Brands taking a stand: influence of brand activism on consumer behavior Samia Moumade To cite this version: Samia Moumade. Brands taking a stand: influence of brand activism on consumer behavior. Business administration. 2020. dumas-03003041 HAL Id: dumas-03003041 https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-03003041 Submitted on 19 Mar 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License Mémoire de recherche Brands taking a stand : Influence of Brand Activism on Consumer Behavior Written by : MOUMADE Samia Supervisor : GAVARD-PERRET Marie-Laure Master DEG, mention Marketing, Vente M2, Parcours Advanced Research in Marketing 2019 - 2020 Avertissement : Grenoble IAE, de l’Université Grenoble Alpes, n’entend donner aucune approbation ni improbation aux opinions émises dans les mémoires des candidats aux masters en alternance : ces opinions doivent être considérées comme propres à leur auteur. Tenant compte de la confidentialité des informations ayant trait à telle ou telle entreprise, une éventuelle diffusion relève de la seule responsabilité de l’auteur et ne peut être faite sans son accord. 1 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4 ABSTRACT…………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 7 PART 1 : CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................ 11 CHAPTER 1 : BRAND ACTIVISM ....................................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Exploring Brand Activism .............................................................................................................................. 11 1.2 From CSR and CRM to Brand Activism ......................................................................................................... 19 1.3 Consumer-Brand relationships ..................................................................................................................... 25 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 2 : CONSUMER RESISTANCE .............................................................................................................................. 29 2.1 Exploring Consumer Resistance ................................................................................................................... 30 2.2 Antecedents of Consumer Resistance .......................................................................................................... 34 2.3 Consequences of Consumer Resistance ....................................................................................................... 37 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 3 : CONGRUENCE, DISSONANCE AND THE PERCEPTION OF CORPORATE HYPOCRISY ....................................................... 41 3.1 Perceived congruence and incongruence .................................................................................................... 42 3.2 Corporate Hypocrisy ..................................................................................................................................... 46 3.3 Cognitive Dissonance ................................................................................................................................... 49 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 53 PART 2 : THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND MODEL .................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 4 : RESEARCH GAP AND RESEARCH QUESTION ...................................................................................................... 53 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER 5 : RESEARCH HYPOTHESES AND MODEL .............................................................................................................. 55 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 62 PART 3 : PROPOSED METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER 6 : DATA COLLECTION AND SAMPLING ................................................................................................................. 62 A.Preliminary Qualitative Research .................................................................................................................... 63 B. Quantitative Method ..................................................................................................................................... 64 C. Sample Selection ............................................................................................................................................ 66 D. Manipulation Checks ..................................................................................................................................... 66 E. Experimental Stimuli Selection ....................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER 7 : MEASUREMENT SCALES .............................................................................................................................. 70 CHAPTER 8 : DATA ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................................... 79 A. Qualitative Content Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 79 B. Qualitative Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 80 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................... 81 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 85 WEBOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................. 86 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................................... 87 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................ 87 5 ABSTRACT Brands are increasingly pressured into taking stands on important issues brewing in society and voice their opinions on the matter. Neutrality is no longer an option. When brands engage in this process, it is called brand activism. The subject of brand activism is sorely understudied in academia, thus this research seeks to analyze the influence of brand activism on consumer behavior, following two potential routes of consumer responses to brand activism, positive and negative. The purpose of this study is to discover the characteristics of the consumer-brand relationship between consumers and activist brands, thus contributing to the research field of brand activism. Moreover, our research provides different paths for consumers’ responses to brand activism and seeks to investigate the concept deeper through the adoption of a mixed-method approach. KEYWORDS: Brand Activism; Consumer Resistance; Corporate Social Responsibility, Perceived Congruence, Perceived Corporate Hypocrisy, Willful Ignorance RÉSUMÉ Les marques sont de plus en plus obligées de prendre position sur des questions importantes qui se préparent dans la société et d'exprimer leurs opinions à ce sujet. La neutralité n'est plus une option. Lorsque les marques s'engagent dans ce processus, cela s'appelle l'activisme de marque. Le sujet de l'activisme de marque est cruellement sous-étudié dans le monde universitaire, donc cette recherche cherche à analyser l'influence de l'activisme de marque sur le comportement des consommateurs, en suivant deux voies potentielles de réponses des consommateurs à l'activisme de marque, positives et négatives. Le but de cette étude est de découvrir les caractéristiques de la relation consommateur- marque entre consommateurs et marques activistes, contribuant ainsi