Corporate Social Activism
Candace Bozek
Corporate Social Activism is a rising trend that is gaining popularity in marketing
campaigns over the last fifteen years. Corporate social activism is defined as efforts to direct social
change through the use of a company’s marketing efforts. This marketing strategy has gained
momentum because of the rising support for particular social issues, constant media attention,
changing laws and regulations, and the rise of social media. Companies who use this marketing
strategy are attempting to appeal to consumers that care about social issues. Consumers’ reactions
will be different depending on the company’s stance on the given social issue. Companies who
support positive social change are attempting to appeal to consumers who are educated, openminded, and youthful. Companies who seek to inhibit social change are targeting traditional,
religious, less educated, and typically older consumers.
Marketers who use this strategy will try to engage consumers through their ideal self by
using identity marketing and appealing to consumer’s emotions. A consumer’s ideal self is
determined by how they want to be perceived. If a consumer’s ideal state differs from their actual
self, the consumer may use products to help close the gap between the two states. The
representation of a company’s values through the products that the consumer uses leads to high
involvement with the brand and product. Integral affective responses, or emotions, that are more
pleasurable towards a product will evoke a more favourable view of a brand in the mind of the
consumer. Consumers will pair the brand with the brand’s social beliefs and values. Consumers may
react negatively to a corporation making its opinion public because they may think it is a marketing
strategy or ploy to gain goodwill instead of a genuine concern for social issues. Developing a strong
connection between a brand and a cause can tarnish a company’s reputation if the company’s
opinions are not congruent with its target market’s values. The opposite can happen if the
consumers agree with the company’s stance. Positive emotional responses to corporate social
activism may encourage internalization of the brand. Consumers may also be introduced to the
brand through the company’s use of corporate social activism marketing campaigns. Balance theory
suggests that if a consumer and a brand do not share the same views, that the consumer who is
using the brand’s products will need to remedy the unbalance by not using the product or brand
anymore, changing their views to align with the brand’s stance, or by getting the brand to change
their opinions to match their own. If the brand experiences backlash and revokes their opinions, the
consumer would continue in their balanced state.
Coca-Cola’s “America the Beautiful” Super Bowl commercial used corporate social activism
to target the issue of multiculturalism in America. This advertisement received some backlash, but
the company benefitted overall. Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty was designed to empower
women and have them internalize the Dove brand through the strong emotional connection to the
advertisement. Many women took this message to heart and a strong brand connection was formed.
When Chick-fil-A’s Dave Cathy made negative comments about gay marriage, it generated a great
controversy. Boycotts and Appreciation Days were started from the differing groups of consumers
to show their support or dislike of the company’s stance. Other companies like JCPenney, Chevy,
Oreo and Ben & Jerry’s have also used social activism in their marketing initiatives.
Introduction
A recent phenomenon that has been arising in the field of marketing is the use of social activism to
complement the usual messages. Corporate social activism is defined as efforts to direct social
change through the use of a company’s marketing efforts. The ideas behind the marketing
technique have been around for a while, but only over the last fifteen years have marketers begun
to see it as a legitimate and effective practice. Corporations all over the world are expressing their
views on popular social issues such as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT*) rights and gay
marriage, women’s rights, animal rights, multiculturalism, along with a myriad of other popular
topics of debate. Corporations can participate in social activism by using the company’s marketing
functions such as public relations and advertising to express its support for certain parties who are
affected by social issues. Expressing views on social issues within a company can help align its
values with its target markets’. This can be used effectively for socially conscious consumers who
take into account the social behaviour of the firm in their purchasing decisions. Modern consumers
are becoming more concerned with the social responsibility of corporations and how they affect the
communities around them. It offers a differentiation strategy for companies who seek to reach
consumers who are concerned with politics and social issues. This is a risky strategy because by
choosing a side, the company risks losing customers who disagree with the social issue at hand. A
few companies who have used corporate social activism in their marketing efforts include Coca Cola
(Coke), Dove, Chick-fil-A, Oreo, JCPenney, Chevy, and many more. It is a wonder why companies
continue to engage in this practice in light of multiple large-scale controversies emerging over the
last few years. However, before one can hope to truly understand the phenomenon, it is necessary
to first be clear on what the practice involves.
Effectiveness of Corporate Social Activism
Social activism is good marketing strategy to implement if it is genuine and the social issue
aligns with the target market’s values. A brand taking a stand on a social issue can either attract or
repulse consumers depending on its stance and execution. Corporate social activism is a marketing
phenomenon that seeks to appeal to consumer’s ideal selves and influence their attitudes to create
loyal customers. By appealing to our ideal selves, brands are capitalizing on the idea that our ideal
selves will want to support important social issues and that we want to be seen as generous.
Consumers will be more attracted to products and brands that possess what they deem as desirable
attributes because products can be seen as representative of themselves. According to The Principle
of Cognitive Consistency, consumers value harmony in their beliefs and actions and will not use
products that detract from their harmonious state. This principle encourages brands to support
social issues that the consumers feel are important.
Consumers use products to represent their values and can even consider products to be an
extension of themselves. The products that we consider representative of ourselves are a part of
our extended self and the products we use help shape our social identity by exhibiting the brand’s
beliefs and morals. The symbolic self-completion theory states that people use products to
complete themselves by displaying the symbols, or products they want to be linked with.
Corporations that take a stance on social issues risk alienating some consumers because people will
not use products that promote values that are conflicting with their own. Chick-fil-A’s president
Dave Cathy’s controversial gay marriage comments have created a great controversy. Because of
these statements, the entire Chick-fil-A Corporation is seen as anti-LGBT* which has sparked
boycotts among consumers. Concerned consumers start boycotts because they do not support
companies that have different values than their own and do not want companies to express these
opposing views.
An attitude formed about popular brands and social issues will affect consumers’ purchasing
behaviour. Attitudes can be positive or negative and vary in degree of commitment based on the
many different attributes that products and services possess. Internalization of a brand will occur
when a consumer strongly identifies with the company’s social values. Once a brand has become
internalized, it will be hard for other brands to encourage the consumer to switch. Social issues can
ignite passion in consumers which is very effective at getting consumers to internalize a brand.
Consumers who want to seem like they have a specific set of beliefs may try to identify with a brand
that has these values and use their products to represent the attitude they find desirable.
Identifying with a brand is not as strong as internalizing a brand. The weakest form of commitment
that a brand can achieve is compliance. Attitudes also serve a value expressive function. By using a
certain brand’s products and services, the consumer is essentially aligning themselves with the
company’s values. The products and services represent what the consumer believes and their selfconcept. Taking a stand for something is an interesting way to get consumers to internalize a
specific brand and allows consumers to use the product to represent their shared values. Social
activism is effective if the company’s stance aligns with its desired consumer markets’ stance.
Appealing to consumers’ charitable ideal selves and producing products with values that align with
consumers’ moral principles make this an effective marketing strategy for some brands.
Internalization of a brand occurs when the brand and the consumer share the same values. A strong
attitude toward a brand, like internalization, leads to profitability and success. Consumers may not
use products that do not align with their personal beliefs because products and services are
representative of attitudes and beliefs. According to the Principle of Cognitive Consistency,
consumers value harmony and are constantly trying to achieve harmony between their values and
behaviours. Purchasing products that contradict core values would lead to a state of cognitive
dissonance. Consumers seek to rectify dissonance and so will not continue to purchase products
whose values do align with theirs. Brands that support issues that consumers feel are important
through a social activism marketing campaign will do better than companies who oppose the
popular opinion in their target market.
The Rise of Corporate Social Activism
Corporate social responsibility is becoming increasingly important for a brand’s image. A Cone
Cause Evolution Study found 83 percent of Americans say they wish brands would support causes,
and 41 percent have bought a product because it was associated with a cause (Wilson, 2014).
Corporate social activism is an emerging trend that is being used by corporations to support causes
that are important to the public. There are several possible reasons for the rise of corporate social
activism over the last fifteen years. Corporations are becoming more involved in popular social
issues because many of these social issues such as LGBT* rights, equality, and multiculturalism are
becoming less controversial and there is a general acceptance of these issues in North America.
There is a lower risk today than fifteen years ago of offending people by taking a stand for a
generally accepted social issue. Another reason for the popularity of corporate social activism is the
constant media attention which sparks a global discussion of social issues. Politics are also
instrumental in the popularity of social activism, certain laws and regulations in different countries
cause people to want to get involved to direct social change. Social media has also inspired a more
open discussion of social issues. Social media serves as a platform for people and corporations to
express their opinions and share their values with the world.
In North America, support for social movements such as LGBT* rights, women’s rights, animal
rights, and multiculturalism has grown over the years. The number of these supporters today is
much greater than it was fifteen years ago. People are becoming more open minded and accepting
of people from different cultures and backgrounds. Equality for men and women has been
improving over the years and it is reflected in Canadian and United States’ laws including the
Canadian Human Rights Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedom, the Equal Pay Act, and the Civil
Rights Act (Dean, 1994). Canada legalized same-sex marriage in 2005, while in the United States,
seventeen states have legalized it (Dean, 1994). According to Pew Research (2012), in 2000
approximately 50% of Americans believed that homosexuality should be accepted in society,
approximately 41% said it should be discouraged, and 9% had no opinion. In 2011, 58% of
Americans believed that homosexuality should be accepted while 33% said it should be
discouraged. According to a Washington Post/ ABC News by poll in 2011 which sampled 1,005
random adults in the United States, support for gay marriage as risen from 32% in 2004 to 53% in
2011. Support for multiculturalism has also risen in Canada, in 1997 only 71% of Canadians
thought that multiculturalism was important to Canadian identity compared to 88% of Canadians in
2010 (The Environics Institute, 2010). In the United States, support for multiculturalism is not as
high as in Canada but it is growing as the population becomes more diverse. The 2000 Census
revealed that between 1990 and 2000, the foreign-born population increased by 57%, while the
native population increased only 9.3% (Grieco. 2001).
Corporate social activism is a rising trend as these social issues gain more and more media
attention. By getting involved in popular social issues, these corporations may also receive media
attention which can lead to free publicity. This marketing strategy sparks positive and negative
consumer reactions which creates buzz around their company. For example, the 2014 Sochi
Olympics caused controversy because of the anti-gay propaganda law that Russia passed in 2013
which offended supporters and members of the LGBT* community around the world. Several
companies used this as an opportunity to voice their support for the LGBT* community in their
marketing campaigns. Chevrolet aired two advertisements during the 2014 Winter Olympics
featuring a gay male couple with two children and a gay couple getting married (Anderson, 2014).
Google showed its support for gay rights during the Sochi Olympics by incorporating the LGBT* flag
in its logo on the Google home page, although the company did not explicitly state its support. Many
other companies have also expressed their support for the LGBT* community through their past
advertisements including Oreo, Gap, JCPenney, and Ben & Jerry’s (Anderssen, 2013). Each of these
companies received massive amounts of media attention after the release of their advertisements
making headlines in many news programs and newspapers such as the Globe and Mail, ABC News,
CBS News, and many more.
Social media has given a voice to corporations and the public. Coke’s “controversial” Super Bowl
commercial showed the company’s support for multiculturalism as well as the LGBT* community
because it featured a gay couple (Dunning, 2014). This advertisement sparked the trending
hashtags #SpeakAmerican and #boycottcoke which proved that racism is still alive and well in the
United States (Dunning, 2014). Social media users around the world came to the defense of Coke
sparking a global debate. Oreo received similar backlash after the company posted a gay pride Oreo
advertisement on Facebook. The advertisement included an Oreo with rainbow filling and the word
“Pride” for the 2012 gay pride parade (Burra, 2012). Within seventeen hours of its release, more
than 157,000 people “liked” the image, 40,000 people shared it and 20,000 commented on it which
proves the power of social media (Bingham, 2012). Some of the comments were anti-gay and called
for a boycott of Oreo, however most of the responses were positive (Bingham, 2012).
Target Markets
These social issues affect everyone differently. When a corporation chooses a stance, it is targeting
consumers who agree with its views in the hopes that they will purchase its goods and services to
show their support for the social cause. When engaging in corporate social activism, it is important
to understand the demographics and psychographics of the company’s target market to ensure that
their opinions align with the company’s stance on a social issue. Companies who use their
marketing campaigns to support positive social change such as LGBT* rights, women’s rights, and
multiculturalism attempt to appeal to educated, open-minded, and youthful individuals. According
to the ABC News & Washington Post Poll (2011), support for gay marriage is greatest among people
living in urban areas, with higher level educations and incomes, liberal and liberal democrat
political views, and Jewish or no religion. Corporations who make a stand for LGBT* rights or other
human rights issues are targeting consumers with these characteristics. Companies who seek to
inhibit social change are targeting traditional, religious, less educated, and typically older (60+)
consumers. For example, support for gay marriage is lower among individuals living in rural areas,
with educations of a high school diploma or less, lower household incomes, conservative and
republican political views, and those with Protestant and Catholic religions (ABC News &
Washington Post, 2011). Corporate social activism is only a good marketing strategy if the company
supports social issues that align with its target market’s views. By choosing the “wrong” stance, a
company is risking losing its loyal customers and becoming targets of protests and boycotts.
Marketer’s Perspective
Marketers see social activism as an effective way to improve goodwill and drive sales; the
marketer’s ultimate goal. It is a technique that effectively sways consumers via the use of selfconcept, emotions, and identity marketing. When building an advertisement campaign through the
use of corporate social activism, marketers hope that consumers will learn to associate the brand
with the cause, and use their purchasing power to become more active in causes that they care
about. Marketers hope that this method will provide consumers with a more accessible avenue to
contribute to the cause by showing support for companies who endorse it. The success of this
strategy is determined by the social cause that is chosen, and the company’s stance in relation to
their target market’s views. Market research is very important because the marketer must fully
understand their target market, choose a social issue that is important to both the company and the
target market, and choose a stance that will be taken favourably by the target market.
Consumer Reactions
Social issues are by their very nature controversial. Taking one stance or the other in any debate
will be sure to offend at least some subset of the population, no matter how small. Most consumers
behave exactly as marketers would hope in response to social activism in marketing messages; they
quickly begin to associate the company with the message, and form their opinions about the
company depending on whether or not they agree. The responses to the use of this marketing
technique can vary widely. For the majority of consumers, corporate social activism creates a
strong association between the brand and the cause. However, many consumers are deftly aware of
marketers' potential influence on their thought processes and may perceive the use of corporate
social activism as a dubious strategy to increase revenues or piggy-back on social movements for
free good-will. For example, some members of the LGBT* community have expressed outrage at
corporations attempting to make a profit by supporting the Gay Pride Parade, saying "We are a
movement, not a market... This is about pride, not profit." (Proctor-Artz, 2012). While they are a
vocal minority, it is necessary for companies to exercise caution when employing a marketing
strategy which involves social activism.
In response to corporate social activism, consumers see a marketing message that represent
one side of a debate, and they typically associate the brand with that opinion. Their feelings
towards that particular opinion are then carried over to the brand. People with strong negative
feelings towards the viewpoint will likely refuse to do business with the company anymore and
may publicly express their concerns. However, this creates a possibility for new potential
consumers who share the company’s view to be introduced to the brand. Most consumers, who do
not hold an opinion in either extreme, will not likely switch brands solely for this reason.
The strong association with a brand and its stated opinions is best explained by Balance Theory.
When a person with a favourable relationship to a brand finds that they have a conflicting view on
something related to the company, the relationship between all three is unbalanced, creating an
unstable state. Whenever a person exists in an unbalanced state, they will strive to remedy the
situation. This may involve changing their opinion of the brand, changing their stance to reflect the
views of the brand (which is not likely), having the brand's view nullified (which would be the
brand backing down in the face of backlash), or severing their ties with the brand altogether. When
a consumer shares the same view as a brand, the triad is in balance and nothing needs to change.
The Future of Corporate Social Activism
Marketers could be more effective with using social activism as a marketing strategy by taking a
stance that aligns with its target market’s views. Companies must be genuine in its efforts and could
further its support for these social causes by donating money to non-profit organizations that
support the same social issues. Giving a portion of the company’s revenue on each product sold is
an easy way that a company can achieve a charitable image and build a direct correlation between
supporting a social cause and supporting the company. Supporting and sponsoring events that lend
publicity to social issues like gay pride parades and 5 Days for the Homeless, is also an effective way
to make social activism a part of the company’s marketing strategy. As culture evolves, different
social issues will become more relevant. Targeting relevant social issues is the most effective way to
use social activism as a marketing strategy. It is becoming increasingly more important for
companies to be transparent with their business practices which could lead to less social activism if
companies are not entirely genuine in its support for a social cause. As this marketing phenomenon
becomes more widespread, it will become more evident whether or not corporate social activism is
a strong marketing method. Over the next several years, companies will be able to see the long term
financial effects of companies who chose to use this marketing method and how it has affected its
sales. This will determine the direction of corporate social activism as a marketing phenomenon.
Conclusion
Corporations choose to align themselves with social issues to direct social change and to increase
sales. Consumers can use the company’s products to show that they have the same beliefs as the
brand and support social issues. By purchasing the company’s goods and services, consumers are
trying to reach their ideal selves. Brands use identity marketing and emotional appeal to target
their target market. Connecting to consumers emotionally is very powerful for a brand because
consumers buy products that express their values. By being exposed to corporate social activism,
some consumers will change their opinions on brands or social issues as consumers learn to
associate certain brand names with particular social causes. Some consumers may think that the
activism is a marketing stunt and will form a negative opinion of brands who engage in corporate
social activism. Balance Theory predicts that consumers will more readily purchase products from
corporations that share the same beliefs about social issues as them to keep themselves in a
balanced state. Corporate social activism is effective at gaining media attention and creating
controversy to generate buzz for the brand. Conversing about a brand may lead to increased sales
as people become introduced to the brand or are able to recall the brand easier. Because this
marketing strategy has been effective at attracting media attention, it is likely to continue in the
future but the strong backlash that some companies have received may deter companies who are
more risk adverse.
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