In contemporary times, the concept of brand activism has emerged among consumers and companies alike, particularly within the fashion industry. Consumers are increasingly seeking brands that demonstrate a commitment to societal and environmental concerns, leading to a rise in brand activism within this sector. The purpose of this research is to investigate and comprehend how consumers perceive fashion brand activism according to their gender. The empirical findings were acquired using a quantitative approach by an Internet-mediated questionnaire. The data were subsequently analysed and compared with existing literature reviews to highlight both similarities and disparities. This thesis demonstrates that while both men and women generally perceive fashion brand activism in similar terms of authenticity and inauthenticity, women tend to have a stronger affinity towards these brands due to shared values. In comparison, men often view them neutrally or negatively, suggesting potential disparities in emotional investment or perceptions of social commitment. Overall, although authenticity is universally considered, gender influences consumer perspectives on activist fashion brands. All conclusions proposed by the authors account for the predominant demographic characteristics of the sample population. Consequently, these generalisations primarily apply to students of French nationality.

No / Gone are the days when a business must be a certain way and their primary objective was to generate revenue and maximize stakeholder value. Today, the aspirations and expectations of different groups have become increasingly complex; they want to attach meaning to a brand when associating themselves with it. For example, consumers, investors and employees expect organizations to speak out or take a stand on social, political and environmental issues. At the same time, today׳s leaders want to be known beyond their role. They are increasingly vocal about what they stand for and where their personal views lie. While this evolving mindset overlaps well and has the potential to form that ideal triad for all, i.e., if the management, the customer, the investor and the employee align on a value, it will have a positive impact on the organization. However, it is far from ideal because if complexity is paramount, so are the looming uncertainties of ever-changing trends and priorities, i.e., the changing preferences of consumers and investors, the changing views, inclinations and preferences of employees, and the values of executives and management. Now, organizations must understand and manage the ever-changing trends and priorities. More importantly, they must explore and define their values and ensure that they are aligned from the inside out to create value. Therefore, this book chapter aims to explore the facets of activism within the organization (i.e., corporate activism, brand activism, leadership activism, and employee activism) to explain employer brand activism, which is the interplay between employees and the organization. In doing so, we focus on employer brand activism, its short-term benefits, access to long-term effects and how these ultimately relate to other activism. This is important because if this alignment is not achieved internally, external alignment remains fragile and fraught with uncertainty. We therefore hope to shed more light on the broad discussion of how activism and business can go hand in hand and how organizations can drive value from understanding, defining, and prioritizing their values with others, be it employees, leadership, brands, consumers, or investors.

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.

The trend to take a stand in campaigns has been identified as an upcoming phenomenon and the term brand activism has been discovered in the context. One of the challenges that brands are facing is to keep the core identity and at the same time communicate responsible positions that consumers demand without getting inauthentic. Since little or no research has been done from the brand's perspective the study has found a research gap that could be filled by examining how their brand identity and political or social messages affect their campaigns. The purpose of the study is to look at three brands and their campaigns in relation to their brand identity and their role within the campaigns. Furthermore, the study investigates if there are any connections between brands taking a stand and brand activism. To achieve the aim of this research, a qualitative method has been conducted based on semi-structured interviews with three types of brands and an expert in communication. The results showed that brand activism in some cases has been used as a tool for brands to challenge structures and cause a dialogue, but the result also identified how brands manage to stay authentic while communicating societal issues.

Brands’ engagement in activism is increasing as consumers expect more of brands, especially the younger generations. However, brands have different intentions behind their engagement in activism. The purpose of this thesis is to explore female Gen Z consumers’ perception of global brands’ engagement in activism, and how this perception influences their brand loyalty. Female Gen Z consumers’ mind is explored since previous research indicates that there are gender differences within perception and loyalty. A qualitative method in the form of four online focus groups were conducted to collect empirical data. Three findings were discovered, which contributed to understanding of the existing gap in research. Firstly, female Gen Z consumers positively perceived global brands’ engagement in activism. Secondly, they perceived and responded to brand activism based on the campaigns’ message, its connection to the brand and its offerings. Thirdly, female Gen Z consumers’ perception influenced their brand loyalty. The study contributes with an additional understanding of young female consumers’ perspective which can be useful for marketers when creating activist campaigns. Future research could study the perspective of male Gen Z consumers or Gen Z consumers to get additional understanding.

Date: 3 June Level: Master Thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Paul Kato (95/03/11) and Henrik Aronsson (95/10/29) Title: Brand Activism, does it work? Tutor: Edward Gillmore Keywords: Brand activism, brand equity, social activism, attitudes, woke washing Research questions: a. How is the consumer-based brand equity affected by a company’s use of social activism in its marketing? b. How does this in turn affect consumer purchasing engagement? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers respond tosocial activism advertisements and how it influences their purchaseengagement. Method: The method used in this thesis is a quantitative research with anabductive research approach. The data has been collected through anonline survey and received 504 responses. Conclusion: Advertising that contains social activism has an overly positive impact onconsumer attitudes, purchasing engagement, and corporate consumerbasedbrand equity.

This study analyzes a commercial by Gillette (2019) and a commercial by Pepsi (2017), which are based on the movements Me Too and Black Lives Matter. The purpose of the study is to examine the commercials with a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) and with the help of associated semiotic resources analyze communicative and visual performances that appear in the commercials. Through MCDA, the study aims to find underlying messages, portrayals and representations that may indicate to a performative brand activism or Woke Washing in each commercial. The study is based on theories about representation, brand activism, Woke Washing and gender studies. The results of the study indicate that Gillette's commercial has two themes that stand out. The first theme concerns masculinity and ethnicity. The result is that they almost exclusively portray white men in their commercial. The second theme concerns masculinity and women at a disadvantage, and the result is that they try to include themselves in the Me Too debate, which mainly concerns the female gender, while they are at the same time portraying women who are treated badly by men in the commercial. In their commercial, Gillette tries to sell a lifestyle rather than their own products, and this means that there is no performative brand activism occurring in the commercial. What indicates to Woke Washing in the commercial is that they have not done a consistent job to counteract the macho culture and its effects on the male and female gender.  In Pepsi's commercial, two themes were identified. The first theme concerns representation and ethnicity. The result is that they are more intersectional in the representation of different social groups in the commercial. However, they have made the choice to give Kendall Jenner, who is a white woman, interpretive precedence in a demonstration that has connections to Black Lives Matter and concerns black people. The second theme concerns representation and commercial framing, and the result is that, through their brand colors and soft drinks – Pepsi makes a consistent commercial framing throughout the whole commercial, and this means that a performative brand activism thus occurs. What indicates to Woke Washing in the commercial is the fact that they commercialize on an expression taken from a socio-political aspect. / I den här studien analyseras en reklamfilm av Gillette (2019) och en reklamfilm av Pepsi (2017), som tar avstamp i rörelserna Me Too och Black Lives Matter. Syftet med studien är att granska reklamfilmerna ur en multimodal kritisk diskursanalys (MCDA) och med hjälp av tillhörande semiotiska resurser analysera kommunikativa och visuella utföranden som ter sig i reklamfilmerna. Genom MCDA, ämnar studien att finna underliggande budskap, skildringar och representationer som kan indikera till en performativ varumärkesaktivism eller Woke Washing i respektive reklamfilm. Studien utgår från teorier kring representation, varumärkesaktivism, Woke Washing, genus och maskulinitet. Studiens resultat pekar på att Gillette’s reklamfilm har två teman som sticker ut i mängden. Första temat berör maskulinitet och etnicitet, där resultatet är att de nästan uteslutande skildrar vita män i sin reklamfilm. Andra temat berör maskulinitet och kvinnor i underläge, där resultatet är att de försöker inkludera sig själva i Me Too debatten som främst berör det kvinnliga könet, samtidigt som de skildrar kvinnor som blir illa behandlade av män i reklamfilmen. Gillette försöker i sin reklamfilm att sälja in en livsstil snarare än deras egna produkter, och det medför till att det inte förkommer en performativ varumärkesaktivism i reklamfilmen. Det som indikerar till Woke Washing i reklamfilmen är att de inte har gjort ett genomgående arbete för att motverka machokulturen och dess effekter på det manliga respektive kvinnliga könet.  I Pepsi’s reklamfilm identifierades två teman. Första temat berör representation och etnicitet, där resultatet är att de är mer intersektionella i representationen av olika samhällsgrupper i reklamfilmen. Däremot har de gjort valet att ge Kendall Jenner, som är en vit kvinna, tolkningsföreträde i en demonstration som har kopplingar till Black Lives Matter och berör svarta personer. Andra temat berör representation och kommersiell inramning, där resultatet är att de, genom deras varumärkesfärger och läskedryck, gör en genomgående kommersiell inramning under hela reklamfilmen, och det medför till att en performativ varumärkesaktivism således förekommer. Det som indikerar till Woke Washing i reklamfilmen är det faktum att de kommersialiserar på ett uttryck taget ur en sociopolitisk aspekt.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed some light on the stereotypical ways of portraying women in advertising. The thesis studies and analyses the eventual change in the perception of the woman in pictures for advertising, but also investigates the change in the business of marketing and advertising. The thesis assumes a method of a qualitative approach, with both induction and deduction applied to the study. The data used for this study’s analytical work derives from three semi structured interviews with representatives for the marketing business, and an analysis of advertisements pictures for cosmetics products from the last ten years. The study’s result has shown that the perception of the woman in advertising is stereotypical. In addition, the study has not been able to detect any change in the advertisements for women for the past ten years. However, the material shows a small change in the attitude towards a wider range of ethnicities. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att utreda och analysera förändringar i bilden av kvinnan i reklam för skönhetsprodukter de senaste tio åren. Tre forskningsfrågor har även formulerats vilka är följande: Vilka karakteristiska inslag finns i bilden av kvinnan? Hur har bilden av kvinnan i reklam förändrats och sett ut de senaste 10 åren i skönhetsbranschen? Har bilden av kvinnan i reklam skapat en stereotypisk kvinnorepresentation? Uppsatsen utgår utifrån en kvalitativ metod samt genom ett växelspel mellan deduktion och induktion. Studien avslutas med en analys som grundar sig i empiriskt resultat från en intervjustudie i tre delar samt en bildanalys av annonsbilder. Enligt arbetets resultat är bilden av kvinnan i reklamen en stereotyp sådan. Utefter studiens resultat har ingen egentlig förändring i bilden de senaste tio åren uppmärksammats utan kvinnans karaktäristiska drag förblir de samma idag som för tio år sedan. Däremot visar resultatet indikationer mot en mer inkluderande etnisk framställning av kvinnan.

El presente trabajo surge ante la necesidad de contribuir con los estudios sobre la imagen de marca en relación al Femvertising, desde la perspectiva masculina. Específicamente, esta investigación tiene como objetivo identificar cómo el discurso del Femvertising influye en la imagen de una marca de género masculino desde un enfoque cualitativo. Para ello, se desarrollan los conceptos principales relacionados al Femvertising, desde su origen hasta sus características; así como, los conceptos relacionados a la imagen de marca. Seguidamente, se busca entender la posición de los hombres sobre una marca de género masculino. Esta investigación se va a complementar con el estudio de caso de: “Pilsen Callao no es de hombres ni de mujeres, es de patas”. Para ello, se realizaron entrevistas al público objetivo primario de la marca, hombres de entre 20 a 35 años. Finalmente, el estudio expone las conclusiones de los resultados, los hallazgos, las limitaciones y la recomendación. / The present work arises from the need to contribute to studies on brand image in relation to Femvertising, from the male perspective. Specifically, this research with a qualitative approach, aims to identify how the Femvertising discourse influences the image of a male brand. To this end, the main concepts related to Femvertising are developed, from its origin to its characteristics, as well as the concepts related to brand image. Next, we seek to understand the position of men on a male brand. This research will be complemented with the case study of: "Pilsen Callao is not for men or women, it is for legs". For this purpose, interviews were conducted with the brand's primary target audience, men between 20 and 35 years old. Finally, the study presents the conclusions of the results, findings, limitations and recommendation. / Trabajo de investigación

La presente investigación analiza tanto las percepciones hacia el activismo de marca como su aporte al valor de marca desde la perspectiva del consumidor. Siendo el activismo de marca una estrategia publicitaria emergente donde la marca toma una postura social y/o política para hacerle frente a los problemas de la sociedad. El estudio es de naturaleza cualitativa y su diseño es el estudio de caso, en donde se analizó la campaña “Tigres de la honestidad” de la marca Mibanco. Se realizaron 18 entrevistas semiestructuradas a hombres y mujeres millennials emprendedores de Lima Oeste de entre 26 a 40 años con negocios formales. Como resultado se encontró que el activismo de marca es percibido por los millennials emprendedores de Lima Oeste como necesario e importante para visibilizar los problemas, hacerles frente y aportar a la lucha de la ciudadanía. Asimismo, este activismo aporta al valor de marca basado en el consumidor a través de la identificación con la lucha social y/o política. / This research analyzes both the perceptions towards brand activism, one emerging advertising strategy in which the brand adopts a social or political posture to face social issues, and the contribution of the mentioned strategy to brand value from the consumer perspective. The nature of this study is qualitative whose design is the case study called "Tigres de la honestidad" campaign of Mibanco (2019). There were 18 semi-structured interviews conducted with formal businesses of entrepreneurial millennial men and women from West Lima, between 26 to 40 years old. As a result, the study revealed that brand activism contributes to brand value throughout the identification with social or political struggles of the entrepreneurial millennials of West Lima, who consider brand activism necessary and determining to draw attention to social issues, address them, and contribute to society. / Tesis