Download - School of Management, KIIT University

Brand Personality from Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critical Review .....
29
to a definite age group. For example,
Johnson & Johnson brand for baby
products will always bring the following
qualities to mind– innocent, adorable and
cute. When a company is constantly reinventing
a brand by changing the logo,
advertisement or packaging, then the
brand will always remain new and young
in the minds of the customers.
Overall corporate personality: Just as
a parent can influence the personality of a
child, similarly the personality of the
company also has an effect on the
personality of its brand(s). A company
which acts like a good corporate citizen
has a stable financial position, engaging in
CSR activities and working within the
framework of law is respected and earns
the goodwill of its stakeholders. So, its
brand(s) will also be associated with those
qualities. In India, the Tata companies are
respected and trusted by all. Hence, its
brands always have an edge over others
in the market because of the good
corporate personality of their parent
company.
A company who has trouble with the
law, is involved in unethical practices and
has a poor financial position is looked at
within caution. Psychologically customers
tend to think that the brand(s) of such a
company will also be dishonest, that is, will
cheat them, by being of low quality.
The people representing the parent
company of a brand like management and
employees contribute to shaping the brand
personality. Facebook is owned and
founded by the young entrepreneur Mark
Zuckerberg. In public appearances he is
always casually dressed and comes across
as someone who is level-headed and a
non-conformist. Similarly, the Facebook
brand is like an extension of the personality
of its owner-founder, defying conventions
and informal. Azim Premji, Chairman of
Wipro engages in a lot of philanthropic
activities, the brand personality of Wipro
is positively influenced due to this.
Combining brand personality and
corporate social responsibility
Many companies around the world
are using CSR related activities to leverage
their brand and enhance their brand
images. But the very act of combining the
two in the real world can be difficult. When
used with other promotion techniques,
CSR yields the most effective results in
terms of increased awareness and
enhanced perception.
CSR activities can also be embedded
within promotional activities for this
purpose. But managers need to look into
the CSR-promotion fit. Research shows
that low-fit initiatives negatively impact
customer beliefs, attitudes, and intentions
no matter what the firm’s motivation, and
that high-fit initiatives that are profitmotivated
have the same impact.
Furthermore, customers consider the
timing (proactive versus reactive) of the
social initiative as an informational cue, and
only the high-fit, proactive initiatives led
to an improvement in customer beliefs,
attitudes, and intentions.