On Corporate Philanthropy

Recently various brands have been promoting their products through social issues that consumers are engaging with, by moving from social corporate responsibility to leadership and harnessing the brands' power to inspire social and environmental problems and change. Whether brands are creating social leadership campaigns to raise profit margins, or because they simply care about the issues they discuss, several brands have been playing this role through their campaigns, as seen for example with brands like Nike, Under Armor, Gillette, and Uber. 

This paper follows the qualitative methodology by proposing an analytical study of the advertising messages and concepts through a case study of Nike advertising promoting their products through social leadership campaigns, and an analysis which aims to measure the impact of these campaigns on brand image, profit margins, and the means the social causes are being perceived by the consumers.

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Brand Activism, the Relation and Impact on Consumer Perception: A Case Study on Nike Advertising

Hay evidencia empírica convincente de que las empresas más diversas en términos de raza, etnia y género son más innovadoras, más productivas y generan mayores utilidades. Chile, Colombia, México y Perú cuentan con la diversidad poblacional que les permitiría a sus empresas sacar provecho de las ventajas de la diversidad, pero esta diversidad no se ve reflejada en su fuerza laboral y varios estudios han documentado la discriminación sufrida en procesos de reclutamiento en las empresas privadas de tres de los cuatro países. Las tecnologías utilizadas en países desarrollados para la promoción de la diversidad parecen están entrando en una fase de madurez o declive donde ya no están generando un cambio significativo para lograr mayor inclusión y diversidad en las empresas. Por lo tanto, existe un imperativo de innovar e introducir nuevas tecnologías, para pasar a una versión 2.0 de la promoción de la diversidad. En este trabajo se hace un mapeo, a través de casos y ejemplos, de las oportunidades que ofrece la tecnología para promover la diversidad en las empresas en tres momentos de la gestión de recursos humanos: reclutamiento y selección de personal, desarrollo profesional y retención de talento y cultura organizacional. A partir de esta investigación, se concluye que las nuevas tecnologías presentan oportunidades importantes para promover la diversidad en las empresas latinoamericanas. Al mismo tiempo, no podemos dejar de lado que el uso de la tecnología presenta también riesgos éticos, sobre todo en el sentido de replicar los estereotipos y sesgos que existen en nuestras sociedades. El balance, sin embargo, es positivo. Las nuevas tecnologías tienen gran potencial para: (i) facilitar el reclutamiento de una fuerza laboral más diversa; (ii) generar datos e indicadores para visibilizar y hacer seguimiento de las brechas por género, raza y etnia en las empresas; (iii) identificar micromachismos, microagresiones y sesgos en el lenguaje, actitudes y comportamientos y ayudar a evitarlos; (iv) minimizar el impacto de los sesgos conscientes e inconscientes en los diferentes procesos de gestión de talento; (v) construir nuevos canales para medir percepciones y amplificar la voz de grupos minoritarios; y (vi) ofrecer nuevas metodologías de formación y sensibilización más efectivas que los métodos tradicionales.

Diversidad 2.0: La tecnología como aliada de las empresas latinoamericanas

The impact of Corporate Sociopolitical Activism (CSA) on brand attitude

This study investigates the role of consumer–brand congruence and consumer–celebrity congruence in the formation of consumer attitudes toward brands and their impact on behavioral intentions within the context of corporate social advocacy (CSA) involving controversial celebrities. Using a U.S. sample drawn from a Qualtrics panel (N = 372), the results of mediation analyses indicate that attitude toward a brand positively mediates the effects of consumer–brand congruence on consumers’ behavioral intentions, including purchase intention, brand preference, and boycott recommendation. The consumer–celebrity congruence moderated the indirect effect of consumer–brand congruence on brand preference and boycott recommendations, but not purchase intention. The findings of this study contribute to the CSA literature and practices by highlighting the role of consumers’ congruence with a controversial celebrity in determining consumers’ behavioral responses to CSA. When brands practice CSA, consumer–brand congruence rather than consumer–celebrity congruence could play a more important role in shaping consumer behaviors.

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When Corporate Social Advocacy Meets Controversial Celebrity: The Role of Consumer–Brand Congruence and Consumer-Celebrity Congruence

The reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, whom they try to impress, especially the millennials. Hence, this study intends to study the perceptions of millennials towards brand activism, so that the findings from the study can help the brand managers to steer their brands into the troubled waters of brand activism. The methodology followed is HTAB (Hypothesize, Test, Action, Business), a popular analysis framework given by Ken Black in his book titled “Business Statistics: Contemporary Decision Making (6th ed.)” A sample comprising of 286 respondents was collected. The final data had 286 observations and 45 features across seven categories.

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Brand activism and millennials: an empirical investigation into the perception of millennials towards brand activism

Mansoor Khan, 45, brand manager, Tanishq Jewellery for Media and Communications, was facing lots of backlashes for Tanishq’s advertisement on interfaith marriage advertisement aired to promote unity and harmony amongst different communities. In contrast to its stated objective of promoting unity and oneness, this interfaith marriage advertisement created a huge controversy in social media dividing its consumers and netizens into two opposing camps supporting and some even boycotting the advertisement. The brand Tanishq was trolled because of its alleged insensitivity and blindness towards the recent spate of killings in interfaith love affairs and marriages across different parts of India. This controversial advertisement of interfaith marriage and its resultant controversy has left the brand manager pondering should brands rely on more mainstream work rather than any edgy or controversial messaging? Should brands add their business voice to the societal and cultural debates or just stick to conventional advertisement? Or should Tanishq take a moral high stand and continue to promote the advertisement or should it withdraw the controversial advertisement? Whether the reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, who they try to impress? Therefore, this case intends to teach the postgraduate students of marketing about concepts and theories of brand activism, celebrity endorsement, brand management and brand crisis management.

Kerena Anand

Papers

Brand activism and millennials: an empirical investigation into the perception of millennials towards brand activism

Tanishq: Brand Activism Gone Wrong?