How brand activism affects Afro-descendant consumers’ attitude A study of Afro-descendants’ perception and response to brand activism with Black Lives Matter movement as a case study

In spring 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement spread worldwide following the death of George Floyd. The movement that was born in the USA in the aftermath spread to Europe where the population wanted to support the movement but also highlight the discrimination suffered in Europe by the Afro-descendant minority. Companies were quick to take a stand and show their support for the issue, which led to various types of reactions among their consumers. This study aims to understand Afro-descendant consumers’ brand attitude towards companies that use brand activism as a response to social movements that particularly affect them. We chose the Black Lives Matter movement as an empirical context to conduct interviews with Afro-descendants living in Belgium and in France. As this community is under documented, we started by gathering information over their consumption habits and their general opinion about various subjects such as brand activism, boycott, and value to be promoted in companies. The interviews showed that the Afrodescendants interviewed in this thesis consider their value (regarding ecology and human dignity issue), the price, the quality, trend and convenience of the product they buy. They want human dignity, diversity and ecology to be promoted by companies. Furthermore, they consider boycott as being a good tool when wisely used and have already used it mostly when brand made racist statement or communication. Second, by showing the positioning of five companies to the informants, it is shown that for a positioning to be well perceived by this community a company should make sure to: - use the right vocabulary; - explain in details the action taken in order to support the positioning; - make an introspection and even a “mea culpa” (especially if the company faced previous critics from consumers after racist statements or a lack of diversity); - use an inclusive communication to embrace the greatest number of people in the cause; - mention employees in their statement; - use a good format, sober but creative. Furthermore, the company should be consistent in its engagement as the Afro-descendant community pays attention to the company’s past behavior when judging their positioning. Indeed, this community feel deeply engaged when discrimination occurred and go beyond appearance as it touched their human being. Despite qualifying brand activism as sometimes hypocrite, opportunist, marketing driven or even a trend, our informants expect companies to take a stand on social movements especially on those who concerned them. They expect even more multinational companies to use their influence to highlight the discrimination they face, to promote diversity and human rights.