Branding Activities Research Articles

Brand activism in a polarizing world: the roles of cause controversy and consumption goal

Brand activism in a polarizing world: the roles of cause controversy and consumption goal

The perceptions of brand coappearance in product placement: cooperation, competition or coopetition?

Purpose Brands increasingly coappear in television programs while research in product placement has primarily focused on the placements of a single brand. Building on research related to product placement and cobranding, this study aims to systematically examine the roles of product competitiveness and brand competitiveness on the effectiveness of brand coappearance on television programs. Design/methodology/approach Extensive pretesting and four experimental studies were conducted. Real stimuli that had been digitally manipulated with fictitious brands were used in Study 1 (laboratory experiment involved student samples) and Study 2 (online experiment with a national sample) to examine the short- and long-term impacts of product competitiveness on brand coappearance. Real stimuli incorporated actual brands were used in Study 3 (involved advertisers’ key demographic) and Study 4 (alterative television program with a national sample) to examine the impacts of brand competitiveness and its interaction effect with product competitiveness. Findings The study found that coappearing with a product of high competitiveness significantly enhanced attitudes and purchase intention toward the coappearing products both in the short and long term. Product competitiveness further interacts with brand competitiveness to influence attitudes and purchase intention toward the coappearing brands suggesting a coopetition pattern for brand coappearances. The effect of brand coappearances did not vary substantially for low or high involvement products with or without character interaction. Research limitations/implications The study develops a useful framework for explaining and understanding the potential spillover effects in brand coappearances. It contributes to the existing literature on product placement and cobranding, while also paving the way for future research opportunities. Practical implications When introducing new brands, marketers are advised to consider coappearance deals with more competitive brands in highly competitive product categories. Conversely, coappearance deals with less competitive brands in less competitive product categories should be adopted to promote well-known brands. Advertisers may also consider product or brand exclusivity arrangements with broadcasters to enhance the effectiveness of the product placement. Originality/value Although brand coappearance in media content is likely to continue to proliferate, little is known about the phenomenon and its effects. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to systematically examine the perceptions toward brands coappeared in television programs.

Peace Brand Activism: Global Brand Responses to the War in Ukraine

Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, many global brands took a stand on the crisis, which often elicited polarized consumer responses. This study explores this phenomenon—peace brand activism (PBA)—by conducting an inductive analysis of global brands’ responses to the Russia–Ukraine war as disclosed on social media channels across three different platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The analysis highlights the range of PBA tactics that global brands employ, revealing diverse action- and statement-based forms that they can adopt, including instances of pseudo-activism. In addition, this study identifies seven key characteristics of PBA: substantiality, nature, side-taking, location specificity, responsiveness, persistence, and diversity, each manifesting across spectra of differential ends. This work elucidates the evolving role of businesses in promoting peace and offers valuable guidance for managers navigating the complex terrain of PBA, emphasizing the importance of brands being cognizant of the various PBA options and thoroughly weighing the implications of taking a stand on sensitive geopolitical issues. The findings bear important policy implications, suggesting that policy makers must consider PBA's impact on bilateral relations and collaborate with brands to develop informed, strategic PBA initiatives. Finally, the authors outline important avenues for future research.

Should Global Brands Engage in Brand Activism?

Brand activism, taking a stance on current and divisive sociopolitical issues, has emerged as a novel means of expressing a brand's values and engaging with the firm's customer base. Yet, globally, companies lack conclusive guidance on the consequences of taking a stance. This research asks a novel question: Should global brands engage in activism? Using varying activism manipulations (e.g., statements and actions), five studies reveal consumer preference for activist global brands. More importantly, guided by schema change theory, the authors find that the positive brand activism effect is particularly strong for global brands associated with negative brand origin, irrespective of consumers’ prior attitude valence. However, brands with positive origin associations benefit from activism only when consumers’ prior attitude valence is in alignment. The authors also identify the mediating effects of self–brand connection, which has downstream consequences for behavioral intentions. Taken together, this work sheds new light on consumer perceptions of brand activism across cultures, elucidates why consumers prefer global brands that engage in activism, and offers actionable insights for global brand managers.

Women empowerment in restaurants: effects of femvertising, purplewashing and feminist identity on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium

Purpose Despite the increasing popularity of women-owned businesses in the marketplace, relatively few studies in the hospitality literature have focused on these businesses. Hence, this study aims to examine the impact of femvertising and purplewashing on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium at women-owned restaurants, as well as the role of feminist self-identification and psychological closeness underlying these associated effects. The study aims to provide insights into women-owned restaurant marketing strategies and to highlight the importance of authentic brand activism in consumer behavior in the restaurant industry. Design/methodology/approach Building on Construal Level Theory, this paper conducts two online experiments with 486 US participants who have dined at or ordered takeout from a restaurant. The studies aim to investigate consumers’ opinions about brand activism strategies (i.e. femvertising and purplewashing) in restaurants. Findings The results of two experimental studies indicate that a femvertising strategy increases consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for a women-owned restaurant compared to a non-women-owned restaurant. Moreover, consumers who identify more strongly as feminists are more likely to pay more for women-owned restaurants when purplewashing is absent (vs present). Additionally, psychological closeness serves as an underlying mechanism that explains these effects. Practical implications This study provides clear and actionable recommendations to help business stakeholders, owners and managers to market and advertise women-owned restaurants. For example, women-owned restaurant practitioners should feature women empowerment messaging in their advertisements to attract more consumers. However, they should avoid using purplewashing and other inauthentic brand activism practices in advertisements. Originality/value This research contributes to the hospitality literature on women entrepreneurship by exploring the effective marketing strategies of women-owned restaurants and investigating how to advertise women-owned businesses in the hospitality field. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also the very first study to explore the role of femvertising and purplewashing in consumers’ food-related decision-making.

The brand behind the curtain: decoupling, recoupling and moral conflict in social media

Purpose Social media platforms have matured into significant arenas for moral conflict and often intense confrontation between brands and their consumers. This research aims to scrutinize the strategic development of a fresh brand entity deliberately detached from its morally compromised corporate parent, intended to reshape public perceptions and elude regulatory scrutiny. Design/methodology/approach Promoted as a center for transformative dialogue and innovation, Mission Winnow by Philip Morris is a novel example of a brand creating an entirely separate brand entity to provide sponsorship, and to associate itself with new brand values. This study employs a multisited netnography through which the posts and conversations on Mission Winnow’s platform and website hub are captured and interpreted, as well as the branded content and the free flows of consumers’ conversations generated around the brand on social media. Findings Findings reveal a broad interchange of moral controversy, acceptance and opposition discourses on social media. When consumers’ acceptance narratives gain traction, consumers extend their support toward the new brand entity, employing strategies that echo moral rationalization and decoupling. When resistance narratives dominate, consumers consciously draw connections between the decoupled brand and the parent brand’s immoral behavior. Originality/value This study expands upon prior research into brand activism and consumers’ moral reasoning toward controversial brands, linking the notion of brand decoupling to brand activism discourse and introducing key underexplored aspects like the power of imagery, linguistic creativity and nostalgia. Moreover, it presents significant implications for a more nuanced understanding of the important interrelationship of brand decoupling and recoupling on social media.

AKUMULASI MODAL DESAINER GRAFIS DI TENGAH PERTUMBUHAN EKONOMI: TANTANGAN ATAU ANCAMAN (?)

Economic growth indicates a demand for design needs, specifically to support MSMEs in Indonesia. This paper aims to explain and understand how capital accumulation is conducted by graphic designers to exist and survive in the Indonesian graphic design arena. The paper attempts to explore the strategies of graphic designers with various starting points. It borrows Bourdieu's perspective related to cultural intermediaries and capital. Graphic designers without a design background try to accumulate cultural capital from self-taught knowledge obtained from tutorials on various digital media platforms. The accumulation of social capital begins within the nearest accessible environment, such as friendship circles. Different from other graphic designers, Bli Putu Angga, who is a fine arts graduate and also a content creator, possesses cultural capital from his branding activities. Social capital enables him to engage in various collaborations, including endorsements. Symbolic capital comes from the number of followers and the blue check mark on his Instagram, which signifies professionalism and quality as a graphic designer. The capital accumulation conducted by graphic designers indicates a desire to exist and climb the social ladder in the graphic design world.

The strength of stance: The impact of brand activism on resistance to negative information, purchasing, and premium paying intents across different types of failures

This paper represents a pioneering exploration of how brand activism influences consumer responses to performance and value-related failures. Specifically, across two experiments, the research explores how brand activism influences consumer resistance to negative information, purchase intent, and willingness to pay more, in response to product, service, and value-related failures. Study 1 (N = 237) reveals that consumers who are more involved in activism and are exposed to a product failure from activist brands exhibit higher resistance to negative information compared to those who encounter product failures from non-activist brands. This suggests that activist branding may protect companies by cultivating a resilient, loyal consumer base in such adverse situations. Study 2 (N = 261) extends these findings by examining whether value-related (vs service-related) failures impact the buffering effect generated by a brand’s activist stance. Results indicate that activist brands particularly benefit from a protective buffer in the context of service failure scenarios. However, this buffer does not extend to value-related failures, leading to harsher consumer judgments and intentions. The research significantly contributes to brand activism literature by uniquely integrating the themes of brand activism and brand transgressions, exploring how brand activism affects consumer responses to both performance and value-related failures.

The dark side revealed: insights and implications from online brand communities

Purpose This study aims to present a comprehensive review of the literature on the dark side of online brand communities, identifying the dominant themes [determinants of the dark side in online brand communities (OBCs)] in the literature and proposing ways to advance the literature in this area. Design/methodology/approach This study reviewed 72 scholarly articles published between 2009 and 2024 in peer-reviewed journals. A descriptive and thematic analysis of dark-side literature is presented. Findings The contribution of this scoping review lies in identifying the dominant themes in the literature on the determinants of the dark side of online brand communities, proposing management strategies and identifying future research directions for advancing the literature. Six main themes of the dark side of online communities were extracted: information dynamics, group dynamics, unethical practices and brand transgression, provocation and schadenfreude, brand activism and hate and disengagement. Practical implications Firstly, this study highlights the need for brands to engage in the active moderation of OBCs to maintain information credibility and manage information overload. Secondly, to ensure an inclusive community environment for all members, brands need to foster a balanced forum culture and moderation that discourages heterogeneity. Originality/value This study is unique in conducting an in-depth analysis of the literature on the dark side of online brand communities, an area that has received little attention. This review offers new insights that would help brands effectively manage negative aspects of customer behaviours in online brand communities. For managers, this review enables brands to improve their image, reputation and customer value.

The Moderating Effect of Artificial Intelligence Marketing Activities on the Relationship between Brand Activism and Repurchase Intentions applied on E- Retail Stores in Egypt

The Moderating Effect of Artificial Intelligence Marketing Activities on the Relationship between Brand Activism and Repurchase Intentions applied on E- Retail Stores in Egypt

Maintaining Business During Covid-19 Pandemic Through Social Media: A Content Analysis of Indonesian Football Club Instagram Account

Indonesia has become the largest football industry with a huge fan base. Football continues to become a profitable brand and generates extraordinary profits, considering that football has a wide and large market share. As a brand, many football clubs have realized the power of branding in marketing clubs outside the club's local market through branding strategies carried out into content on social media. Currently, social media has become a popular and effective new media in the branding strategy of a football club. Their Instagram account has gained millions of followers in recent years, creating an effective medium for sales and promotion. Many Indonesian big brands agree to sponsor the club as a way to promote their products as well. However, the global pandemic hit from March 2020 to August 2021, and there was a long hiatus for football matches, considering the branding activity of a football club is very dependent on the passing of matches in a competition. Football matches become the 'main product' that attracts the attention of fans and sponsors. Due to this catastrophe, how can football clubs in Indonesia maintain business during the COVID-19 pandemic through Instagram content? Using a semi-structured interview with internal parties of a big football club in Indonesia, this study generates some practical summaries and implications on how to maintain business during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result shows the significant influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the content analysis of the Football Club in Indonesia through Instagram. Keywords: COVID-19, football, content analysis, social media, Instagram.

To Be Woke or Not to Be Woke? An Exploration of the Moral Foundations of Conservative Rejection of Brand Activism

Brand activism has become a powerful way to communicate a brand’s values and attract consumers who expect stances on divisive issues, but it can also lead to backlash. Thus, in the current study, we examine the #GoWokeGoBroke movement, an online-based media campaign that is gaining traction, to serve as a starting point for brands and advertisers to decide whether to engage in or avoid brand activism. Our findings, based on moral foundations theory, suggest that each moral foundation is associated with various metrics of online engagement, but not others. Brand activism choices that trigger responses that reference unfairness or undue authority are linked to higher retweet rates and a wider spread, which suggests that evoking those foundations may be particularly dangerous. This study offers implications for understanding the #GoWokeGoBroke movement, as well as for the study of the moral foundations of online movements for brands. The results can help brands mitigate pushback against activism choices as well as consider strategies for using moral foundations to join online brand activism conversations.

STRATEGY FOR IMPROVING ECOTOURISM BRANDING THROUGH MANGROVE BATIK IN BLIMBING MALANG

This community service activity aims to help ecotourism business actors to increase visits through destination branding strategies. The problem faced by ecotourism business players is that business income has barely developed, especially after the pandemic. One of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise sectors affected is hand-written batik. This assistance and training was provided to the Malang Mangrove Batik MSME Group, which consists of 40 members of Batik entrepreneurs throughout Malang City Regency. The lack of visitors and purchasing power which is still only starting to increase after the pandemic also has an impact on the income of MSMEs. Apart from that, several problems with mangrove tourism are caused by not optimal social media branding, lack of cooperation from local communities for branding, lack of information on tourist destinations in mass media, lack of massive campaigns on social media, lack of understanding of the potential and uniqueness of mangrove tourism, etc. have a mangrove tourism promotion strategy plan. This activity seeks to restore income for MSMEs through a destination branding strategy for mangrove batik ecotourism. One of the efforts made is branding mangrove batik. This activity includes 5 stages starting from market analysis, brand identity, brand launch and introduction, brand implementation, and monitoring/evaluation. The results of branding activities show a significant increase in awareness of mangrove batik both in terms of brand, engagement and market segmentation.

Effects of Travel Agencies' Environment, Social, and Governance Marketing Activities on Consumer Behavioral Intentions

ABSTRACTEnvironment, social, and governance (ESG) marketing activities are becoming increasingly crucial for business growth. This study surveys 322 participants in the US to determine the effects of consumer beliefs and attitudes toward travel agencies' ESG activities on consumer behavioral intentions. The moderating effects of tourism innovativeness and tourists' enjoyment are explored. The results reveal that environmental beliefs have a positive influence on attitudes toward ESG. Conversely, social and governance beliefs exhibit a positive impact solely on attitudes toward ESG advertisements, within the context of attitudes toward ESG in general. A positive attitude toward ESG advertising and branding activities influences the intention to repurchase. This study confirms that a positive attitude toward ESG branding activities has a positive effect on word of mouth. Tourist innovativeness plays a moderating role in the relationship between attitudes toward ESG advertising and word of mouth (WOM).

BRAND COMMUNICATION OF EU LEADING UNIVERSITIES: INSPIRATIONS FOR THE UKRAINIAN CONTEXT

The paradigm shift within the administrative framework of domestic higher education institutions (universities) towards marketing management necessitates the incorporation of innovative methodologies in relation to their positioning, branding, and brand communications. Consequently, there exists merit in scrutinizing and assimilating the progressive experiences of leading European universities within the realm of their brand communications.The article presents the results of analysis of universities' branding activities in a qualitative case study of ten EU universities, which occupy leading positions in the Shanghai Academic International Ranking of Universities.An examination of the preceding decade reveals discernible qualitative transformations in the modalities through which universities articulate their inherent values. In the initial years of the second decade of the 21st century, preeminent values encompassed excellence (or quality), social justice (or diversity), third mission (or outreach), academic orientation, community (or collaboration), internationalization, and performance measurement (or evaluation) (Mampaey, Huisman, and Seeber (2015). These values were extensively disseminated by universities as part of their brand communications.Emergent values observable in the contemporary brand communications of leading EU universities include: аutonomy, academic freedom, innovative mindset, creation of an innovative ecosystem, marketization of research, ethics and academic integrity, sustainable and сlimate-friendly organization, make a difference approach, impact, openness, courageousness, effectiveness, solution-oriented thinking, life-long partnership, сreation the environment, society confidence, brand development, creativity, cultural influence.An evolution in brand communication strategies of EU universities has been discerned. While the early years of the second decade of the 21st century witnessed a notable convergence in these strategies among leading universities, accompanied by “mimic” strategies by less competitive institutions, the current trend reflects a divergence in these approaches. This differentiation is evidently driven by the distinctive characteristics inherent to each university, a strategic vision for future development, and a proactive inclination to establish a distinct and clearly differentiated position within the competitive landscape.

Digital Literacy of LAZIS Syuhada Yogyakarta in Building Public Awareness through Philanthropy Product Branding

This research describes the literacy of LAZIS Syuhada Yogyakarta in branding activities for the economic empowerment of the poor through the utilization of Information and Communication Technology online. One of the literacy efforts made by LAZIS Syuhada is branding the economic empowerment products of the poor to promote Islamic philanthropy and attract donors to donate. Branding the product is expected to build public awareness and knowledge (literacy) about LAZIS Syuhada's philanthropic activities, especially through social media. Social media is used by LAZIS Syuhada to increase public literacy of the branded products through information and promotions that are disseminated, so as to attract donations. This study contributes to understanding LAZIS Syuhada's literacy strategy in branding economic empowerment products as a form of philanthropic promotion so that people know and get involved in it. This study uses library research and descriptive analytics. The results of the study are expected to contribute to understanding LAZIS Syuhada's literacy strategy in its philanthropic product branding activities.

Mobile manufacturing path for India: Lessons from other Asian countries

For almost two decades now Government of India has tried out numerous policies for establishing mobile manufacturing in the country. Though mobile production facilities started their operations in India in 2005, studies have shown that it is only low value assembly that is carried out in the country. In this paper, we infer a few policy lessons for India from the experiences of four Asian countries – South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam – that have walked down this path. We argue that for India to attain its goal, increasing public investment in mobile technology research will help. Our paper suggests that government should incentivise local firms to establish linkages with mobile manufacturing multinational firms. To capture more value, domestic firms that manufacture mobiles need to focus on R&D, marketing and branding activities.

Social Media Activation Strategy pada Produk Olahan Kelapa Kopyor “Kosudu”

Coconut is a prospective plantation commodity. Many coconuts are further processed into various processed products, one of which is frozen coconut kopyor. This research aims to determine the implementation of brand activation and determine which social media activation strategy to be implemented in "Kosudu" frozen kopyor coconut. This research was designed with a case study approach in the Unit Usaha Kopyor Bogor. The informants and respondents were chosen through purposive sampling with criteria. The informants were 7 employees who provided information regarding “Kosudu”, while the respondents were 10 consumers who purchased the product. The analysis used in this research is SWOT and QSPM analysis. The research results show the implementation of the "Kosudu" social media activation, there are 8 activities in social media. The brand activation strategy for the Kopyor Bogor Business Unit is (1) Video advertisement (2) User Generated Content (3) Live dan post feed (4) Podcast.

The Brand as an Example for Sustainability: The Impact of Brand Activism on Employee Pro-Environmental Attitudes

The impact of companies’ social strategies, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and brand activism, on corporate advantages like economic and reputational gains has been well documented in the literature. However, research becomes scarcer regarding the broader impacts of these social strategies, namely the promotion of attitudes in favor of society and the environment on the part of company stakeholders. Furthermore, there is still little research on the variables that can mediate this impact, particularly at an identity and emotional level. To cover this gap, this article aims to study the impact of environmental brand activism on employee pro-environmental attitudes, and the possible mediating effects of identification with the organization and moral elevation by analyzing the brand activism of a Portuguese retail company. The results showed that environmental brand activism can directly affect the pro-environmental attitudes of employees and have also indirect impacts on the pro-environmental attitudes of this group of stakeholders, but only through the mediating role of identification with the organization, thus contributing to a better perception of the potential of brand activism to promote social change and sustainable development.

User-Generated Content and Cultural Public Relations Approach to the Virtual Branding of Lombok Tourism

Information about tourist attractions is the right of tourists protected by tourism laws and consumer protection. One approach used to fulfill consumer information is through User Generated Content (UGC). This approach serves as virtual branding activities to promote tourist attractions. The content presented must be able to attract visitors' interest. Therefore, there needs to be an effort by tourism managers to provide facilities and tourism infrastructure to ensure visitor comfort. The experiences of tourists will become content published on social media or applications used in User Generated Content (UGC) activities. The purpose of this research is to analyze the motives behind visitors' communal experiences and to analyze the challenges faced by tourism managers in dealing with User Generated Content (UGC) activities. This study uses a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. The results obtained indicate that the main motive consciously and collectively built for UGC is to share useful information about tourist attractions through citizen journalism activities. Other results show that the challenges faced by tourism managers in dealing with UGC activities include enhancing facilities, improving tourism accessibility, and increasing cooperation to generate more UGC content by actively involving the community through local activities. One successful example of cooperation is through empowering local residents in the traditional weaving handicraft activities typical of Lombok, which are part of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).