Societal communication and brand equity

Previous research works on corporate social responsibility (CSR) generally acknowledge that consumers develop more favourable perceptions of responsible firms. Yet next to nothing has been written on the effects of the firm's societal communication and its characteristics on brand equity. In this paper we draw on Keller's (2003) brand equity framework to derive hypotheses and test them using an experiment on a sample of 200 French University students. The findings suggest that societal communication supports brand equity building. From a more specific standpoint, when the brand communicates on its societal involvement, brand equity building depends on individual and situational variables, such as perceived congruency between the firm and the cause it supports, societal consciousness and the interaction between perceived claim credibility and consumer scepticism.