A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) ON CONSUMER BRAND EQUITY

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business approach that contributes to sustainable development by delivering economic, social and environmental benefits for all the stakeholders. “Consumers are king of the market” for any product. Advancement in technology and communication system supplies information to everyone makes the customers fully aware of their product. The company in order to reach the customers and withstand the completion, the company should concentrate on CSR activities.The purpose of this project is to find out the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility activities of a company by examining the consumers perception and attitude towards brand equity.Brand equity is defined as the assets associated with brands name that increases the value of the product or service of an organization. The companies who are investing on CSR activities are enjoying good customer loyalty and the brands they operate enjoy healthy profits and sustainable market position.Customer-based brand equity is defined from the perspective of the customer and is based on consumer knowledge, familiarity, and associations with the brand. Customers perception of the brand focuses on the dimensions of brand equity which involves brand awareness, brand image, brand quality, brand loyalty and brand association. The study examines the customer’s attitude on CSR regarding brand equity. Brand attitude is an overall evaluation of consumers on a product that has a brand. Thus this study aims to analyze the perception of consumers regarding CSR activities of a company and to examine the attitude of consumers regarding Brand Equity of company’s engaged in CSR activities.