The role of brands as frames for engagement in meeting pro-social goals : a multi-study investigation

Abstract

There is a crisis of trust in our world and this is compromising our ability to meet prosocial goals. Brands were originally conceived as signals of trust and can be an interesting lens to explore pro-social engagement. Theoretical analysis of four brand theories has demonstrated three potential challenges for brands in pro-social contexts. The three challenges are lack of alignment between donor and recipient stakeholders, power imbalances and the relative importance of the pro-social organization versus its pro-social goals. This thesis explores the role of brands and branding in pro-social contexts and aims to make a theoretical contribution to a pro-social theory of brands and to more general theories of branding. Pro-social brands are explored as frames (Lakoff, 1974) for social engagement, using mixed methods to investigate the research questions.