New research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science has discovered that companies and brands aligning themselves with Black Lives Matter (BLM) faced a negative impact from consumers. The study, titled “How Support for Black Lives Matter Impacts Consumer Responses on Social Media,” found that BLM support led to a decline in consumer engagement on social media, evidenced by fewer followers and “likes,” as well as an uptick in negative comments on social media posts.

Authored by Yang Wang, Marco Shaojun Qin, Xueming Luo, and Yu (Eric) Kou from Temple University’s Fox School of Business, the study aimed to explore how consumers react to brands taking a stand on social media about racial justice movements. The researchers examined the relationship between a brand’s BLM support and social media follower growth by analysing 503 BLM posts from 430 brands between June 1, 2019, and October 31, 2020. To determine causal impact, the study also focused on “Blackout Tuesday,” a major BLM support event on Instagram but not Twitter, which served as the “control platform.” Using data from 435 major brands in various industries and their 396,988 social media posts on both platforms, the researchers consistently found that BLM support triggered an adverse consumer reaction.

The researchers employed natural language processing deep learning tools to study the effects across brands by examining historical posts and concurrent unrelated, self-promotional posts. This analysis revealed that the adverse impact of BLM support was significantly amplified when brands posted content unrelated to BLM and self-promotional. These “off-topic” promotional posts exacerbated the negative effects of the brands’ BLM support.

To address the potential political or ideological motivations behind adverse consumer reactions, the researchers examined how customers’ political affiliations influenced their responses to brands’ BLM support. This analysis showed that mostly Republican consumers who did not support the BLM movement constituted a significant portion of the negative responses. However, another considerable segment of adverse reactions came from Democrat consumers who viewed brands as engaging in “slacktivism,” where a brand expresses support for a cause without backing it up with financial donations.

“One interesting finding is that negative associations were stronger when more brands posted in support of BLM while also posting self-promotional messages,” says Wang. “This suggests that large-scale BLM allyship programs combined with self-promotional posts created a ‘bandwagon effect’ that negatively impacted those brands.” “Brands that sought to capitalise by aligning with prominent racial justice movements should have exercised caution,” adds Luo. “They should not have been too quick to resume business as usual with their product promotions while supporting BLM. Nevertheless, brands with a history of prosocial posting on social media and socially oriented missions suffered less from the negative effects and might even benefit from supporting BLM.”

The authors suggest that brands that do not want to remain silent on major racial justice issues should consider making “prosociality” a core part of their social media strategy and brand mission long before such issues trend in the news and on social media. Brands should not appear as though their support is an afterthought or driven by “bandwagon” motives.

More information: Yang Wang et al, Frontiers: How Support for Black Lives Matter Impacts Consumer Responses on Social Media, Marketing Science. DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2022.1372

Journal information: Marketing Science Provided by Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences