Building customer-based brand equity through corporate social responsibility - Case Haglöfs

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze how the company s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are influencing its customer-based brand equity. The study is focused on the customer perspective of researching responsible brands. Actions towards responsible branding and corporate social responsibility have been taken into account in many companies, but it is not clear how consumers perceive those activities. This thesis focuses on customer preferences and attitudes towards the case company s responsible brand.

This thesis combines literature on customers preferences about brands as a whole and about companies corporate social responsibility. Customers perceptions are investigated through customer-based brand equity, which gives important insights of how customers really feel, think and act towards brands. Consumers CSR knowledge is studied through three factors (1) CSR awareness, (2) CSR relevance and meaningfulness and (3) CSR transferability in order to find out whether CSR can have an influence on customer-based brand equity.

The empirical part is conducted as a qualitative case study. The case company is Swedish outdoor-clothing company Haglöfs. The empirical data has been gathered mainly from using focus group interviews. Three focus groups were conducted and altogether nine of the case company s customers were interviewed. Complementary data has been gathered using key informant interviews and utilizing company documents in order to achieve deeper information of Haglöfs responsibility. The key informants are two directors of the case company s executive group.

The results reveal that consumers CSR awareness is essential if companies desire to become perceived as responsible. Consumers CSR awareness, which is their knowledge of companies CSR targets, can be increased through companies CSR information and responsibility filled marketing messages. If there is CSR awareness, consumers can evaluate the extent to which CSR is relevant and meaningful to the brand. The empirical findings suggested that they are actually evaluating CSR-industry fit, CSR-brand fit and CSR-brand-customer fit. These evaluations might have more detailed influences on different brand associations, which are building customer-based brand equity. Based on the empirical findings, the original third factor is left out because interviewees could not transfer CSR associations to Haglöfs brand due to the lack of CSR communication.