How a Brand's Social Activism Impacts Consumers' Brand Evaluations: The Role of Brand Relationship Norms

Brands are facing heightened consumer pressure to address social issues via social media channels. However, the social media strategy that brands should employ during social activism is still unclear. We clarify the conditions under which brands' social media strategies (i.e., specific response or lack thereof) in the wake of social activism impact consumers' brand evaluations, as well as effective social media responses that brands can use to engage in social issues. Using a series of experiments conducted on various outcome variables (e.g., brand attitudes, purchase intent, word-of-mouth, and social media engagement), we find that brand relationship type (exchange, communal) affects how consumers react to brands' social media strategies during social activism. When brands' social media strategy is to not respond to social activism or to utilize a low empathy response, consumers evaluate communal brands less favorably than exchange brands. This difference in evaluations is attenuated when brands utilize a high empathy response on social media to engage in social activism conversations. We attribute these findings to differences in the extent to which social media strategies of communal versus exchange brands are perceived to comply with relationship norms during social activism. Our findings contribute to the literature on firms' social media strategies for engaging in social activism, brand relationships, and crisis communication. Our research can help practitioners develop appropriate social media strategies in the wake of social activism and assist social activists in gaining brand support for greater societal benefits.