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Article: Management CONNECTING THE BRIDGE BETWEEN CORPORATE

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND BRAND LOYALTY WITH MEDIATING FACTOR
CORPORATE BRANDING IN FMCG SECTOR -INDIA Menaga.A

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 Wesleyan Journal of Research , Vol.13 No4(VII) Research Article: Management

CONNECTING THE BRIDGE BETWEEN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

AND BRAND LOYALTY WITH MEDIATING FACTOR CORPORATE BRANDING
IN FMCG SECTOR –INDIA
Menaga.A
Ph.D., Scholar, School of Management Studies, Vels Institute of Science & Technology &
Advanced Studies (VISTAS)
Dr.S.Vasantha
Corresponding Author, Professor, School of Management Studies, Vels Institute of Science &
Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS)
Abstract
Customer and Brand loyalty (BL) is considered to be the primary sources of business which keeps
business active. Organizations try to obtain it through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and
corporate branding .efficient corporate branding (CB) States a organization individuality. The
uniqueness dictate workers, the appears ,experience of products and product covering and
distinctiveness. These attribute let consumers to see and relate a company by giving it recognizable,
even human-like qualities. Customers who can identify and relate them to the organization and make
an emotional attachment. Strong associations leads to more loyalty .The aim of this research is to
study the relationship between Corporate social responsibility and Brand loyalty with mediating
effect corporate branding, as a result CSR is measured as Second order reflect Mediating Construct
suggested model where estimated by Andrews Hayes process and correlation analysis is used to find
out relationship between all the variables. The primary data were collected through Questionnaire of
150 FMCG Customers Study shows that there is a positive relationship among the variable
(CSR,CB,BL).CSR activities were serving the business to draw the customers and maintain the old
customers. Not only the society was benefited, but this act also helps the business to attain profit.

Keywords –corporate social responsibility (CSR), Brand loyalty (BL),corporate branding (CB) , Fast
moving consumer goods (FMCG sector)

1. Introduction
The term corporate branding refers to companies’ individuality/identity their unique value.
Successful Companies project their core value as a corporate branding in simple words corporate
branding is how the corporate markets their company and sits in the minds of the customer, but there
is the slight variant between marketing and corporate branding. Marketing is projecting their
business to the audience but corporate branding is putting the whole business in the front of the
world (Alton, L. (2019, December 05).Corporate branding is the unique identity of the organization’s
identity (Balmer, 1995, 2001a). whereas corporate branding provides a complete picture of the
organization like (characteristics,approach ,value) in terms of both product and services (Cornelissen
et al., 2007; Balmer, 2010a) the term corporate branding is introduced by Balmer in 1995 who define
corporate branding is one of the most important fundamental for organization especially for
marketing their product and services in market and remains in the mind of the customers (Balmer et
al.,2017) after introducing the term corporate branding now it has been one of the popular term in
marketing (Balmer, 1998; Balmer et al., 2017 Balmer, 2011; Powel) It is one such major study in
marketing ,There is no single or ruled out way for managing and maintain the organization corporate
branding unlike corporate branding ,corporate identity (Hulberg,2006, Melewar et al., 2012)
,although with many literature on corporate branding the study made on this area is comparatively
less there is few attempt of study made in corporate branding in Banking sector ,but Study related to
corporate sector and FMCG sector wasn’t evident and also many article for future study suggested to
learn on corporate branding (e.g. Abratt Melewar et al.,Suvendu Kumar Pratihariamd 2017)
Many pieces of literature state that corporate branding is an important factor for evaluation of the
organization and Corporate social responsibility is also well to know the term for decades recently it
gained more importance which has a strong impact on corporate branding (Balmer et al., 2017 .,

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 Wesleyan Journal of Research , Vol.13 No4(VII)

Hildebrandt al., 2011), CSR the prime motive for the company is corporate branding (CB )and
marketing than working on stakeholders CSR which has a strong relationship with CB Palazzo
2008; Hildbrand et al., 2011)
Corporate social responsibility services lend in many areas likely skill development and rural
education (Menaga.A., S.Vasantha,2020) an important role in economic and improvement in the
financial sector, The prime idea of every organization is to service the customer and gain their trust
in return creates a long term relationship with the organization also called as brand loyalty (BL)
(Balmer et al., 2017., Gunesh and Geraldine 2015., Seibly, 2013) customer prefer to brand with
doing more to the society even the price is slightly higher (Hsu and Lai,2014). The major goal of
CSR is to gain the loyalty from the customer (BL)and they use CSR as a tool to create an advantage
by servicing the society (Demetriou et al., 2010), also the companies which are involved in CSR
activities are successful in their new product and it could be seen CSR has a strong influence. Brown
and Dacin (1997) found that Corporate social responsibility campaigns has impact on public
perception towards the image of the company. the aims to study the Mediating effect between
corporate branding between CSR and Brand loyalty.
2. Objectives
 To measure the Direct effect of Corporate social responsibility on brand loyalty
 To scrutinize the Direct and indirect cause of CSR on Brand loyalty through Corporate branding in
FMCG Sector

2.1 Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Brand loyalty

The model of CSR components is adopted through the Carrolls (1991) theory (Visser, 2007). It is
evidence from the literature that economic responsibility has a positive influence on brand loyalty.
The legal duty of the company has a significant impact on developing economy country and also
developing organization it has proposed is one such ethics of the company (Simi and Stimac, 2010).
the question is been triggers the mind of legal responsibility under CSR but Carrolls defines that
adhering to the law is a form of doing good to the society (Carroll, 1991). Bhattacharya and Sen
(2004) proposed the theory which states how CSR is related to confronting the business,he proposed
the measurement and maintains of CSR activities and also stated one should practice honesty and
openness towards business to attain and attract customer(Rahim et al., 2011). People tend to choose a
brand which is ethically good in all aspects (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001).

2.2 Corporate branding and brand loyalty

Creating a strong customer loyalty towards an organization has more impact on purchase decision
(Ragohaman, N., Vasantha, S.2017) the organization should create the good corporate brand in the
market (Andreassen1998,Fombrun 1990; Keller 2002; Anisimova, 2007; So, 2013). creating a strong
brand is an ultimate strategic of any organization to take place in the customer minds (Balmer, 1995,
2001a, 2012) Corporate branding act as a signicficant component in customer purchase choice
(Anisimova,2007) to create a strong branding the organization has to look into customer perspective,
behaviour, value and emotion towards the product (Hatch and Schultz, 2003). Corporate branding
and CSRcreates Customer satisfaction (A.Menaga, S.Vasantha. 2020). Many research data shows
strong influence of Corporate branding on customer brand loyalty it also gives major relief to the
organization in a future reduction in the risk towards the business (van Heerden and Puth, 1995).
Therefore corporate branding act as a competitive tool to the business (Chernatony and Cottam,
2006) corporate branding and customer brand loyalty has a significant impact on each other (Dick
and Basu, 1994; Aydin et al.,2005).there is not much research found on the impact of corporate
branding towards Brand loyalty especially in FMCG sector .Hence to explore the depth the
following hypothesis is framed

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 Wesleyan Journal of Research , Vol.13 No4(VII)

2.3 Corporate Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility

All organization wants their corporate branding should influences positively with all the stakeholders
(Hulberg, 2006).there is no particular form to manage or maintain the corporate branding because
customers mind keep switching with other influencers sometimes the risk of corporate branding goes
another way that the customer take it negatively to manipulate them hence Burrell and Morgan
(1979), created a sociology rule it says every humankind has a different view and perspective in
value emotion and other accepts organization has an aim of showing their corporate branding as a
marketing tool to gain the customer (Hulberg, 2006). The sociologic paradigm and functional
paradigm propose the structure of CB to create a positive brand image an organization should
manage symbolism functional value and emotions. Corporate branding is a nicer marketing way
because the customer chooses the product over trust and branding (Ind, 1997).to create a strong
customer relationship the organization should adopt strong corporate branding (Keller, 2003).CSR
plays a vital role in creating a significant corporate branding for every organization success and
failure (Worcester, 2009. Papasolomou and Vrontis, 2006;) CSR play a vital role in terms of
marketing when CSR announces a work related to socially responsible thing it directly influences the
group of people who are interested in that activity and eventually become the customer of the
organization, CSR don’t take away the organization money it allows the customer to stay in longer
run and it creates of brand loyalty (Franklin, 2008., Vallaster et al.,2012).
3 Conceptual Framework

Figure-1: The Figure-1: Shows Direct relationship between Corporate social responsibility -CSR
(Independent variable) And Brand loyalty -BL(Dependent variable) and Mediating effect of
corporate branding With CSR and BL
4. Research Methodology
4.1 Sampling Framework
The intension of the research is to analyze the mediate cause between corporate branding between
CSR and Brand loyalty. A descriptive research design has been constructed and adopted
“convenience sampling technique”. The study has taken 150 FMCG customers as target respondents.
A structured questionnaire has been framed and the primary data for the study has been gathered
from the respondents through questionnaire survey.

4.2 Hypothesis Framed for the Study

H1: Corporate social responsibility has a positive correlation with Brand loyalty and corporate
branidng
H2: There is a positive impact among Corporate Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility
H3: There is a significant relationship between corporate branding and brand loyalty

Table4. 1: Reliability Statistics

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 Wesleyan Journal of Research , Vol.13 No4(VII)

Reliability of the questionnaire has been examined and the Cronbach'sAlpha for all the three
variables displayed in table 1 which is found to be greater than 0.6. This proves that the internal
consistency of a questionnaire is reliable [Mohsen Tavakol and RegDennick, 2011]. The validity of
the questionnaire is tested by using the AMOS software. The range of validity is found to be 0.88.

5.Data Analysis & Interpretation

Table-5.1: Demographic Data of the FMCG customers

Characteristics figures Percentage
Gender
Male 63 42
Female 87 58
Age
15-25 42 28
26-35 60 40
36-45 23 15
46-55 19 12
Above 56 6 4
Education
School education 2 1.3
Graduate 67 44.7
Post-Graduate 56 37
Professional 23 15.3
Other education 2 1.3
Occupation
Student 4 2.7
Employee 83 55.3
Housewife 16 10.7
Services 2 8
Business 4 2.7
Professional 19 12.7
IT professional 12 8
Income
Below 15000 27 18
15001-30000 48 32
30001-45000 19 12.7
45001-60000 8 5.3
above 60001 48 32

Table 5.2: Analysis of Mean & Standard deviation

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 Wesleyan Journal of Research , Vol.13 No4(VII)

Mean and standard deviation for Corporate social responsibility Corporate branding Brand loyalty
Variables Mean Std.Deviation
Corporate social Responsibility 3.84 0.69
Corporate Branding 3.70 0.68
Brand loyalty 3.75 0.82
The above displays the Mean and SD for all the three study variables “Corporate Social
Responsibility” is said to be the most influential factor with the mean value of 3.84 when compared
with all the other factors.

Table 5.3: Correlation matrix for Corporate social responsibility(CSR), Corporate branding
and Brand loyalty
Correlation for Corporate social responsibility ,Corporate branding and Brand loyalty
Corporate Social Corporate
Variables Brand loyalty(BL)
Responsibility(CSR) branding(CB)
Corporate Social
1 0.593** 0.616**
Responsibility
Corporate
1 0.552**
branding
Brand loyalty 1
**. 0.01 significant level
Table highlights there is a association among the study variables CSR,CB,BL. From the table it is
proved shows significant involvement between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Brand
loyalty at 1% significant level with coefficient 0.616. Therefore the hypothesis H1 is accepted. There
exists a high connection between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Branding with
coefficient value of 0.593 at 1% level of significance. Therefore, the hypothesis H 2 is accepted. The
table also reveals that the dimensions Corporate Branding and Brand Loyalty have a significant
relationship with the coefficient value of 0.552 at 1% level of significance. Hence the hypothesis H 3
is accepted.

5.4Mediation analysis
Model -4
Y-BL (Brand Loyalty) X-CSR (Corporate social responsibility) M-CB (Corporate branding)
Mediation analysis is done using binary outcome variable with Andrew Hayes process
Model-1
R R-sq MSE F df1 df2 p
0.5925 0.3511 0.3045 80.0636 1 148 0
coeff se t p LICI ULCI
constant 1.4485 0.2556 5.6665 0 0.9434 1.9537
Corporate
social 0.586 0.0655 8.9478 0 0.4566 0.7155
responsibility

The path from Corporate social responsibility to Corporate branding (Direct effect) was positive and
significant (b=0.586,se=0.0655,p<.001)

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 Wesleyan Journal of Research , Vol.13 No4(VII)

Model-2
R R-sq MSE F df1 df2 p
0.6582 0.4333 0.3878 56.1918 2 147 0
coeff se t p LICI ULCI
constant 0.4399 0.3182 1.3824 0.169 -0.189 1.0688
Corporate
social
responsibility 0.5298 0.0917 5.7746 0 0.3485 0.7111
Corporate
Branding 0.347 0.0928 3.7403 0.0003 0.1636 0.5303
Direct effect between Corporate branding and CSR is statistically significant (b=0.5298,
se=0.0917.p=0) the result implies that Corporate social responsibility increases the brand loyalty
result ,The direct effect on both the variable (CSR,CB) is positive (b=0.347,se=0.0928,p=0.0003)
which indicates Corporate branding impact directly on brand loyalty .
Direct effect of X on Y
Effect Se t p LICI ULCI c'_ps c'_cs
0.5298 0.0917 5.7746 0 0.3485 0.7111 0.6448 0.4451
Indirect effect(s) of X on Y
Effect BootSE BootLLCI BootULCI
Corporate 0.2033 0.0733 0.0691 0.3575
Branding
Partially standardized indirect effect(s) of X on Y:
Effect BootSE BootLLCI BootULCI
Corporate 0.2475 0.092 0.0825 0.4421
Branding
Completely standardized indirect effect(s) of X on Y:
Effect BootSE BootLLCI BootULCI
Corporate 0.1708 0.0662 0.0548 0.3131
Branding
The indirect effect is test using Bootstrapping. Indirect effect (IE=0.2033) it is significant at
confident level 95% CI= (0.0691., 0.3575)
6. Discussion
The study intended to observe and analyze how Corporate social responsibility(CSR) impact on the
brand loyalty(BL) and to understand how Corporate branding (CB) helps to increase brand BL. CB
acts as a mediator among Corporate social responsibility and brand loyalty . Research shows that
there is a direct association between CSR and Brand loyalty. CSR touches many customers
emotionally than taste and preferences (Chiara Tedone, june 2016) The research finding shows that
there is a strong association CSR, corporate branding ,brand loyalty also the research indicates the
importance’s of any organization to involve in corporate social responsibility. Thus, the overall study
elucidates CSR and corporate branding increase the Brand loyalty of any organization

7. Conclusion
CSR activity is primarily used to increases the Brand loyalty of the organization product and services
,brand loyalty also reflects on corporate branding how well they like the whole organization and how
emotionally customers goes back towards the same products and services again, However corporate
branding has to be done periodically to stay in the minds of customers, therefore the organization
must keep on target and advertise their products and services bring awarness of New CEO ,CFO
periodical meeting with stakeholders ,promote their Csr activities Based on the study the future
direction the study should consider awarness ,and customer satisfaction ,Finally the awarness of
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 Wesleyan Journal of Research , Vol.13 No4(VII)

Brand has to spread rapidly .customers now have become even smarter and considering the corporate
branding therefore the organization has to create good corporate branding importantly they should
spread the awarness conduct workshop always have to register and stay in the mind s of the customer
.
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