Brand activism in the 21st century : what makes brand activism authentic among millennials?
Creators: name: Müller, Carmen Béatrice
Publisher: name: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Year: 2022
Subjects: 658.8: Marketingmanagement

description: The increasing presence and popularity of brand activism is creating new opportunities for brands to demonstrate their support for social and political issues by taking a stance on these controversial issues and communicating this. The expectation of brands to participate in brand activism is particularly prevalent among millennials, who constitute a large share of the population and have significant spending power but are also increasingly skeptical of marketing ploys. Thus, participating in brand activism carries substantial risks for brands. It can lead to backlash and have negative financial implications if the efforts are not deemed authentic. However, the concept of brand activism authenticity in general and with a focus on millennials has not received adequate attention in research. Since brand activism authenticity is a relatively novel topic and is crucial to the initiative’s success, and because of the critical role millennials play in society, both practitioners and academics have an interest in addressing this research gap. 
Therefore, the overall purpose of this study was to delve into the factors that make brand activism authentic among millennials. Insights were first gathered through existing research on authenticity, both within brand activism and CSR, which allowed for the construction of a conceptual model of brand activism authenticity. The conceptual model proposes the following factors of brand activism: impact, fit, self-serving motives, and brand attitude. Brand attitude was found to have a mediating effect in other contexts within the existing research. As such, it was also tested whether brand attitude mediates the effect of impact, fit and self-serving motives on brand activism authenticity. Thus, this study explores the factors of brand activism authenticity by adopting a deductive research approach and conducting primary quantitative research through an online survey. 
The results of the quantitative analysis revealed that three of the four proposed factors affect the perceived authenticity of brand activism among millennials. In order of their strength, the factors that significantly affect the authenticity of brand activism are fit, impact, and brand attitude. Self-serving motives were not found to affect the authenticity of brand activism initiatives. The study additionally finds that brand attitude mediates the effect that fit and impact have on brand activism authenticity.
Considering that brand activism authenticity is a novel topic and that no quantitative research has been conducted, the findings of this study provide several implications for managers and academics. For example, considering the importance of fit in authenticity, managers should make efforts to gain an understanding of what issues consumers are concerned with when choosing a brand activism initiative to ensure alignment. Moreover, several recommendations for future research were suggested, such as testing further factors of authenticity in the context of brand activism.