Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

It isn't clear from your description of the project what the core thesis is. Remember that "brand image" is in the minds of consumers, and the only way to really measure that is with interviews or surveys among the target audience. "Behavior" is different from "Attitude" or "Intent."

What you might want to do is segment the [consumer] audience based on stated intent to support socially conscious brands, and see if their reported behavior is consistent with their stated intent.

Either way, you'd have to conduct or find some broad-based primary research.

I agree with our moderator. Maybe your thesis would have something to do with measuring how strong brand loyalty is in the face of corporate decisions that the customer sees as socially irresponsible; that is, what does it take to shake loyalty? Then another angle would be what social consciousness criteria a customer would use when selecting a brand and how important that would be relative to other criteria. I recommend you try to determine via your research what economic impact the issue in question has on the companies you are profiling. You could also examine how attempts to appeal to social consciousness shape advertising and marketing efforts and what works and what doesn't. I see a lot of possibilities, but agree that you need to select a focus and definitely do research.