EXTRA TOPPING NEVER HURTS: EXPLORING CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF BRAND ACTIVISM CAMPAIGNS VIA TEXTUAL BIG DATA ANALYSIS

This paper analyses consumers' perceptions of brand activism campaigns, a newly emerging phenomenon that has recently attracted deep attention from both scholars and practitioners. Brand activism means that companies engage in delicate socio-political issues by taking public stands on them. This study is focused on the case of Ben & Jerry's, which is considered a leader in the brand activism field. Users' comments posted to the brand's Instagram profile have been scraped and analysed via big data analysis and text mining techniques, processing about one million characters. Results show powerful insights for both researchers and firms on the topic of brand activism, informing tailor-made marketing campaigns related to social causes and human rights.