ABSTRACT
Branding is about creating and delivering a promise to target consumers. This promise can be about functional satisfaction, experiential enrichment, or aspirational fulfillment. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities affect a variety of outcomes, including a corporation’s image, company evaluations, product evaluations, purchase intentions, and the company’s market value. It is important to acknowledge, however, that the impact of CSR activities goes beyond the traditional marketing context. This chapter reviews the academic literature on CSR as it relates to branding-related outcomes. Consumers’ awareness of a company’s CSR activities is a basic prerequisite for CSR to have any influence on brand-related outcomes. Several CSR initiatives are unnoticed and thus do not have any influence on corporate or brand image. Consumers’ affinity for the CSR activity plays a major role in evaluations and choice and consequently, managers have to carefully think about the choice of a suitable cause for their social activities.
