Communication sociétale des enseignes, le consommateur est-il toujours dupe ? le rôle de la réputation

Many retailers communicate about their societal engagements to improve their image. Yet, overwhelmed by these more or less well-founded societal claims, consumers get troubles to identify truly responsible retailers, making societal communication probably less efficient. Based upon the attribution theory, this research examines the role of independent information regarding the retailer’s societal reputation on consumers’ response to societal communication. Results show the absence of impact of societal communication on brand equity in case of bad reputation, as consumers infer less internal motivations for the retailer to communicate, therefore decreasing its perceived sincerity as well as its brand equity.