{"id":11463,"date":"2025-08-26T14:28:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/?p=11463"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:51:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:51:50","slug":"brands-social-causes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/en\/resource-center\/brands-social-causes\/","title":{"rendered":"How brands can leverage social causes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Corporate support for the concept of diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) is currently a hot topic. In the US, DEI initiatives have been rolled back or even discontinued due to the political climate. In this video,\u00a0professor\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/en\/resource-center\/expert\/laurie-ann-underwood\/\">Laurie Ann UNDERWOOD<\/a> explores\u00a0how two\u00a0well-known\u00a0brands\u00a0took a\u00a0risk by\u00a0supporting social causes, but benefited by\u00a0developing consumer engagement and growing market share.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"60 Seconds: Inside Research | How Brands Can Leverage Social Causes\" width=\"1778\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NX2CDaUc9MU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Case 1: Dove<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>She explores how Dove, the personal care product brand, launched (in 2023) its \u201cToxic Beauty\u201d campaign, addressing the harmful beauty standards and toxic beauty advice that can be promoted on social media.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;By calling out the harmful advice shared by certain influencers, many would of course not work with Dove,&#8221; she notes, adding that&nbsp;&#8220;Dove took this risk to prove that it was willing to&nbsp;take&nbsp;a stand on social issues which really matters to its target market: women and girls.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dove created a short film exposing the harmful effects of toxic beauty messages. The film went viral and triggered concrete positive action and increased brand affinity in the&nbsp;US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Case 2: the&nbsp;oat milk brand Oatly<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Oatly was founded in Sweden. It first succeeded internationally by targeting gourmet coffee drinkers in the US market. By linking their brand to the social causes which American coffee drinkers care about most, Oatly quickly gained \u2018cult level\u2019 status,&#8221; explains Laurie Ann UNDERWOOD. In 2020, Oatly used the same approach to enter the Chinese market. Again targeting gourmet coffee drinkers, the brand focused on a specific social action which aligned with the goals of upscale Chinese consumers.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She outlines how Oatly\u2019s \u201cSilent Barista\u201d project\u00a0&#8211; supported\u00a0Chinese people with disabilities.\u00a0 &#8220;During covid 19, hearing impaired people were\u00a0disproportionately affected &#8212; facing higher rates of job loss and isolation due to the pandemic. To help, Oatly trained hearing impaired people as baristas, then arranged jobs for them in partner coffee shops which use Oatly products.&#8221;\u00a0The program gained significant social media attention, strengthening the brand&#8217;s positive image among Chinese consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Two key takeaways for brands<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Both of these cases prove a critical point: brands can boost consumer engagement, even achieving brand love, when they take 2 steps,&#8221; she explains. &#8220;First, determine which social causes your target consumers care passionately about. Second, take concrete action to support those causes. This leads to positive&nbsp;word-of-mouth which can go viral and build brand love.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Corporate support for the concept of diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) is currently a hot topic. In the US, DEI initiatives have been rolled back or even discontinued due to the political climate. In this video,\u00a0professor\u00a0Laurie Ann UNDERWOOD explores\u00a0how two\u00a0well-known\u00a0brands\u00a0took a\u00a0risk by\u00a0supporting social causes, but benefited by\u00a0developing consumer engagement and growing market share.\u00a0 Case 1: <a href=\"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/en\/resource-center\/brands-social-causes\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  How brands can leverage social causes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[488,489],"tags":[369,1872,368,1574],"article-type":[13],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.5.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How brands can leverage social causes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Laurie Ann UNDERWOOD explores how 2 brands took a risk by supporting social 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