With social movements like Black Lives matter, #MeToo and Fridays For Future on the rise consumers expect companies to take a stand on these socio-political topics. A new marketing strategy, called brand activism is used to communicate brands values and actions. This paper will conduct a case study of the company Oatly which has been standing out for its daring marketing strategies and analyze their visual communication by using the methods of visual analysis, semiotics and critical discourse analysis. The main research question is how Oalty uses its visual communication to convey brand activism. By analyzing one oat drink packaging, an ad campaign and an Instagram post the findings of this paper conclude that Oatly has several ways of communicating brand activism. These include the use of value based communication, referencing historical activism movements and the sociopolitical theme of promoting a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. The question arises about the authenticity of their opinions and the motives behind their brand activism. So whilst it's clear that companies like Oatly can convey the message of brand activism, this new marketing strategy needs further guidelines and methods of verification to ensure the use of authentic brand activism.

The new phenomena of brand activism can be used as a communication strategy to reach consumers. The demand for brand activism has increased with the generation of millennials. This research uses a qualitative method to get a greater understanding of how companies use brand activism as a communication strategy to reach millennials. The authors have chosen to study corporate brands since they have a structure within the business where everything that is communicated from the brand will be a lifelong message.  This study is based on a content analysis to get a greater understanding for how brand activism is used and how companies with the help from activism content reach millennials. The companies that have been studied are Nike, Ben & Jerry’s and The Body Shop, which all use brand activism and have millennials as a part of their target audience.  Millennials are an important target audience since they stand for 30% of the population. Therefore it is important to grow and understand their new demands for more ethical and moral brands. This generation wants to contribute to the world and make a change.  The results of this study shows that brand activism engages millennials and has a positive effect on their purchase intentions. Which is important for companies to take into consideration in their corporate branding. The results also show whether or not the companies are bold or not when they chose a subject to take a stand in.

Varumärkesaktivism är en strategi för marknadsföring som har blivit alltmer uppmärksammad på senare år. Det är en form av ställningstaganden där varumärken lyfter samhällsfrågor för att påverka konsumenterna genom marknadsföring som är skapad och upprätthållen av sociala och politiska värderingar. Detta är extra viktigt inom klädbranschen då företag på den marknaden idag lider av minskat förtroende från konsumenter, dels när det kommer till integritet och dels när det gäller produkternas ursprung och tillverkning. Varumärkesaktivism kan i vissa fall dock missgynna företagen om kunden inte anser att denna aktivism är autentisk, eller om kunden inte sympatiserar med budskapet företaget förmedlar. Däremot kan detta även skapa fördelar om denna varumärkesaktivism är autentisk och kunden sympatiserar med budskapet, vilket är en svår balansgång för företag idag. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka varför och hur ett känt internationellt företag inom klädbranschen arbetar med varumärkesidentitet samt varumärkesaktivism. Syftet var även att se hur företaget arbetar för att förmedla detta på ett autentiskt sätt till sina kunder och hur deras kunder uppfattar denna aktivism. Detta studerades genom att tillämpa en kvalitativ strategi där empiri samlades in genom kvalitativa intervjuer med chefer inom det utvalda företaget som arbetar med varumärkesbyggande, kommunikation samt sociala medier. För att ta reda på hur kunderna uppfattar denna aktivism genomfördes även kvalitativa intervjuer med kunder hos företaget. Studiens resultat visade att företaget idag har en tydlig varumärkesidentitet som bygger på deras kärnvärden samt grundvärderingar vilket även stämmer överens med uppfattningen från deras kunder. Utifrån varumärkesidentiteten tar företaget sedan ställning i sociopolitiska frågor genom att kommunicera denna varumärkesaktivism på sitt instagramkonto samt hemsida. Resultatet visade även att företagets kunder anser att varumärkets åsikter inom sociopolitiska frågor stämmer överens med hur företaget agerar vilket har bidragit till en autentisk uppfattning av företagets varumärkesaktivism. Sammanfattningsvis är denna studiens slutsats att företaget idag har en tydlig koppling mellan sin varumärkesidentitet samt varumärkesaktivism, vilket har lett till att deras aktivism uppfattas som autentisk från deras kunder. / Brand activism is a marketing strategy that has received increased attention in recent years. It is a form of stance where brands raise societal issues to influence consumers through marketing that is created and maintained by social and political values. This is important in the clothing industry as companies in the market today suffer from reduced trust from consumers, partly when it comes to the origin and manufacture of the products. However, brand activism can in some cases be a disadvantage for companies, if the customer does not believe that this activism is authentic, or if the customer does not agree with the message that the company is communicating. But in other cases, it can create benefits if this brand activism is authentic and fits in with the customer, which is a difficult balancing act for companies today. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate why and how a well-known international company in the clothing industry works with brand identity and brand activism and how the company communicates this in an authentic way to its customers and how the customers perceive this activism. This was studied by applying a qualitative strategy where empirical data has been collected through qualitative interviews with managers who work with brand building, communication and social media at the selected company. Qualitative interviews were also conducted with customers of the company to find out how the company's customers perceive this activism. The results of the study showed that the company today has a distinct brand identity based on their core values, which agrees with the perception from their customers as well. From the brand identity, the company takes a stand on sociopolitical issues by communicating this brand activism. Further, the results showed that the company's customers considered that the brand's views on socio-political issues are in line with how the company acts and thus contribute to an authentic perception of the company's brand activism. To summarize, this study showed that the company today has an evident link between its brand identity and brand activism, which has led to their activism being perceived as authentic by their customers.

Nike is a prominent company that engages in brand activism, a marketing approach wherein they brand themselves as socially progressive by adopting public stances on controversial social issues. Because Nike resides at the intersection of media and sports, both of which are institutions that gender plays an important role in, an exploration of how Nike constructs gender in its commercials may illuminate the authenticity of its brand activism and progressive politics. Through a content analysis of 131 commercials released by Nike in the past decade, I explore whether their reputation as a socially progressive company extends to genuinely diverse and inclusive portrayals of gender in their commercials, or if they instead continue to rely on gender stereotypes. My results indicate that Nike commercials continue to treat sports as a predominantly masculine realm in which male athletes compete, therefore marginalizing athletes who are female or who do not display traditional masculine qualities. I also find that the bulk of athletes portrayed by Nike are those that adhere to gender stereotypes, indicating that Nike chooses to reinforce hegemonic masculine ideals rather than being genuinely inclusive and progressive in regard to gender.

In recent years, femvertising has become a new issue of interest for companies, specifically in areas targeting women. Indeed, some companies in the cosmetics industry, such as Dove - a pioneer in the field - have been addressing the representation of women in advertising by tackling issues of equality, inclusiveness, and self-acceptance. Defined as female empowerment advertising, femvertising remains an issue that has been little studied in the literature. While some studies conclude that such a strategy is effective on the corporate side, we want to study this issue from a consumer perspective. Since this new marketing strategy is part of the 4th wave of feminism – which stands out from the other waves with a strong online orientation – the prism of social media constitutes the field of study of this thesis, and more specifically Instagram, a social network where the image concern rules. Generation Y, considered as digital natives, being particularly present on these social networks and relatively aware of global issues, we thus focus our research on these people aged between 21 and 41 years old. In order to shed light on this recent topic, we aim to investigate the attitude of Generation Y toward femvertising in the cosmetics industry. Through this thesis, we try to develop a deeper understanding of if and how the feminist stance of cosmetic brands in their online marketing affects the behaviour of consumers from Generation Y. Besides, this study intends to investigate if, among millennials, there are differences in perception and attitudes towards femvertising according to the cause commitment and activist knowledge of consumers. For this purpose, we developed three research questions that allowed us to study this attitude from exposure to this specific type of advertising, to catch millennials'perception and the way this type of ad affects them, up to their purchase intention. To gather the necessary insights for this research project, a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews among twelve millennials sensitive to cosmetics and/or the feminist movement were conducted, supported by five selected cases of femvertising displayed by cosmetics brands on social media. The findings of this study revealed three key insights regarding Generation Y attitudes towards femvertising. First, these new representations are perceived rather positively among millennials since it breaks codes, stereotypes, and offers more inclusive representations as requested by these consumers. Secondly, Generation Y consumers being rather committed to social causes, they raise their skepticism, are rather cautious about the honesty of this approach, or even react unfavorably to femvertising. Despite this, this marketing strategy using feminist speech and values that are dear to millennials make them hold a positive purchase intention towards cosmetic brands using these claims. This has obvious practical implications for brands to consider. More generally, this bridged some of the identified gaps in the literature and raise important questions for societal and ethical considerations.

Upon Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of war in early 2022, brands around the world took a stand to mark their position against Russia and in support of Ukraine. Even brands that did not have any direct ties to Russia or any involvement in the conflict distanced themselves from being associated with Russia by ceasing operations, stopping sales, or changing brand names. Brands engaging in sociopolitical issues, i.e., brand activism, has become more prevalent in recent years and thus become a topic of research. Previous research on brand activism focuses heavily on the corporate perspective, and only recently have scholars studied the effects on consumers. Guided by the research question “How do consumers perceive brand activism and what role does brand authenticity play in their evaluation of genuine brand activism?”, this study aims to offer a deeper understanding of consumers’ views on brand activism and how they evaluate its genuineness using qualitative methods. With a starting point in a recent event that brands have engaged in, namely the war in Ukraine, the study reveals that consumers' views on brand activism vary greatly, and for the majority, brand activism is not a decisive factor in their choice of brand. However, consumers still have a positive attitude towards brands engaging in brand activism and some find it somewhat important that brands do it. Despite this, consumers do not find it necessary for brands to engage in sociopolitical issues. Further, the study found that, in evaluating the genuineness of brand activism, consumers tend to refer to the existing associations with a brand, how authentic they perceive the brand prior to the brand taking a stand, and how well the brand associations align with the sociopolitical issue the at hand.

This study seeks to investigate, from both macro and micro perspectives, the effect of brand activism on consumer loyalty.  The macro perspective examines the general relationship between brand activism and consumer loyalty, whereas the micro perspective examines the specific context of companies' withdrawal from Russia as a form of brand activism.  The study conducts a comprehensive analysis of how the consumer receives information about brand activism. The macro-level literature review investigates the definition and evolution of brand activism, the relationship between brand activism and consumer loyalty, and the communication strategies' effect on consumer loyalty. On a micro level, the study concentrates on the decisions corporations made as part of their brand activism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict of 2022.  The purpose of this study is to thoroughly comprehend the intricate relationship between brand activism and consumer loyalty.  The methodology section describes the hypotheses model as well as the research strategy based on surveys and interviews.  This study's findings provide new insights into the influence of brand activism on consumer loyalty and its three components (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) as well as brand activism communication strategies on the macro level, and into the specific context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the micro level. It highlights that brand activism shapes consumer loyalty differently through the three components and according to the context. Additionally, social media is the communication channel that influences the most the relationship between brand activism and consumer loyalty on both macro and micro perspectives.  This study contributes to the disciplines of marketing and consumer behavior by advancing the relationship among brand activism, consumer loyalty, and communication.

Whilst gender equality has moved forward in recent years in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden, there are still significant financial gaps between the genders. According to several scholars, women tend to invest less than men, which leads to consequences such as women having less financial capital wealth and lower pensions. The perception of investing and the banking and financial industry are still perceived as male-dominated by society. Linked to societal perceptions, advertisements have been discussed to influence consumers' perceptions of norms and stereotypes in society. Femvertising is a recently emerged advertising concept that empowers women and challenges concurrent norms and stereotypes about the female gender in society. Furthermore, organizations taking a stance for a social cause through advertisements has become a trend in recent years, where brand activism has been encountered in the context. However, taking a stance for a social issue can be a risky action from a brand, as corporations jeopardize harming their brand image if consumers do not appreciate the message they are trying to communicate.  The academic research on femvertising in the context of male-dominated industries has been surprisingly scarce, where previous scholars suggest further studies in this context is needed. Little to no research has investigated the usage of femvertising in advertisements for the banking industry, nor its influence on female consumers and their image of the brand. This study’s purpose is to investigate how the commercial bank DNB's use of femvertising influences female consumers and their image of the brand. We aim to fill the discovered research gap through studying a Norwegian bank that tries to empower women and take a stand in their advertisements for financial gender equality. For that reason, semi-structured interviews were conducted with one manager from the Norwegian bank DNB and nine female consumers with a solid connection to Norway. The manager from DNB was chosen for his expertise and knowledge of the bank’s campaign #huninvesterer. The other respondents were purposely sampled based on their female gender and strong connection to Norway, as we wanted respondents who already knew of DNB from before the interviews.  The thematic analysis presented several similarities between the female respondents' perception of DNB’s brand image and the manager’s description of the bank’s desired brand identity. The use of femvertising was mostly perceived as something positive and inspiring due to its empowering elements and challenging of female stereotypes, presenting a diversity of women, but had downsides of being too female focused, where several female respondents expressed certain skepticism to the campaign’s exclusive focus on women. In common for all respondents was how they perceived the bank’s stand on the socio-political issue as eligible for a large bank. The overall opinion of the influential effect on the bank’s brand image was suggested to be strengthened, although the results varied to a certain extent.  The study provides requested empirical data and better knowledge and understanding of femvertising used in a male-dominated industry. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to nuance the results as the perspectives of males and a more diverse age span among females could enrich the findings of this thesis.

Nowadays, people around the world are connected through social networks. This hyperconnectivity implies that companies need to think about the perceptions and opinions of consumers who were not directly targeted by a campaign. As a result, brand activism, an emerging phenomenon that describes companies taking a stand on polarizing sociopolitical issues, must be explored more thoroughly in relation to non-targeted markets. Therefore, this thesis examined perceptions of brand activism in non-targeted markets and the role of perceived authenticity in shaping consumer perceptions and attitudes toward these campaigns. Furthermore, due to an ethnocentric view of previous research conducted mainly in Anglo-Saxon and European markets, this study focused on a non-Western market, specifically Singapore. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with Singaporean exchange students to examine their perceptions of two brand activist campaigns launched in the US and Australia. It was also examined whether their purchase intentions and brand perceptions changed as a result of the campaigns. The results showed that a missing cultural context, poor communication by the companies, the politically and socially safe options taken by the brands in launching their campaigns, and the general belief that for-profit companies use activism as a calculated move to generate more sales, led to a lack of perceived authenticity in Singapore. It was also found that authenticity and brand attitude are perceived differently depending on geographic location and age group. Brand activism was perceived as more acceptable in Western countries and younger generations than in more conservative countries such as Singapore, and older generations. In addition, Western research on authenticity must be re-evaluated for non-Western markets and cannot be assumed to be universally applicable. Finally, the perception of brand activism led to neutral or slightly positive brand attitudes, suggesting that in Singapore, authenticity does not need to be assumed for activist campaigns to be successful.

Black Lives Matter rörelsen engagerade människor både internationellt och nationellt under våren 2020. Företag var inte sena med att ta ställning och visa deras stöd i frågan, vilket ledde till olika typer av reaktioner bland deras konsumenter. Denna studie ämnar undersöka svenska konsumenters attityd gentemot företag som använder sig av brand activism som svar på sociala rörelser, där Black Lives Matter valts som empiriskt kontext. Studien ämnar också besvara vilka de viktigaste aspekterna bakom konsumenters attityd är. En förstudie har gjorts genom netnografi och empiri har samlats in genom en webbenkät med 260 svenska respondenter. Studiens analys och resultat tyder på att respondenternas generella inställning till brand activism är positiv i de fall då respondenterna anser att den sociala rörelsen som stöttas är viktig. Det finns dock tre dimensioner som påverkar den övergripande attityden. Dessa är autentiskt innehåll, attityd gentemot företaget och värdet i handlingar. Inom dessa dimensioner utrönas flertalet teman där företagets historia och storlek, innehållet i själva budskapet samt att det genomsyrar organisationen är de viktigaste. Vidare är även temana utbildande, genuin och handlingskraftig kommunikation inom brand activism viktiga delar att ta med sig från resultatet. / The Black Lives Matter movement engaged people both internationally and nationally in the spring of 2020. Companies were not late to join in and show their support in favour of the movement, which led to various reactions among their consumers. This study aims to examine the attitude of Swedish consumers towards companies that use brand activism as a response to social movements, where the Black Lives Matter movement serves as an empirical context. The study also intends to answer what the key aspects behind the studied consumer attitudes are. A prestudy has been done through netnography and empirical data has been collected for the main study through a web survey with 260 Swedish respondents. The study’s analysis and results indicate that the respondents’ general attitude towards the use of brand activism is positive in cases where the respondents believe that the social movement being endorsed is of importance. However, there are three dimensions that affect the overall attitude. These are authentic content, attitude towards the company and the value of actions. Within these dimensions several themes are identified, where the company’s history and size, the content of the message itself and that it permeates the organization are the most important. Furthermore, the themes of educational, genuine and actionable communication within brand activism are also important takeaways from the result.