About

Brands have regularly engaged with social and cultural trends, yet the concept of brand activism (BA) refers to brands’ adoption of social and political activism within campaigns (Sarkar and Kotler, 2018).

This study of BA, conducted in partnership with Unilever, The Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA) and with industry research from GOOD Agency, will provide new insights to the field. The few studies of this evolving phenomenon have focused on brand authenticity/perception among consumers and not examined how success is evaluated and articulated among other stakeholders. This research will scrutinise brand management assessments of marketing effectiveness and the responses of economic stakeholders. However, it is innovative in also examining the responses of other stakeholders, those who are advocates for the social movements/causes that brands engage with.

As more companies champion socio-political issues and are building 'purpose' into their marketing communications, how BA is perceived, consumed and by whom, has become a societal issue. Companies like Unilever can advance social causes due to their scale, but its communications are influenced by corporate and marketing objectives that shape how issues such as gender equality are presented and engaged with. Therefore, the control, impact, scrutiny and accountability of these messages are of utmost importance. This project draws on humanities and social science research approaches to examine brand communications, stakeholder discourse, media coverage, mediated communications, aspects of social movements and political communication.

As this is a collaborative doctorate, the project will examine brand campaigns and other resources provided by the partners, as well as case studies chosen by the researcher and supervisory team. This study will analyse brands that engage in BA rather than those who consider themselves as inherently activist e.g. The Body Shop and will examine selected brands’ campaign activity, cause (mis)alignment and consumer socio-cultural engagement in North America, UK and Europe.