Sustainability and branding: : Sustainability and branding: An analysis of Nike and H&M`s CSRcommunication strategies”

Abstract: Some of the most common threats in society today are climate change, struggling world economies and starving people. Today most consumers seek out sustainable products that are produced under fair conditions. These requirements on companies mean that their work with Corporate Social Responsibility is becoming increasingly important to fit consumersdemands. Previous research shows that CSR strategies are consequently used for companies work with marketing communication, partly to cope with crises but also to create a relationship with consumers and create a sustainable message to other actors. Nike and H&M are two companies that have been struggling with crises and criticism for not contributing to protection of the environment, not following standard work environment regulations and for not taking human rights into account. This study investigates, through a multimodal analysis, three separate communication materials from each company which are taken from Nike's campaign “Move to Zero” and H&M´s campaign “Buttons with impact”. This method is used to answer how the companies are implementing CSR into their campaigns. A survey is used to analyze what the consumers think of Nike´s and H&M´s work with CSR and if the two companies' CSR-strategies could be counted as successful. The results show that both Nikeand H&M are well aware of how to use CSR-strategies although the customers doesn´t appear to be convinced. Apparently some of the CSR- strategies are noticed but the fact still