How Brands Add CSR Elements to Offline Activities to Enhance Brand Image

How Brands Add CSR Elements to Offline Activities to Enhance Brand Image

Luming Chen

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Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………..….. .3 2. Literature Review………………………………………………………….....3 2.1 The impact of CSR on brand image………………………………..….....5 2.2 Relationship between brand offline activities and brand image…….…....7 2.3 The combination of CSR and offline activities……………………........10 2.4 Purpose of this essay…………………………………………………….12 3.

Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………..12 3.1 Research theoretical framework………………………………………...12 3.2 The embodiment of theoretical framework in offline CSR activities…..14

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Methodology………………………………………………………………...18 4.1 Sample and Procedure…………………………………………………...18 4.2 Results Analysis………………………………………………………....19 4.3 Limitation………………………………………………………………..38

5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….39 6. Reference List………………………………………………………………….41 7. Appendix………………………………………………………………………48

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1. Introduction As the integration of the global economy and the development of Internet technology, Consumers gradually rationalize and diversify their evaluation of brands, not only from the perspective of brand awareness and brand reputation and other traditional evaluation (Li and Feng, 2005), but also start to pay attention to the public welfare contributions made by enterprises to the society, which are mainly embodied in Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) (Fan and Tian, 2010). The concept of CSR was proposed by Sheldon (1924), he believed that enterprises should pay attention to the needs of human beings inside and outside the industry while making profits from the production of commodities. The business activities of enterprises should be conducive to enhancing the level of community services, and moral factors should be included in CSR. Carroll (1999) believes that CSR is the responsibility of enterprises to shoulder their economic, legal, moral and charitable responsibilities at the same time. With the disclosure of some CSR scandals (such as the ConocoPhillips oil spill and Johnson & Johnson's carcinogenic incident), consumers' perception of CSR commitment has been further deepened.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the society has paid more and more attention to corporate social responsibility. Accordingly, while pursuing profits, enterprises have also begun to assume CSR. Enterprises have responded positively by taking responsible actions and disclosing their social responsibility to the society. Since 2000, the number of corporate social responsibility reports worldwide has increased rapidly, from 1,000 in 2000 to 4,000 in 2008 and to 6,000 in 2011 (Shen, 2017). undertaking corporate social responsibility has become an important way for enterprises to improve their brand image (ifabiao.net, 2016). And a good brand image can make a company stand out from its competitors. A strong brand image is a powerful asset.

At the same time, with the popularity of the new retail model, the era of deep integration of offline experience, online ordering and modern logistics has come. According to the needs of consumers, experiential offline activities tend to be popular. According to the research report on Chinese pop-up stores released by RET (2017), since 2015, Chinese pop-up stores have entered a fast lane with an average annual compound growth rate of over 100%. By 2018, the second and third-tier cities will account for 54-72% of the total market share of Chinese pop-up stores, becoming an important magic weapon for marketing. According to observation on the phenomenon of pop-up stores released by BlueMC marketing tracker (2018), the search index of "pop-up stores" has been on a straight upward trend since 2016, with the search index rising from 200 in May 2016 to 500 in May 2017. In addition, the establishment of pop-up stores will fully explode 3

in China in 2020. Experiential offline activities can shorten the distance between brands and consumers and play a great role in promoting brand image (Wang and Zhang, 2005).

Experiential offline activities are in full bloom in China and are sought after by consumers. However, from another perspective, consumers' evaluation of offline activities is not entirely positive. According to the analysis of "on-the-spot observation of pop-up stores" released by BlueMC marketing tracker (2018), the positive evaluation accounts for 58%, the neutral evaluation accounts for 41% and the negative evaluation accounts for 1% of Chinese consumers' evaluation of offline activities. Although the proportion of negative evaluations is very small, the proportion of neutral evaluations is 41%. The offline activities held by the brand did not improve the brand evaluation of 41% of consumers, which was insufficient to improve the brand image. This makes the brand realize that there is still a lot of room for improvement in offline activities. Jones Lang LaSalle (2019) said that the whole fashion industry is now facing "homogenization". As the number of brand offline activities increases, activity content needs to be more distinctive, and innovative ideas need to be used in the planning of brand offline activities to make brand offline activities more meaningful and effectively improve brand image.

Ifabiao.net (2016) said that undertaking corporate social responsibility has become an important way for enterprises to improve their brand image. Marni is a good example.

Marni has a Christmas charity project every year. Every year on Christmas day, a charity pop-up shop will be set up to sell Marni's charity goods, and the sales will be donated to Piccolo Principe SCS Onlus to help disadvantaged children in Milan (Christopher, 2018). Marni has become a charity brand in the hearts of media and consumers. In addition to color and innocence, charity has also become a key word of Marni (Sasha, 2014). Therefore, the combination of brand offline activities and CSR should be attached importance to by major brands. Offline CSR activities, such as charitable donations and public benefit practices (such as environmental protection and animal protection), usually bring a lot of attention and participation, increase the trust of the media and consumers, and generate positive comments on the event organizers, so as to improve the brand image (Tian, et al. 2014).

Therefore, this paper will take the Chinese market as an example and explore the following research question to summarize for brands how to grasp the future development direction of offline CSR marketing activities in the new retail era, effectively improve the brand image and make a good contribution to the subsequent development of the brand.

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Research questions: A. What types of CSR behaviors are most suitable for brands to conduct offline CSR marketing activities?

B. What elements should brands pay attention to when holding offline CSR activities in Chinese market, so as to effectively improve the brand imageďź&#x;

In order to study of the above two research topics, and provide effective and specific advice for brands, This paper makes a detailed research on the offline brand activities, the CSR behavior of brands, the improvement of brand image, and the relationship among the three, and finds that brands seldom add CSR elements in the offline activities, and the research and analysis on the offline CSR activities of the brand are also relatively lacking, but just the brand CSR offline activities can effectively enhance the brand image. Especially at a time when the purchasing power potential of Chinese market is continuously expanding, the research literature on Chinese localism is more limited. Therefore, the theoretical framework of this paper will be formed by combining the theoretical model of brand image with the research literature with the characteristics of Chinese localism. According to the latest first-hand survey data, based on the Chinese market environment and the perspective of Chinese consumers, summed up targeted suggestions, help luxury brands expand their market in China by holding offline CSR activities, develop new marketing and promotion strategies in line with the current experience economy and new retail trends, and comprehensively improve their brand image from the perspective of innovation.

2. Literature review 2.1 The impact of CSR on brand image In recent years, the society, enterprises and consumers pay more and more attention to Corporation Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation. CSR is an important part of corporate brand building, which is required by consumers and also a necessary condition for enterprises to survive (Guo, 2009). Bowen published his first foundational work on social responsibility in 1953, which argued that corporate social responsibility of a company is the policy and measure implemented in order to realize the goal and value of the society as well as the social welfare. It was noted that the concept of social responsibility could be extended to the business environment, making the organization more than an economic whole (Bowen, 1953).

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Fulfilling social responsibility is an important way for enterprises to improve their brand image (Guo, 2009). Garcia et al. (2003) studied the impact of public welfare marketing on brand attitudes and found that public welfare marketing is a very effective tool for building brand differentiation and obtaining emotional positioning in the minds of consumers. Du et al. (2007) found that when a brand positioned itself as a "CSR" brand (instead of just engaging in CSR activities), consumers' attention to it would be significantly increased. The research proposed CSR activities related to the product itself would raise consumers' attention level. Callarisa et al. (2009) believe that enterprises' charitable activities, namely CSR fulfillment, will make consumers trust the enterprise's brand more. Luo and Bhattacharya (2013) also support the view that CSR behavior can enable enterprises to build customer satisfaction and have a positive impact on the market value of enterprises. Creyer and Ross (1997) argue that customers are willing to buy CSR products at a higher price to reward companies that make greater contributions to CSR. Tian et al. (2016) found that when luxury enterprises are compared with other types of enterprises, CSR plays a more significant role in promoting brand image. The scarcer the luxury goods, the stronger the positive impact of CSR behavior on consumer attitudes. Social responsibility is a big consideration for luxury consumers when shopping, with 80 percent saying they would prefer a socially responsible brand. In addition, 60 percent of luxury consumers believe that luxury brands should be more active than other industries in fulfilling their social responsibilities (Bain, 2020).

In this regard, the luxury Industry attaches great importance to CSR. Environmental protection and sustainable development are two categories that luxury brands attach most importance to. At the United Nations conference on Climate change (COP24) in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018, many brands and organizations in the Fashion and luxury industries jointly signed a new Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action to promote the environmental protection process in the Fashion Industry.

A total of 43 brands and organisations in the luxury fashion industry have signed the charter, including Stella McCartney, Hugo Boss, H&M, Burberry, adidas, Kering, Levi Strauss & Co, China National Textile and Apparel Council, Outdoor Industry Association and Textile Exchange. The fashion industry climate action charter's initial goal is to reduce the fashion industry's total greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030, with the goal of achieving a net zero emissions by 2050 (Jiang, 2018).

Different CSR modes of enterprises will bring different impacts on consumers' brand evaluation. Peloza and Shang (2011) divided corporate social responsibility into philanthropic behaviour, public welfare practice and product-related behaviour, specific 6

refers to: (1) philanthropic behaviour refers to the enterprises' CSR fulfilment through causebased marketing and donation; (2) public welfare practice means that enterprises fulfil CSR through environmental protection activities, animal protection activities, anti-employment of child labour, promotion of conservation and recycling of waste, etc.; (3) product-related behaviour refers to enterprises' CSR fulfilment through improving quality, reducing pollution, producing organic products and biodegradable products, etc.

Tian et al. (2016) believed that the following conclusions could be drawn through empirical research and analysis. The three dimensions of corporate social responsibility have significant influence on brand equity, among which philanthropic behaviour has the greatest impact on brand equity, and brand image is the main component of brand equity (Hsieh, et al. 2004) (Keller, 1993).

At the same time, Tian et al. (2014) pointed out that philanthropic behaviours could significantly improve consumers' positive attitude towards enterprises compared with public welfare practice and product-related behaviour. Philanthropic behaviour here refers to casue-based marketing and donation respectively. Cause-based marketing refers to the enterprise launches a charitable product, and then donating the revenue earned from the charitable product; Donation refers to the donation made directly by the company without the launch of charity goods. Enterprises usually adopt the way of cause-based marketing when conducting philanthropic activities, which will also bring greater attention to the brand.

In addition, the majority of consumers think that enterprises' public welfare behaviour is mainly due to social pressure, not the ethics of the company itself. However, when an enterprise performs philanthropic behaviour, consumers believe that such corporate social responsibility acts are more authentic (Tian, et al. 2016). Therefore, philanthropic behaviours promote brand image more effectively.

2.2 Relationship between brand offline activities and brand image Even with the rise of more measurable digital marketing strategies, offline trade and marketing campaigns are a major way to build relationships between brands and consumers. A report released by eMarketer in B2B event marketing 2017 found that (eMarketer, 2017). The brand marketing experiment conducted by Ananda on Facebook shows that brand offline activities are the most common marketing method for brands, 7

accounting for 24% of all marketing methods. Meanwhile, offline stores or offline promotion activities are also one of consumers' favourite brand marketing behaviours.

The majority of users or customers on the Facebook brand page expressed their opinions by "liking" the post, while the average number of thumbs up posts about the brand's offline activities or offline promotion activities was the highest (Ananda, et al.

2015).

According to McKinsey China luxury report 2019, offline activities are currently an important marketing strategy for luxury brands in China. Offline activities are an important means for luxury brands to interact with users and build their brand image, which young Chinese consumers expect more and more. According to the McKinsey survey, offline fashion shows and brand art exhibitions are the preferred fashion events for three-quarters of post-80s and post-90s respondents, who have a strong interest in art-related offline activities (McKinsey, 2019).

Pop-up shops are becoming popular in China, but the overall number of pop-up shops is still relatively small compared with the number of international ones. In 2015, British pop-up stores generated 2.3 billion pounds of sales, accounting for 0.76% of total retail sales, but less than 0.1% in China (Binne, 2019). According to the development report of Chinese pop-up stores released by real estate consulting service RET in December 2019, it is expected that there will be more than 3,000 fashion pop-up stores in China by 2020 (RET, 2019). With the increasing demand of Chinese consumers for experience of different brands, experiential offline activities will greatly help luxury products enter the Chinese market (Song, 2019).

Through temporary offline activities, the brand attracts people's attention. While deeply understanding the consumer group, it attracts potential customers, arouses public praise, and stimulates consumers' purchase intention (Huang, et al. 2017). Also, brand offline activities can positively regulate consumers' sense of trust, satisfaction and loyalty to the brand and improve brand image. (Kwon and Yim, 2018).

Comme des Garcons opened its first pop-up store in Berlin in 2004, repurposing an old bookstore. Kawakubo has long realized that people are tired of permanent stores. The pop-up store maximizes the freshness of fashion by emphasizeing the time limits, as do locations and products. Kawakubo's pop-up store has made Comme des Garson a huge sales success in a year. Previously, COMME des GARCONS was a small fashion company with annual sales of only $120m, and guerrilla pop-up stores helped the company achieve 30-40 per cent growthďźˆGlobal people periodical, 2016. In later 8

years, this model was widely popularized by the fashion industry. The new guerrilla pop-up store model is very effective for brand promotion, helping to promote long-term reputation and brand image (Huang, et al. 2017).

In 2011, the Prada foundation rented Rong Zongjing's former residence in Shanghai's Jing'an district, meticulously restored it and opened its first art exhibition in 2018, titled "Rome :1950-1965." Originally open to the public for only one month, the exhibition was extended to two months after attendance exceeded expectations. The Prada foundation's repair and protection of Chinese cultural heritage have been widely recognized by consumers, who have always been interested in the Rong family and are very grateful to experience and imagine the wealth history of four generations of the Rong family in the luxury house of the Rong family after the renovation of the Prada foundation (Li, 2018). After the success of this exhibition, Prada continued to deepen its marketing strategy in the Chinese market and held different art exhibitions introducing both Chinese and Italian artists' work, as well as offline marketing events in Rong's former residence, bringing the current social scene into this historical building (BoF Team, 2019).

However, the influence on brand image is based on consumers' evaluation and controversial activities can have a bad impact on brand image (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014). Gucci's offline exhibition of “The Artist Is Present� discusses the topic of "appropriation" and "reproduction", which has been a controversial topic in contemporary art and fashion circles. The idea that "reproduction is as valuable as originality, and originality is overrated" in the exhibition has attracted a lot of controversy (Choy, 2018). Some consumers think "appropriation" is art behaviour, but there are also consumers think this is copying, although the public opinion and dispute increases the brand visibility, consumers who do not agree with this creative concept of Gucci will have a decreased favourable impression on Gucci, so the controversy has affected the brand image of Gucci in the minds of some consumers to some extent (Sohu, 2018). Studies have shown that 30% of brand value comes from its association with social topics. Maintaining consistent views and good relationships with consumers is one of the core competitiveness of a brand (Yu, 2012).

In November 2019, faw-volkswagen held a pop-up store covering more than 1,000 square meters at Zhengjia Plaza in Guangzhou. Zhengjia Plaza sees 800,000 people a day, but few enter the pop-up shops. There are few experiential facilities in the pop-up store, only some faw-volkswagen vehicles are placed in it, which inevitably makes people feel a little dull, and potential consumers are not interested in entering the popup store to learn about vehicles (ifeng.com, 2019). This is one of the reasons why the 9

pop-up has been a huge investment with little success. Increasing experiential facilities can shorten the distance between the brand and consumers and improve customer satisfaction but it acts as a double-edged sword. If consumers find pop-up stores boring, the impression of dull could be potentially developed as a label on the whole brand.

The positioning and image of the event can easily indirectly affect consumers' impression of the brand.

2.3 The combination of CSR and offline activities CSR activities such as offline charitable donations and public benefit practices (such as environmental protection and animal protection activities) usually bring about a lot of attention and participation, increase the trust of media and audiences in the content, and generate positive comments on the event organizers (Tian, et al. 2014).

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has put on an exhibition called "Fashioned from Nature," a reminder to preserve the environment, The exhibits include Vivienne Westwood's handbag series "Handmade with love" made of recycled materials, Katherine Hamnett's Slogan T-shirt creation which advocates reducing energy consumption, and so on, which fully embodies fashion innovation (Cyndi, 2018). In addition, the V&A was praised by several media outlets, including the Evening Standard fashion editor Karen Dacre, who called the exhibition "about to change everything". The show also won two awards: the creative green creative programming award and the Walpole group's luxury and the heart award (Cyndi, 2018). During the exhibition, the V&A museum held one of the most watched hearings on sustainability ever, making parliamentary history. The combination of CSR and fashion-related exhibitions has been well received (Lesger, 2019).

Offline CSR activities are conducive to the communication between consumers and enterprises, increase goodwill, and positively affect brand reputation (Kim and Ji, 2017).

Consumers' participation in the offline two-way interaction of corporate social responsibility activities can create emotional stimulation between enterprises and consumers and improve the trust and satisfaction of enterprises (Lauritsen and Perks, 2015).

Previously, some of LVMH's business practices, such as its hostile bids for Gucci and Hermes, had turned off consumers, therefore, in the past and in the future, LVMH has frequently used social responsibility activities to rebuild its brand image (The Fashion Law, 2018). According to the social responsibility report published by LVMH every year, LVMH has offline social responsibility activities every month to help the society 10

and different people (LVMH, 2017). Among them, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris shows LVMH's commitment to the preservation of cultural heritage. This art museum displays the works of many French and overseas artists of the 20th and 21st centuries in the collection of the Louis Vuitton foundation. It is the first major privately funded cultural institution in France, and ownership of the museum will return to the government after 55 years. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the building makes a positive contribution to cultural heritage. Since its opening in October 2014, the LV museum has become a new landmark in Paris and one of the most well-known museums of luxury brands (Peng, 2014). According to Statista Research Department, Louis Vuitton Foundation received more than 1.4 million tourists in 2017. Meanwhile, in 2017, the Louis Vuitton Foundation held an exhibition named ĂŠtre Moderne : Le MoMa Ă Paris, which was the most visited exhibition in Paris that year (Statista Research Department, 2019). The establishment of the Louis Vuitton museum was favoured by the media and the local government (Peng, 2014).

LVMH is also very concerned about environmental protection. LVMH has carried out offline environmental protection activities and contributed to the sustainable development of the wine industry. In 2015, its champagne house was awarded the dual certification of sustainable viticulture and high environmental value. In 2016, 90 grape growers benefited from sustainable viticulture training (Ireland, 2017).

Women make up almost three-quarters of LVMH's workforce, but in 2007 they made up just 23 per cent of senior executives. In 2009, LVMH launched "EllesVMH" to increase the number of female leaders. Within a decade, LVMH has increased the proportion of senior executives who are women to 42 per cent, while ensuring equal opportunities, and aims to reach 50 per cent by 2020. According to BoF Team (2015), companies that exclude women from leadership positions exclude talents that can give them competitive advantages. "EllesVMH" initiated by LVMH has played a leading role in how to cultivate and promote female leaders in the fashion industry. In 2018, LVMH again invited 6,000 women and children from single-parent families to attend acclimatation day in Paris, providing them with professional and social support to overcome employment difficulties (LVMH, 2018).

Moreover, Offline CSR activities can strengthen the communication between brands and consumers and stimulate consumers' willingness to consume (Camarero, et al.

2011). Marni launched a new colour scheme for Marni's hand-woven charity basket at Marni MARKET CAFE pop-up store in Taikoo li, Chengdu, China. All proceeds from the pop-up will be donated to help disadvantaged children in the Milan community. On the first day of the pop-up store's opening, Marni charity basket was rushed. Many 11

consumers had to stand in line for an hour to buy the charity basket and expressed their willingness to support disadvantaged children in the Milan community by buying the charity basket. Marni charity basket is part of Marni charity projects and has a positive impact on maintaining customer relationships, and also helps Marni raise its awareness in China (Chen, 2018).

2.4 Purpose of this essay Through the upgrading of consumption behavior and the reform of consumption mode, consumers have become increasingly rational and diversified in their brand evaluation of enterprises. They will not only evaluate enterprises from the traditional perspectives of brand awareness, brand reputation and brand market share, but also begin to pay attention to the public welfare contributions made by enterprises to the society.

Effective CSR activities have a great impact on the brand.

According to the previous research, there have been a lot of theoretical studies on the types of CSR, the relationship between CSR and brand image, as well as the relationship between offline activities and brand image, but few studies on the role and influence of offline activities combined with CSR in brand image. The potential brought by the new retail innovation in the Chinese market is constantly expanding. However, there is a lack of updated literature on new retail research focusing on the Chinese market in the current study, which is of insufficient reference value for the brand market and retail strategy of luxury brands in the Chinese market in recent years. Thus, this article will study how CSR can effectively help brands improve their brand image in offline brand exhibitions or pop-up store activities in China.

3. Theoretical Framework 3.1 Research theoretical framework Today, corporate brands are moving towards a new era of responsibility brands that are more responsible and oriented to meet consumers' expectations and demands.

Corporate brands are also looking for the most efficient and most suitable CSR behaviors to maximize their brand image.

Therefore, this paper selects the Conceptual Model of Brand Image proposed by Wasib Bin Latif et al. (2015) in the article “Outcomes of Brand Image: A Conceptual Model� to study the research question of this paper. In order to make this study more localized in China, this article also combines with Guanhui and Dahai Dong’s "An empirical 12

study on the influence mechanism of Chinese local brand image on perceived quality, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty" from Dalian university of management and economic management college, to construct the theoretical framework of this research.

The research topic of this paper is how to improve the brand image effectively in the offline CSR activities in China.

In 2015, the article “Outcomes of Brand Image: A Conceptual Model” published by Wasib Bin Latif and other scholars indicated that enterprises are not only interested in building a strong brand with a positive Image, but also need to maintain the brand image for a long time (Latif, et al. 2015). According to the research of Keller (2009) and other scholars on brand equity, Latif et al. believe that brand equity has an important relationship with brand image, the ultimate goal of brand equity is to maintain longterm customer relations, consistent with the role of brand image. Under this condition, Latif et al. Further reviewed other existing literature comprehensively, summarized the current popular literature on brand concepts and methods, and proposed a virtual model of brand image composed of four factors: "brand familiarity, satisfaction, trust and loyalty". Brand familiarity refers to the degree of customer's knowledge of the brand through their direct or indirect experience with the brand. Satisfaction refers to the overall satisfaction based on the accumulated experience of the brand in the customer's mind. It is also the subjective evaluation and emotional cognition of consumers after the comparison of the product or service expectation and actual performance. Brand trust refers to how trustworthy a brand is to consumers. Loyalty is consumers' emotional commitment to the brand (Latif, et al. 2015).

However, due to the fact that the sample basis of articles published by Latif et al. (2015) is somewhat different from that of the Chinese market, there is a lack of research on the Chinese local market. According to McKinsey's 2017 report, perceived product quality is an important factor influencing Chinese consumers' perception of brand image. When Chinese consumers describe a brand, the first key factor they can think of is quality (Baan, et al. 2017).

In the process of reading previous literature, it is found that there is a direct and important relationship between brand image and perceived quality. This conclusion comes from “An empirical study on the influence mechanism of Chinese local brand image on perceived quality, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty” by Chinese scholars Guanhui and Dahai Dong. Based on the background of China's local market and the general environment, Guanhui and Dahai Dong’s paper holds that the theoretical framework of building brand image in China should be divided into three dimensions: brand performance, brand personality and company image. On this basis, 13

the article has established the mechanism model of the brand image and perceived quality, and the model is empirically tested. The results show that there is a direct and important relationship between brand performance, brand personality, corporate image and brand perceived quality, which proves that perceived quality is directly related to brand image (Guan and Dong, 2008).

Thus, in order to make the theoretical framework of brand image more consistent with the research topic of this paper with the background of China, the factor of "perceived quality" was added on the basis of the theoretical framework of brand image proposed

by Latif et al. (2015). Therefore, the theoretical framework of brand image research in this paper consists of five factors: perceived quality, brand familiarity, satisfaction, trust and loyalty.

3.2 The embodiment of theoretical framework in offline CSR activities In literature review 2.1, it is discussed that three main CSR behaviors (philanthropic behaviour, public welfare activities, and product-related behaviors) have significant effects on the improvement of brand image. Tian et al. (2016) also pointed out that philanthropic behaviours could significantly improve consumers' positive attitude towards enterprises compared with other two CSR behaviours. When an enterprise performs philanthropic behaviour, consumers believe that such corporate social responsibility acts are more authentic. Philanthropy effect is the most direct and convincing to the promotion of brand image, so philanthropic behaviour is selected for the following suggestions on offline CSR activities.

Philanthropic behaviour here refers to cause-based marketing and donation respectively.

Cause-based marketing here refers to the enterprise launches a charitable product, and then donating the revenue earned from the charitable product. Donation refers to the donation made directly by the company without the launch of charity goods. Enterprises usually adopt cause-based marketing when carrying out philanthropic activities, because the cost is not so high as the direct donation, and it will also bring more attention to the brand, because cause-based marketing can better engage consumers (Tian, et al. 2014). Therefore, this paper suggests that brands should adopt cause-based marketing in offline CSR activities. In other words, brands launch the charity merchandise and then donates the revenue of the charity merchandise to the charity organization.

In the marketing literature, "brand familiarity" is established through various brand experiences, mainly through direct or indirect product experience and brand activity 14

experience (Heckler and Childers, 1992). Therefore, brand familiarity is defined as customers' decision through their direct or indirect contact with the brand (Latif, et al.

2015).

Consumers can have more direct contact and experience with brands by participating in offline cause-based marketing activities. Second, because of the Internet and the rapid development of social media, a large number of consumers love on the network to share their direct experience in brand activities, and according to “Research on the influence of corporate philanthropic motivation perception on consumer attitudes� published by Lulu Zhang, et al. (2015), compared with other types of brand activities, CSR activities have a positive effect on consumers' spontaneous sharing tendency, thus CSR activities can bring more exposure to enterprises, and at the same time enable consumers who are not directly involved in the philanthropic behaviour of the brand to have indirect contact with the brand through social networks, effectively increasing the degree of familiarity.

Maul (2008) believes that pop-up stores and brand exhibitions can enhance the brand experience of customers. In addition, most consumers said that flash stores and brand exhibitions are their preferred offline activities of brands, because they can better meet consumers' demand for perfect "experience" (Wang, 2018). According to the "research on flash stores" initiated by questionnaire Wang-wang (2019), 86.5% of consumers said that flash stores can shorten the distance between brands and consumers. Therefore, holding experiential cause-based marketing flash stores or brand exhibitions can effectively enhance the consumers' "familiarity" with brands. In addition, according to the questionnaire Wang-wang (2019), 52% of consumers will buy merchandise in the flash shop, 34.9% of consumers said they would decide whether to buy depending on the situation, so the charity goods in the pop-up shops and brand exhibition activities are easier to get the favor of consumers, stimulate the desire to buy.

Deng (2005) indicated that "customer satisfaction" is a psychological activity, which is a trade-off between perceived gains and perceived losses. Price is one of the biggest factors affecting customer satisfaction, and the purchase of low-priced goods can make the perceived losses smaller (Hwang, 2017). But it's not that the lower the price, the higher the satisfaction, because low prices are usually associated with poor quality.

Therefore, a reasonable price can generally improve satisfaction (Melanie, 2017). In general, the price of charity products is about 40% of that of other product lines in the brand, if there is not much difference in production cost between the charity products and other product lines in the brand. The price of Bulgari's charity necklace is about 620 US dollars, and the price of the products within the brand with similar production cost is 1,550 US dollars (Bulgari, 2020). If there is a big difference in production cost between charity products and other product lines within the brand, the price of charity 15

products is about 10% of that of other product lines of the brand. Marni charity basket launched by Marni sells for about $105, and its production material is only some plastic woven materials, so the production cost is low. However, bags of other Marni product lines are usually made of leather materials, with a relatively high cost and a price of around 1,000 us dollars (Marni, 2020). Therefore, if the charity goods sold in the philanthropic activities are priced reasonably low compared with other products of the brand, it can better improve "customer satisfaction". At the same time, the wider the coverage of CSR activities is, the more social connections can be established with more stakeholders and brand "satisfaction" can be improved (Vicky, 2016).

Therefore, the more people covered by the theme of philanthropic activity, the more consumers will improve their "satisfaction" with the brand.

In defining brand trust, McKinney and Benson (2013) pointed out three factors to consider brand trust. The first component of brand trust is credibility, which is the basis of the commitment to increase trust. The second component of brand trust is brand empathy and brand’s care for society. The third component of brand trust is consistency, that is, the consistency of brand positioning perceived by consumers. Therefore, it is an important factor for improving the credibility to make the charitable motives of philanthropic activities clear and authentic (Tian, et al. 2013). At the same time, the matching between CSR activities and enterprises is a factor that must be considered when designing CSR behaviors. The matching between enterprises and cause-oriented marketing activities is usually reflected in two aspects: function matching and image matching. Among them, functional matching refers to a similarity or correlation between the characteristics and performance of the company's main products and the philanthropic behaviour. Image matching is the correlation degree between brand positioning perceived by consumers and the philanthropic behaviour (Trimble and Rifon, 2006).

Deng (2005) pointed out that customer loyalty comes after customer satisfaction and trust and is a combination of satisfaction and trust. The improvement of "satisfaction" and "trust" is equivalent to the indirect improvement of "loyalty", so that customers develop the trust and dependence on the brand, and repeatedly purchase and use the brand products in the future consumption. Baisheva (2017) stated in her research that high quality, authenticity and creativity are important characteristics of loyalty. To launch high-quality CSR activities and charity products, the authenticity of the motivation of the activities, and the creativity of the philanthropic activities and products are important ways to improve loyalty.

In the research of Garvin (1987), "perceived quality" is the judgment of consumers on 16

the overall superiority of products. Perceived quality is different from the objective actual quality, which is the subjective judgment of consumers, an abstract concept higher than the specific attributes of products, and a general evaluation of product attributes (Zeithamlv,1988).

The durability of the product is directly related to the "perceived quality". The higher the product durability is, the better the "perceived quality" consumers have for the brand.

Meanwhile, product durability is more consistent with the concept of corporate social responsibility (Tian, et al. 2016). Therefore, the more durable the charity goods sold in offline cause-based marketing philanthropic activity, the more can improve the brand image in the hearts of consumers. Generally speaking, compared with goods of the same price, charity goods are usually more durable (Kravis Leadership Institute, et al. 2003). The production of charity goods is usually more cautious and requires higher quality than other goods, because as a brand becomes a charity brand, it becomes an asset, once the quality of some products is found to be poor, it is easy for consumers to distrust the brand and lose the title of charity brand (Shanghai charity development research center, 2010). In addition, CSR behavior usually leads consumers to believe that enterprises' products are more durable (Chernev and Blair, 2015).

At the same time, the fewer products are produced, the higher consumers' "perceived quality" of the products will be (Tian, et al. 2016). Companies often sell charitable goods in limited quantities. Compared with other products, the quantity of charity goods is usually relatively small, such as Pink Ribbon charity products launched

by Pandora and Nike Air More Uptempo. There is also the charity basket launched by Marni, which has a limited number of bags with different color schemes, and some styles can only be sold at certain events (Marni, 2020).

Experiential cause-based marketing pop-up Store or brand exhibition Price of charity products is reduced reasonably Charity covers a wide range of people Clear and authentic philanthropic motivation Activity is matching with the brand High quality Authentic philanthropic motivation Creativity of activity and product creativity Durable charity products Charity products are produced in low quantities

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4. Methodology 4.1 Sample and Procedure Based on the above theoretical analysis, this paper conducted a questionnaire study on the two research topics. The questions in the questionnaire are designed based on the content discussed in 3.2 in this paper. The purpose is to verify whether the theories proposed in 3.2 are effective and in line with the Chinese market, and to provide brands with ideas and specific suggestions for offline activities in China.

The questionnaire study conducted in this paper is a primary, quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional design. Participants participated in the study by filling in questionnaires, which were set up through the online survey platform "questionnaire star". The object of the survey is ordinary consumers in China. Due to the large geographical location and consumption level differences in China, as well as the differences in factors such as different age groups, Therefore, in order to obtain representative national data and obtain the opinions of different groups more widely, this study needs a large sample size, and it is estimated that 350 responses are needed to meet the requirements. Therefore, questionnaires are mainly distributed through the Internet and WeChat, one of the largest social software in China. Online questionnaires are conducive to the wide spread and filling, and WeChat can effectively improve the degree of participation and questionnaire completion. At the same time, this paper refers to the method of snowball sampling, which is improbability sampling, convenient for sampling, cost saving and high feasibility. A total of 374 Chinese consumers have taken part in the survey so far.

The questionnaire consists of 19 questions, 1 to 5 are the basic information of the respondents, all of which are single choice. It can classify the respondents more comprehensively, so as to fully understand the feedback of different groups on the survey questions. Questions 6-10 correspond to the first research topic, to understand which offline CSR activities and behaviors are more participatory and interesting in the minds of Chinese consumers. The questions are single choice and ranking, which can more effectively capture whether consumers recognize or pay attention to CSR activities, and the degree of interest of each CSR activity in the minds of consumers.

Questions 11-19 are about the second research topic. How should brands carry out offline CSR activities in the Chinese market to effectively improve their brand image?

The main types of questions are matrix single choice (1 to 5 for each option, 1 for strongly disagree, 5 for strongly agree) and ranking questions, so as to better understand the degree and ranking of Chinese consumers' approval of each option.

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4.2 Results Analysis So far, 374 consumers have participated in the survey.

One-way Analysis is as follows: Questions 1-5, basic information analysis of interviewees: Female respondents accounted for 56.42%, and the respondents were mainly aged 1825 (34.22%) and 26-35 (41.71%). Consumers aged 18-35 are the main force of participating in offline brand activities in China. Therefore, the research results of this questionnaire have certain reference for brands to hold offline activities. The survey was conducted by consumers from all over the country, so representative national data were available. Among them, more consumers come from first-tier cities, with those from Beijing accounting for 10.16%, those from Shanghai accounting for 15.51%, and those from Guangzhou accounting for 24.33%. First-tier cities are popular locations for offline activities, so the survey results are of certain reference value. The monthly disposable income of most respondents is 5000rmb-10000rmb (39.04%) and 10000rmb- 3000rmb (26.47%). 38.77% of respondents spend 10-30% of their monthly disposable income on fashion products, and 37.43% spend 30-50% of their monthly disposable income on fashion products. It can be seen that Chinese consumers are very interested in buying fashion products, but they are also rational.

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Research on consumers' attitudes towards offline CSR activities

1.

Gender [single choice] Options

Subtotal

Proportion

Male

163

43.47%

Female

212

56.53%

Valid number of people

375

2.

Age [single choice] Options

Under 18

Subtotal

Proportion

7

1.87%

18-25

128

34.13%

26-35

156

41.6%

36-45

52

13.87%

45-55

24

6.4%

Over 55

8

2.13%

Valid number of people

3.

375

Living city [single choice] Options

Subtotal

Proportion

Beijing

38

Shanghai

58

15.47%

Shenzhen

38

10.13%

Guangzhou

91

24.27%

Chengdu

18

4.8%

Hangzhou

19

5.07%

Tianjin

13

3.47%

Other

100

26.67%

Valid number of people

375

4.

10.13%

Monthly disposable personal income (RMB) [single choice] Options

Subtotal

Proportion

More than 30,000

19

5.07%

10,000-30,000

99

26.4%

5,000-10,000

146

38.93%

1,000-5,000

91

24.27%

Less than 1,000

20

5.33%

Valid number of people

375

5.

What percentage of your monthly disposable income is spent on fashion products?

(Fashion products refer to clothes, shoes, leather goods, accessories, beauty salon, jewelry, home fashion products, etc.) [single choice]

Analysis of questions 6-7: 83.16% of consumers said they were concerned about the brand's concept of social, 20

environmental and cultural responsibility. At the same time, 85.83% of consumers believe that adding CSR to offline activities of the brand will improve the brand image in their mind. It is not hard to see that Chinese consumers pay attention to the CSR behavior of brands and are more favorable to the brands that perform CSR behavior.

6. As a consumer, I care about brands' social, environmental, and cultural responsibilities and philosophies. [Single choice]

7. Will adding CSR to the offline activities of the brand enhance the image of the brand in your mind? [single choice]

Analysis of question 8: This is a ranking question to study "what types of CSR activities make consumers more engaged and interested". 50.27% of consumers said they were most interested in charitable activities (that is, selling charitable goods and donating the sales, or donating directly), ranking them as the most interested CSR activity. In addition, 35.56 percent of consumers ranked public welfare activities (such as environmental protection and support for internal employees) as the top priority, while only 14.17 percent ranked product-related activities (such as disclosure of production processes and transparent information about product ingredients) as the top priority.

If this paper calculates and analyzes the data of this topic in another way, the average 21

composite score of charity activities was also the highest, with a score of 2.04, the composite score of public welfare activities was 1.94, and the composite score of product-related behaviors was 1.22. The calculation method of composite scores = (ÎŁ frequency * weight)/the number of fill in this topic, such as A topic have been fill in 12 times, option A has been selected in the first place by 2 times, 4times the second position, the third position 6 times, the option A average composite score = (2 * 3 + 4 * 2 + 6 (1) / 12 = 1.67.

Therefore, it can be seen from the data that Chinese consumers are more interested in and have a higher sense of participation in offline charity activities, followed by public welfare activities, and finally, product-related behaviors.

This data shows that brands holding "public benefit activities" and "charity activities" are more popular with consumers than product-related activities.

Among them, the brand carries on the charity commodity sale or carries on the donation directly, the consumer feels to have the participation feeling more, the brand can enhance the brand image more effectively.

8. Which of the following types of CSR activities makes you more involved? [ranking] (Average composite score)

8. Which of the following types of CSR activities makes you more involved? [ranking] (The percentage of consumers who put options in first place)

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Analysis of question 9: 50.53 percent of consumers said that they hope the brand will launch more charity products, and they will be interested in learning about or buying charity products. 45.99 percent of consumers said they would be interested in learning about or buying charity goods if the price difference between the charity goods and other non-charity goods of the brand was not too large. Only 3.48 percent of consumers said they would not learn about or buy charity goods.

According to the data, the majority of consumers are interested in launching charity products by brands. Even though some respondents have not participated in flash stores, the consumption potential is great. This data validates the scheme proposed in the second paragraph of this article in 3.2 part: holding offline cause-based marketing activities (cause-based marketing activity is one of the types of philanthropy activities) is feasible and has great potential.

9: If the brand launches a charity product, are you interested in learning about it or buying it? [single choice]

Analysis of question 10: This is a ranking question, which aims to study "what types of charity products 23

consumers are most interested in," 39.3 percent of consumers said they were most interested in charity products of clothing and accessories, while 27.81 percent said they were most interested in beauty and skin care products. This was followed by food and beverages (18.18%) and jewellery and watches (14.71%). Meanwhile, clothing and accessories scored highest overall (2.81), followed by beauty and skin care products (2.06), food and beverages (1.73), and jewellery and watches (1.72). The method for calculating the composite score is the same as that for problem 8.

From this data, we can provide brands with a reference to the types of charitable goods they produce: most consumers are most interested in charitable products such as clothing and accessories, followed by beauty and skin care, and food/beverage is on a level with jewellery/watches.

10. What kind of charity products are you most interested in? [ranking] (Average composite score)

10. What kind of charity products are your most interested in? [ranking] (The percentage of consumers who put the options in first place)

Analysis of question 11: Question 11 is a ranking question to study the five factors that influence the improvement of consumers' brand image in the theoretical framework of this paper: 24

familiarity, satisfaction, trust, loyalty, perceived quality, which can most affect the brand image in consumers' mind? Among them, the average composite score of brand satisfaction is the highest, which is 3.77. At the same time, 37.7% of consumers ranked satisfaction as the first important factor to improve brand image. Secondly, the average composite score of brand trust ranked second (3.2), and the average comprehensive score of familiarity ranked third (2.94), followed by perceived quality (2.64) and loyalty (2.45).

Therefore, it can be concluded from this data that improving consumers' satisfaction is the most important factor to improve brand image, followed by trust, familiarity, perceived quality and loyalty.

11. Which of the following factors makes you more favorable to a brand? [ranking] (Average composite score)

Analysis of question 12: Question 12 is also a ranking question, which is to investigate which types of offline activities are most effective in improving consumers' familiarity with the brand. Among them, experience-oriented offline activities, such as pop-up shops and brand exhibitions, are the most popular, with an average composite score of 3.9 (the calculation method is the same as the above ranking question). 54.55% of respondents rated experience-based offline activities as the most effective way to improve familiarity. Secondly, the comprehensive score of "new product release conference" ranked second (2.81), "celebrity and KOL on site promotion" ranked third (2.56), followed by the opening of new stores (2.39) and the brand brochures and leaflets (1.69). Therefore, experiential offline activities are the most effective activities to improve familiarity.

12. Which of the following offline activities are of interest to you and can easily improve your familiarity with the brand? [ranking]

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Analysis of question 13: Question 13 is a single choice, designed to find out whether consumers will buy branded products in pop-up stores or at brand exhibitions. With 45.19% of respondents said they were interested in such way to launch products, and would be easier to arouse the desire to buy than usual, while 45.72 percent of respondents said they felt "general" interest in products offered at pop-up stores or exhibitions, only 9.09 percent consumers said they would not buy products offered at pop-up stores or exhibitions. Therefore, consumers' feelings towards the brand's product launch in experiential offline activities are positive, which proves that it is feasible for brands to launch charity goods in charity pop-up stores.

13. Do you buy products in pop-up stores and brand exhibitions? [single choice]

Analysis of question 14: This is a matrix single choice, and matrix single choice means that each of the options in the question is set from scale 1 to 5, with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree. Respondents chose values from scale 1 to 5 based on their situation.

This topic mainly studies which types of offline activities are more effective in 26

improving consumers' satisfaction with the brand.

32.35% of the respondents think that if the brand performs CSR in offline activities, they will be very satisfied with the brand, that is, 32.35% of the respondents checked "5: very satisfied" in the option of "Brand carries out corporate social responsibility activities, and the theme is your concern (such as improving the living conditions of children in marginal areas)". 51.6% of consumers checked "4: satisfied"; Only 0.8% and 2.41% checked the boxes "1: very dissatisfied" and "2: dissatisfied." Therefore, the fulfillment of CSR in offline activities is very effective in improving consumers' satisfaction with the brand.

At the same time, 42.25 percent of respondents checked "5: very satisfied" and 31.55 percent checked "4: satisfied" in the option of "products with high cost-effective performance, services and products exceed customers' expectations". Only 0.8% and 5.08% checked the boxes "1: very dissatisfied" and "2: dissatisfied." Therefore, launching cost-effective products in offline activities is very effective in improving consumers' satisfaction with the brand.

In the options of "Celebrity and KOL participating in promotion", 17.11%, 35.03%, 30.75%, 10.96% and 6.15% of respondents checked "5: very satisfied", "4: satisfied", "3: no feelings", "2: dissatisfied" and "1: very dissatisfied" respectively. Therefore, the effect of "Celebrity and KOL participating in the promotion" in offline activities is not obvious, and the brand has invested a large amount of promotion fees, which may lead to 47.86% consumers (the combined proportion of respondents who checked "1", "2" and "3") are not satisfied with the brand.

In the option "launch product with low price, regardless of quality", 13.9% respondents checked "5", 32.89% checked "4", 35.94%, 16.31% and 10.96% respectively checked "3", "2" and "1". Therefore, the lower the price of products launched in offline activities is not the better, the quality of products should be guaranteed. Otherwise, 53.21% of respondents (the percentage of respondents who checked "1", "2" and "3" combined) may be dissatisfied with the brand.

14. Which of the following offline activities will make you more satisfied with the brand (1- very dissatisfied, 5- very satisfied)?

[Matrix single choice]

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Analysis of question 15: Question 15 is also a matrix single choice, which mainly studies "in the offline corporate social responsibility activities, which behaviors will improve the credibility of the brand in the minds of consumers.

On the list of "clear and authentic motives and goals for charitable activities," 33.96 percent and 43.85 percent of respondents checked "5: very credible" and "4: credible," respectively, while only 1.34 percent and 1.87 percent checked "1: very unreliable" and "2: unreliable." Therefore, clear and authentic philanthropic motives and goals will enable consumers to enhance the credibility of the brand.

In the choice of " Brand positioning, concepts, values and corporate social responsibility activities match.", 39.04 and 37.43% of respondents checked "5: very satisfied" and "4: satisfied" respectively, while only 1.07% and 4.01% of respondents checked "1: very dissatisfied" and "2: dissatisfied" respectively. Therefore, if the brand's positioning, philosophy and values are matched with charity activities’ positioning, philosophy and values, brands will improve the credibility in the consumers’ minds.

15. In the offline CSR activities, what are the following factors that the brand does that will make you feel the activity and brand are credible? (1- no effect, 5- very large effect) [Matrix single choice]

28

1.34%

Analysis of question 16: This is a single choice question designed to investigate whether consumers are more loyal to a brand after more satisfied and trusted with it. Of those surveyed, 86.36 percent consumers said they would be more loyal to the brand as they became more satisfied and trusted the brand, while only 13.64 percent said they would not. Therefore, the theory mentioned in 3.2 is verified: customer loyalty will be enhanced due to the improvement of consumers' satisfaction and trust in the brand, and loyalty is the combination of customer satisfaction and trust in the brand.

16. When you are more satisfied with and trust a brand, will you be more loyal to a brand, and more willing to learn about the brand information in the future, or repeatedly buy products of the brand? [Single choice]

Analysis of question 17: 29

Question 17 is a matrix single choice question, which aims to study what behaviors in offline activities can improve consumers' loyalty to the brand.

In the option of " Launched good quality and cost-effective charity products", 38.77% and 46.26% of the respondents checked "5: has a great effect on enhancing loyalty" and "4: has an effect on enhancing loyalty" respectively. Only 1.07% and 2.94% of respondents said "1: no improvement at all" and "2: little improvement". Therefore, to some extent, "launch cost-effective, good quality charity goods" can improve consumers' loyalty to the brand.

In the " The events held and the products launched by strong creativity are hard to replace." option, 37.43% of respondents checked the "5" scale, 37.97% checked the "4" scale, only 1.07% and 5.08% checked the "1" and "2". Therefore, high creativity and hard-to-replace offline activities and products can enhance consumers' loyalty to the brand.

In the choice of "authentic philanthropic activity motivations and goals", 41.44% and 39.57% of respondents checked "5" and "4" respectively, and only 0.53% and 2.41% tick "1" and "2" respectively. Therefore, authentic charity activity motivations and goals can effectively enhance consumers' loyalty to the brand.

17. In the offline corporate social responsibility activities, which of the following behaviors did the brand do to enhance your brand loyalty? (1- has no effect on improving loyalty, and 5- has a great effect on improving loyalty) [Matrix single choice]

30

Analysis of question 18: This is a matrix single choice question designed to investigate "what factors improve consumers' perceived quality of branded products".

In the "product durability" option, 48.66% and 36.9% of respondents checked "5: very significant impact" and "4: significant impact" respectively, while only 1.07% and 2.67% checked "1: no impact" and "2: little impact" respectively. Therefore, the durability of products plays a role in improving consumers' perception of the quality of branded products.

In the 'limited edition' option, 20.05% and 27.01% and 32.09% of respondents checked '5: very big impact', '4: big impact' and '3: a little impact' respectively, while 6.95% and 13.9% checked '1: no impact at all' and '2: basically no impact' respectively. Therefore, to some extent, the effect of "limited edition" on improving the perceived quality is not so significant.

From the perspective of data, "product aesthetics" and "logistics speed" are also helpful to improve perceived quality to some extent, so the brand should also pay attention to these two aspects of management.

18. Which of the following factors will make you think the quality of a product is good?

(1- no effect, 5- very big effect) [Matrix single choice] 31

Analysis of question 19: This is a ranking question designed to find out “what topics are more interesting to consumers in offline corporate social activities�. The highest average composite score was 2.03 for "social category, such as living conditions in remote areas". "Cultural category, such as preventing the decline of Chinese intangible cultural heritage technology" ranked second with an average composite score of 1.91, while "environmental category, such as mitigating global warming" ranked third with an average composite score of 1.41.

On the other way to calculate and analysis, 43.05 percent of respondents ranked "social category, such as improving living conditions in remote areas" as the first topic of interest; "Cultural category, such as preventing the decline of Chinese intangible cultural heritage technology" was ranked as the most interesting topic by 41.18 percent of the respondents, with 15.78% of respondents checked "social category, such as improving living conditions in remote areas" as the most interesting offline activity topic. Therefore, cultural and social offline activity themes are more popular with consumers.

19. If the brand holds offline charity and public welfare activities, what are the topics you are interested in? [ranking] (Average composite score)

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19. If the brand holds offline charity and public welfare activities, what are the topics you are interested in? [ranking] (The percentage of consumers who put the options in first place)

Cross-analysis is as follows: 1. The younger the group, the more potential to become an active participant in a charity pop-up shop.

Through the cross-analysis of the two questions of "Age" and "As a consumer, I care about brands' social, environmental, and cultural responsibilities and philosophies", this paper finds that, on the whole, all consumers are concerned about the social responsibility of enterprises, but the younger the group, the more concerned about the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility by brands. The older the respondents are, the less importance they attach to the sense of social responsibility participation. cross-analysis of the two questions of "Age" and "As a consumer, I care about brands' social, environmental, and cultural responsibilities and philosophies" : 33

At the same time, with the growth of age, consumers' interest in the goods sold in the pop-up shops has become negative growth.

According to the cross-analysis of "Age" and "Would you be interested in buying branded goods at a pop-up store or at a brand exhibition", the proportion of respondents who say they will not buy products launched in the pop-up store or brand exhibition increases with the age of the respondents.

The main customer profile of the pop-up shops is mainly under 45 years old, which is the young and middle-aged group mainly 18-45 years old. The young and middle-aged group of 18-45 years old is more interested in the products launched in the pop-up shops.

As a result, the younger the group, the more likely it is to become a potential consumer of the charity pop-up shop. cross-analysis of "Age" and "Would you be interested in buying branded goods at a pop-up store or at a brand exhibition":

At the same time, younger people spend a larger percentage of their monthly disposable income on fashion products.

As respondents aged, the proportion of more than 30% of disposable personal income 34

spent on fashion products decreased. Therefore, it can be seen that the younger the consumer the more attention to the pursuit of fashion.

Cross analysis of "Age" and "What percentage of your monthly disposable income is spent on fashion products " :

Statistically, the monthly disposable income of young respondents is not low either.

Cross analysis of "Age" and "Monthly disposable personal income (RMB)" :

2. Second-tier cities have the potential to become vibrant venues for holding charity pop-up shops.

The two questions of "living city" and "Will adding CSR to the offline activities of the brand enhance the image of the brand in your mind" were cross analysed.

This paper found that respondents from second-tier cities (Tianjin, Hangzhou, Chengdu) generally attach great importance to the implementation of brands for corporate social responsibility, especially Tianjin. All respondents from Tianjin have made it clear that they care about the implementation of brands for corporate social responsibility.

Cross-analysis of "Living city" and "Will adding elements of CSR in offline activities of 35

the brand improve the image of the brand in your mind" :

Meanwhile, respondents from second-tier cities generally expressed interest in charitable products.

Can be seen from the chart, although the vast majority of consumers are very encourage brands to launch more charity goods, but from the second-tier cities (Tianjin, Hangzhou and Chengdu) of respondents checked "Yes I hope more brand launch charity products" option proportion is large, even more than first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou).

Cross-analysis of “Living city” and “If a brand launches a charity product, are you interested in learning about it or buying it”:

It can be seen from the data in the figure below that the majority of respondents have a very high degree of acceptance for holding pop-up shops. At the same time, there are a large part from the second-tier cities (Chengdu, Hangzhou, Tianjin) of respondents said they would feel flash store are more likely to arouse consumers' desire to consume than usual boutique retail stores, respectively, 61.11%, 57.89%, 69.23% of respondents from Chengdu, Hangzhou, Tianjin checked the option “Interested, it will be easier than usual 36

to arouse the desire to buy”, the proportion is even larger than from first-tier cities (Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou) of respondents. Consumers in first-tier cities are highly receptive to the brand products launched in flash stores, but second-tier cities have great potential to become significant locations for flash stores.

Cross-analysis of “Living city” and “Would you be interested in buying branded goods at a pop-up store or at a brand exhibition”:

Meanwhile, a large proportion of respondents from second-tier cities have great pursuit for fashion products. 76.92% of respondents in Tianjin said they would spend 30-50% of their monthly disposable income on fashion items. Furthermore, 16.67% of respondents in Chengdu said they would spend more than 50% of their disposable personal income on fashion products, and 50% of consumers in Chengdu would spend 30%-50% of their disposable personal income on fashion products.

Therefore, according to the data of the above cross-analysis, consumers from secondtier cities generally pay significant attention to the corporate social responsibility behavior of brands, highly encourage the charitable goods launched by brands, and say that the pop-up stores will arouse their consumption desire. Therefore, second-tier cities have the potential to become the significant location of CSR pop-up shops.

Cross-analysis of “Living city” and “What percentage of your monthly disposable income is spent on fashion products?”

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4.3 Limitationďźš Since this questionnaire survey is not a random sampling survey, and all the questionnaires collected are based on respondents' "voluntary filling in", there may be some differences between consumers who are willing to fill in the questionnaire and consumers who are not willing to fill in the questionnaire. For example, the respondents who fill in the questionnaire mainly come from two types of people, one is my friends, the other is people who surf the Internet and are willing to fill in my questionnaire. My friends are all in the 18-35 age group, and there is certain commonality, which cannot represent everyone. There may be some differences between those who surf the Internet and are willing to fill out my questionnaire and those who are not. Therefore, these two groups of people are not representative of all people, and the survey results are somewhat different from the thinking of all Chinese consumers.

At the same time, I doubt the authenticity of some data. For example, nearly 30% of the respondents under the age of 18 have a monthly disposable personal income of 30,000 rmb, which is higher than that of other age groups, which is unreasonable. It may be that the respondents entered false information when filling in the questionnaire, or that the respondents "under 18 years old" who filled in the questionnaire were part of the richer group and could not represent all this age group. Meanwhile, respondents in this age group have no monthly disposable income of 5,000-10,000, so the data are limited and biased.

Meanwhile, some questions in the questionnaire may have certain directivity, and there is the possibility of guiding consumers to choose a certain option.

38

5. Conclusion：

All of the above study aims to analyze how to improve the brand image effectively in the offline CSR activities in China.

In this paper, I made a careful study of the literature on CSR, brand image and offline activities, and found out that fulfillment of corporate social responsibility does have certain effect to enhance the brand image, and offline experiential activities such as pop-up stores have become popular offline activities for consumers.

Therefore, this paper selects the Conceptual Model of Brand Image proposed by Wasib Bin Latif et al. (2015) in the article “Outcomes of Brand Image: A Conceptual Model” as the preliminary theoretical framework. In order to make this study more localized in China, this article also combines with Guanhui and Dahai Dong’s "An empirical study on the influence mechanism of Chinese local brand image on perceived quality, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty" from Dalian university of management and economic management college, to construct the whole theoretical framework of this research. The theoretical framework is composed of five factors that affect brand image, which are respectively familiarity, satisfaction, trust, loyalty and perceived quality.

Although the primary research sample has some limitations, the research found some information on how to improve the brand image through offline CSR activities: • • • • • • • •

hold experiential charity pop-up shops or brand exhibitions.

Reasonably reduce the price of charitable goods.

The theme of charity covers a wider range of people.

Clear and authentic philanthropic motives and goals.

The concept and positioning of charity activities are consistent with the brand.

Events and charitable goods are highly creative, and hard to be replaced.

Launching durable charity goods.

A limited/small quantity sale of charity products.

Up to now, there are not many literatures on how to conduct offline CSR exhibition, especially those with local characteristics in China. Therefore, it is difficult to guarantee the accuracy of the brand image theory model applied in China. However, based on the marketing strategies deduced from the theoretical framework, this paper conducts a questionnaire survey to test the practicability of these marketing strategies in the Chinese market.

The survey results verify the suggestions of offline CSR activities that are deduced by the theoretical framework, which roughly verifies the applicability of the theoretical framework of this paper in China and provides a general idea for brands to conduct 39

offline CSR activities in Chinese market. Due to the lack of enough skill survey data to verify the practicability of the marketing strategy, so there will be further study about the research topic, further research should use more accurate research method, obtain more comprehensive and accurate data or evidence, bring the brand company more effective suggestion to promote the image of the brand.

Due to the lack of enough survey data to verify the practicability of the marketing strategies, so there will be further study about the research topic. The further research should be used more accurate research method, obtain more comprehensive and accurate data or evidences, bring enterprises more effective suggestions to promote the image of the brand.

40

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Appendix

Research on consumers' attitudes towards offline CSR activities

1.

Gender [single choice] Options

Subtotal

Proportion

Male

163

43.47%

Female

212

56.53%

Valid number of people

375

2.

Age [single choice] Options

Under 18

Subtotal

Proportion

7

1.87%

18-25

128

34.13%

26-35

156

41.6%

36-45

52

13.87%

45-55

24

6.4%

Over 55

8

2.13%

Valid number of people

3.

375

Living city [single choice] Options

Subtotal

Proportion

Beijing

38

10.13%

Shanghai

58

15.47%

Shenzhen

38

10.13%

Guangzhou

91

24.27%

Chengdu

18

4.8%

Hangzhou

19

5.07%

Tianjin

13

3.47%

Other

100

26.67%

Valid number of people

375

4.

Monthly disposable personal income (RMB) [single choice] Options

Subtotal

Proportion

More than 30,000

19

5.07%

10,000-30,000

99

26.4%

5,000-10,000

146

38.93%

1,000-5,000

91

24.27%

Less than 1,000

20

5.33%

Valid number of people

375

5.

What percentage of your monthly disposable income is spent on fashion products?

(Fashion products refer to clothes, shoes, leather goods, accessories, beauty salon, jewelry, home fashion products, etc.) [single choice]

48

49

50

51