Nike Matters: Brand Activism and Chinese Young People

As stepping into the era of globalization, the marketplace is increasingly multicultural and globalized, which leads to cultural complexity in the marketplace. Since the traditional approaches in consumer research merely rely on certain cultures, the cultural complexity results in the inefficiency of traditional approaches. For this reason, this thesis adopts a cultural approach to analyze the cultural complexity in the multicultural market to bridge the research gaps. China has been one of the largest markets for brands due to the increasing purchase power of consumers. To stand out in the Chinese market and meet consumers’ expectations, brands started to take stances on social issues, which is a marketing strategy called brand activism. There is a lot of research on brand activism in China. Nevertheless, there is a lack of cultural research on political activism from the perspective of the consumers. Therefore, contextualized in the Chinese market, this study explores why brand activism matters to Chinese young people through a lens of culture. Since consumers’ opinions are highly dependent on contexts, this study selects Nike’s engagement in Stop Asian Hate, Black Lives Matter (BLM), and Xinjiang cotton ban as cases. By conducting four focus groups, this study reveals that brand activism matters to Chinese young people largely due to the values they have. Influenced by global culture, Chinese young people agree with the value of racial equality. Therefore, they pay attention to and appreciate campaigns focusing on racial equality such as Stop Asian Hate and BLM, and brands that engage in such campaigns such as Nike. On the contrary, Chinese young people are concerned about hold negative opinions on campaigns involving political issues such as the Xinjiang cotton ban, and they, therefore, have negative opinions on brands that engage in the Xinjiang cotton ban such as Nike. Nevertheless, the contradiction between consumption and values suggests that consumption cannot fully reflect consumers' values. Moreover, by selecting some elements of the perception of reality and combining certain narratives, the media makes Chinese young people believe that the value of racial equality is the correct value, and allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang are rumors, thereby influencing their opinions on campaigns and Nike. Based on findings, this study suggests that within the Chinese market, brands should engage in campaigns focusing on social responsibility such as Stop Asian Hate and BLM and avoid engaging in campaigns involving political issues such as the Xinjiang cotton ban. If brands get involved in controversial campaigns, they need to take a stance that is consistent with the local stance. Otherwise, they might face backlash and boycotts. Once brands face backlash and boycott, any communication strategies do not work in the Chinese market. Only