers to the positive outcome of the lives of individuals and society, that their lives are going well under good living conditions and that they have all the means of comfort (Akram et al., 2021). Chen et al. (2021) define it as the company's ability to build a positive feeling among customers resulting from satisfaction, happiness, a sense of gratitude, and creating a smile towards providing certain products or services. Henkens et al. (2021) believe that customer well-being means the customer's feeling of joy, happiness, comfort, and satisfaction towards the product or service provided. Henkens et al. (2021) define customer well-being as the optimal psychological comfort of the customer, which includes comfort, moral well-being, self-awareness, a sense of pleasure, happiness, pleasure, and satisfaction. Customer well-being affects the psychological state, as the customer feels energy, vitality, and love of life and society when he feels well-being and that all his needs are available easily and without effort (Xie et al., 2020). Shulga et al. (2021) indicate that the characteristics of customer well-being are enthusiasm, optimism, self-acceptance, respect for others, a sense of positivity, independence, and happiness. Furrer et al. (2021) explain that customer well-being has long-term advantages and benefits such as general health, security, financial stability, love for others, and social integration, and other daily advantages and benefits such as feeling happy and joyful, and positive psychological benefits such as getting rid of stress, peace of mind, and physical comfort.

Ruggeri et al. (2021) believe that the level of well-being is related to the degree of satisfaction, psychological comfort, happiness, and the feeling of joy and accomplishment achieved by the customer towards the product or service. Falter and Hadwich (2020) confirm that well-being is generated when companies use several events that lead to the customer's engagement in activities of value to society and the individual, making him feel interested and free to make decisions to meet his needs in the way that suits him. Petersen et al. (2021), Shaker and Hani (2022) emphasise that well-being is associated with comfort and enjoyment of a positive environment. Ibrahim et al. (2021) believe that if a company abandons transparency and integrity in its marketing activities, this will affect customers' well-being and generate negative feelings that undermine their confidence in the company. Cheng et al. (2020) also confirm that the loss of the customer's rights and his exposure to fraud and deception by companies will leave a major psychological impact, and the customer will lose confidence in marketing activities and will feel frustrated and unhappy.

Zowain et al. (2019) and Musher (2022) agree that the dimensions of customer well-being are psychological and are represented by feelings of happiness, joy, anxiety, sadness, fear of the future, and comfort. The marketer must understand these feelings, provide products and services that enhance the customer's positive state, and deal with the customer in a way that enhances their feelings of happiness and joy. The second dimension is existential and is represented by individuals' beliefs about their lives, their decisions, and what they feel about themselves and society. This dimension can be controlled by granting the customer their full rights and giving them control over their decisions by choosing the appropriate products and services. Finally, the support dimension represents interest and support. The marketer can enjoy transparency and integrity so that he can leave a positive impression and impact on their souls and enhance their feelings of well-being. According to the above and based on the hypotheses of this research, the research model can be built from the independent variable, peace marketing, and its dimensions, economic development, transparency, and customer rights, and the dependent variable, customer well-being, as in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Research model

Source: own processing

In recent years, the world has witnessed a noticeable shift in consumer trends towards products and services that reflect their human and social values. Customers have become more aware of environmental and social issues and prefer to deal with brands that demonstrate a clear commitment to peace and social responsibility. Despite this shift, there is a clear gap in understanding how peace marketing practices affect customer wellbeing. This research seeks to bridge the research gap between peace marketing and customer well-being. The research problem is to determine the impact of peace marketing practices on customer well-being and understand the nature of the relationship between them. Based on the main research problem, the research attempts to answer the following questions:

Is there a clear impact of peace marketing practices on achieving customer well-being?

This research gains its importance because it studies critical variables in achieving peace and prosperity, as peace marketing practices represent a strategic approach to peace using marketing activities and seeks to achieve prosperity and stability in society. The importance of the research is also evident from the prominent role played by Zain Iraq Telecommunications Company, as it is one of the oldest and most influential telecommunications companies in Iraq. The number of subscribers in Zain Iraq exceeds 17 million, and it plays an important role in the private sector. This research also contributes to expanding the theoretical understanding of the impact of peace marketing practices on customer well-being, which is an area that still needs more in-depth studies and the provision of an experimental conceptual framework that can be tested in the future, which researchers can build on in future studies on similar topics. This research also provides important insights for companies and marketers on how to develop and implement marketing strategies that focus on peace, human values, and community well-being, and helps in designing effective marketing campaigns that enhance the customer experience and increase their levels of well-being, which is positively reflected in the well-being of society.

This research seeks to test the level of impact of peace marketing practices and its dimensions of social development, transparency, and customer rights in achieving customer well-being, and to explore how marketing initiatives that focus on peace and harmony can enhance customers' sense of comfort and reassurance and achieve well-being. This research also attempts to provide practical recommendations for companies on how to deal with the challenges associated with implementing peace marketing practices and urge them to contribute to spreading peace and security in the world and achieving well-being, stability, balance, and cooperation among all communities of the world, making the world a better place to live.

Zain Iraq Telecommunications Company was chosen as a study community and a site for applying the research. The research sample was a random sample of the company's customers and users of its network. Due to the difficulty of determining the size of the community and the spread of sample members, an electronic questionnaire was used. A five-level questionnaire was formulated according to the Likert scale, which starts from 1, completely disagree, two, disagree, three, neutral, 4, agree, and 5, completely agree. The questionnaire was formulated after reviewing previous related studies. The scale (Youssef, 2021) was chosen to measure the peace marketing variable. It was chosen for its suitability to the nature of the research objectives and its proximity to the study sample. The scale proposed by Musher (2022) was also chosen to measure the customer well-being variable after the researcher made the necessary and appropriate modifications to make it more suitable for this research environment. The questionnaire was formulated electronically using the Google Form tool and the snowball method was used to obtain responses to the questionnaire and transfer them from one respondent to another (Saunders, 2009). To provide the audience with equal opportunities to answer the scale paragraphs, the questionnaire was presented on social media platforms. Accuracy, objectivity, clarity, and brevity were considered in the questionnaire questions, and closed answers were adopted. The ideal sample size for this study was calculated using the G-Power program. The ideal sample size was calculated as 472 as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Sample size calculation using G-Power

Source: own G-Power output

The questionnaire was displayed for four weeks on Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram until the number of responses reached the required number, after which the questionnaire was closed. The number of responses was 472 valid responses for measurement, representing this research sample.

Table 1 reflects the reliability and validity of the study scale, as internal reliability was measured by Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability by (CR). According to Zahra (2023a), Al Khazraje and Sideeq (2024), the Cronbach Alpha test is used to measure validity and reliability. If Cronbach's alpha values are greater than 0.70, the scale is considered to have acceptable validity and reliability. To measure reliability, composite reliability (CR) is measured, and according to Al-Khazraje and Ghafoor (2023), Amir et al. (2024), if the composite reliability value is greater than 0.70, the scale is considered reliable and internally consistent. To measure convergent validity, the average variance extracted AVE was extracted, and according to Ameer et al. (2022), its value must equal or exceed 0.50 to indicate that the items adequately cover all aspects of the scale. The factorial structure was also tested, and the factor loadings for all items should be greater than 0.60 to indicate the validity of the factors and that they adequately represent their latent structures. Table 1 shows that the values of Cronbach's alpha for the Peace Marketing Scale (PM) reached 0.826 and Customers' well-being (CW) reached 0.891, thus exceeding the required values for all variables. The same applies to the composite reliability (CR), as the value for the Peace Marketing Scale (PM) reached 0.888 and Customers' well-being (CW) reached 0.910. This means that the scale has high validity, stability and reliability. Also, all the items of the scale are internally consistent and truly reflect the variables to be tested. The AVE values for the Peace Marketing Scale (PM) reached 0.701 and Customers' well-being (CW) reached 0.685. The convergent validity proves that the scale meets the standards of goodness of fit, is valid for measurement and is ready for testing.

After testing the convergent validity and ensuring the validity and reliability of the scale, the discriminant validity test was conducted using the HTMT test, which indicates univariate correlations. The tested values must be less than 0.90 to indicate that the data has a distinctive nature. Table 2 shows that all HTMT values for the scale variables are less than 0.85, and thus it has acquired discriminant validity, and that the measurement model is appropriate, ready, and reliable.

To increase the confirmation of discriminant validity, the Fornell-Larcker standard test was conducted. According to this standard, the values must be significant, statistically acceptable, and greater than 0.50, as it works to compare the value of the square root of the average variance extracted AVE for each construct with the correlations between the other constructs in the model according to Al-Khazraje (2024a).

Each variable must be distinct from others, i.e. the values of the intersections of the variable itself are greater than the values of the intersections with another variable, which explains the existence of a large difference between the latent variables and their dissimilarity, and that each variable represents itself and does not resemble the other. Table 3 shows that the Fornell-Larcker standard is achieved, that all values are greater than 0.50, that the criteria for matching discriminant validity have been achieved, and that each variable is unique and distinct from the rest of the variables.

After confirming the evaluation of the external model (CFA), the internal model will be tested to test the relationships between the latent variables and verify the validity of the proposed hypotheses. The internal model evaluation test was conducted using the bootstrapping tool, path coefficients were extracted to measure the direct and indirect effects, and the value of the interpretation coefficient R2 was extracted, which indicates the degree of variance included in the model. According to Zahra (2023b), Al Khazraje (2024b), the explanatory power of the PLS structural model increases according to the R2 value, which enables the prediction of internal structures. If the R-squared value is 0.75 or more, it indicates a large effect, and if it is within 0.50, it indicates a medium effect, and if it is less than 0.25, it indicates a weak effect (see Table 4).

The preliminary model was extracted with the suggestion of inflating the sample size to 5000 preliminary samples to confirm the statistical significance of the proposed relationships. Table 4 shows the test of goodness of fit, as the value of the coefficient of determination R2 reached 0.670, which is a high impact ratio, and thus the independent variable is at a significance level of 0.000, which is less than 0.01, and thus indicates the significance of the relationship and acceptance of the impact hypothesis 0.667, which explains the dependent variable by 66%, and the rest of the value indicates factors that were not addressed by this research. The blindfold test was also conducted to obtain the Q-Stone-Geisser square, which indicates predictive validity, and the value of Q2 reached 0.783, which is greater than 0, indicating that the latent variables present in this model can predict, as in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Measurement model

Source: Smart PLS4 output

Figure 3 shows that the latent variables in the current model have the ability to predict and that the numbers in the arrows represent the path coefficient while the numbers in the circles represent the validity and reliability coefficient. The symbol [+] indicates that the items dependent on the variable are hidden because they are not needed in evaluating the structural model.

Table 5 shows the path coefficient for testing the hypotheses. The path coefficient value for hypothesis (H2) reached a p-value of less than 0.05, which indicates the significance of the relationship, and the calculated t-value is greater than the tabular value of 1.96. Therefore, the required criteria for the t and p values were achieved, which indicates the significance of the impact relationship. Therefore, hypothesis (H2) is accepted, which means that there is a significant impact between economic development and customer well-being.

The validity of hypothesis (H3) was also verified, as the p-value was greater than 0.05, which indicates that the relationship is not significant, and the calculated t-value is less than the tabular value of 1.96. Therefore, the required criteria for the t and p values were not achieved, which indicates that the impact relationship is not significant. Therefore, hypothesis (H3) is rejected, which means that there is no significant impact between transparency and customer well-being. The validity of the hypothesis (H4) was verified as the p-value was less than 0.05, which indicates the significance of the relationship and that the calculated t-value was greater than the tabular value of (1.96). Thus, the required criteria of the t and p values were achieved, which indicates the significance of the relationship of influence and thus the acceptance of the hypothesis (H4). This means that there is a significant influence between customer rights and customer well-being.

Figure 4 shows the path coefficients for the direct and indirect impact of the dimensions of peace marketing (economic development, transparency, customer rights, and the dependent variable customer well-being), and it shows the acceptance of the hypothesis (H2 and H4) and the rejection of the hypothesis (H3) for not meeting the required values.

Figure 4.

Path assessment

Source: Smart PLS4 output

Moreover, Figure 4 shows the path coefficients for the direct and indirect impact of the dimensions of peace marketing (economic development, transparency, customer rights, and the dependent variable customer well-being), and it shows the acceptance of the hypothesis (H2 and H4) and the rejection of the hypothesis (H3) for not meeting the required values.