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This study aims to systematically review the relationship between greenwashing and branding, with a focus on how deceptive environmental claims influence brand trust, perceived authenticity, and consumer behaviour. It seeks to identify key trends, challenges, and opportunities in sustainable branding. A systematic review was conducted, analysing peer-reviewed articles, industry reports, and conference proceedings published between 2012 and 2024. Scopus, the largest citation and abstract database, was utilized. The selected studies addressing greenwashing and branding were further analysed using bibliometric tools. The findings reveal that greenwashing significantly erodes consumer trust and brand reputation, especially when misleading claims are uncovered. Consumer responses vary based on knowledge levels, with some easily persuaded by green claims and others critically evaluating brand messaging. Authenticity and transparency are found to be crucial in fostering sustainable branding and rebuilding consumer trust. This study synthesizes dispersed literature on greenwashing’s impact on branding, offering a consolidated bibliometric analysis that highlights evolving research patterns. It extends understanding by linking consumer scepticism, trust dynamics, and brand authenticity within the sustainability discourse. This review provides original insights by bridging greenwashing and branding literature systematically. It offers a comprehensive synthesis that benefits academics, marketers, and policymakers working to advance ethical and sustainable branding practices.

This study aims to develop an ethical branding framework that determines whether a corporate brand's functional and emotional values, that is, product, service quality, and perceived price (antecedents), influence ethical branding and, consequently, company reputation and brand loyalty (consequences) among industrial buyers of electronic office equipment in Malaysia. Using structural equation modelling, the article demonstrates the effects of perceived price, quality of product and service on ethical branding, company reputation, and brand loyalty. The results reveal that product quality directly influences ethical brand perceptions and, consequently, company reputation. Perceived price and service quality do not directly affect company reputation; instead, they affect its identification through ethical branding. The findings thus demonstrate that product quality, perceived price, and service quality affect company reputation through the mediation of ethical branding. This highlights that an ethical brand is effective for companies to maintain their reputation among industrial buyers.

PurposeThis paper examines how organic candies are marketed as healthy and ethical choices on commercial websites through the use of visual, rhetorical and promotional strategies.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses social semiotics and multimodal critical discourse analysis to identify the narratives and discursive traits that organic candy manufacturers reproduce on their websites as part of their ethical branding policy. The dataset is formed by 10 websites that commercialize organic confectionery.FindingsThe findings indicate that sellers try to associate organic candy to healthiness, simple and traditional lifestyles and social awareness to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Often the ethical claims that organic candy websites reproduce are not justified.Research limitations/implicationsA major limitation of this study is that the investigation does not evaluate the effectiveness of rhetorical and discursive strategies on real consumer decisions. Further research of an ethnographic or empirical nature would be required for this purpose.Practical implicationsThis study recognizes the strategies that organic candy sellers reproduce can help consumers make more informed choices. From the point of view of marketers, understanding the multimodal, rhetorical and discursive strategies that organic candy brands employ can be useful to devise their own marketing approaches.Originality/valueThe investigation contributes to a growing body of research about multimodal critical discourse analysis within food marketing studies. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first paper that analyses organic candy branding from a multimodal perspective.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an ethical framework for the marketing of corporate social responsibility. Methods The approach is a conceptual one based on virtue ethics and on the corporate identity literature. Furthermore, empirical research results are used to describe the opportunities and pitfalls of using marketing communication tools in the strategy of building a virtuous corporate brand. Results/conclusions An ethical framework that addresses the paradoxical relation between the consequentialist perspective many proponents of the marketing of CSR adopt, and ethical perspectives which criticize an exclusive profit-oriented approach to CSR. Furthermore, three CSR strategies in relation to the marketing of CSR are discussed. For each CSR strategy it is explored how a corporation could avoid falling into the promise/performance gap.

PurposeThe study investigated the strategic contribution of COVID-19 preventive measures in building corporate reputation in the hospitality industry when mediated with ethical branding.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesized model was developed and tested using a cross-sectional research design among 404 customers of hospitality organizations (i.e. hotels and restaurants). The collected data were analyzed quantitatively using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results showed that COVID-19 preventive measures are important drivers in building or rebuilding corporate reputation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also showed that ethical branding acts as a mediator between COVID-19 preventive measures and corporate reputation.Research limitations/implicationsThe study used a nonprobability sampling technique, i.e. convenience sampling and a cross-sectional survey research design. It is therefore necessary to be careful when generalizing the findings.Practical implicationsThe study recommends that managers in hospitality organizations should ensure proper and effective compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures during service delivery. Among others, the study highlighted areas for further study to include an investigation using a longitudinal approach to observe behavioral changes toward COVID-19 preventive measures and their consequences on the overall corporate reputation of the hospitality industry. This recommendation is based on the fact that, currently, new cases and mortality rates have decreased considerably. As a result, customers in the hospitality industry have started to have different opinions about complying with COVID-19 preventive measures.Originality/valueThe study is among new endeavors to investigate drivers that can rebuild and sustain the corporate reputation of hospitality organizations during a pandemic like COVID-19.

Acknowledging the increasing attention in the literature devoted to the incorporation of ethical considerations into consumers' purchase decisions, this paper explores the notion of an ethical product. It is argued that ethical issues have long been involved in consumers' product evaluations, but that there has been little academic investigation of ethics in terms of product concepts and theories. Ethics are thus examined in the context of the augmented product concept, and two dimensions of ethical augmentation are identified: direction and content. These dimensions are set out and discussed at some length, and then they are used to construct an ethical product matrix. It is shown how this could be used to provide structure and coherence to examinations of the perceived ethics of any given product offering. The implications of the analysis offered in the paper are discussed, and a number of limitations of the ethical product notion are identified. Finally some conclusions and directions for future research are suggested.

In recent years literature studying the use of corporate branding in the control of corporate culture has emerged, but as yet there is scant research on the relationship between branding and employee identity. This study addresses this research gap by analysing the effects of an ethical brand on the identity work of employees. Respondents were found to adopt the discourse of the brand in the construction of their identity projects. The empirical findings reveal that in the case of branding, specific modes of identity work appear to be far more influential than others. In particular it was observed that in the case study the brand informs the three modes of identity work: (1) ‘self-definition by delimitation’ (2) ‘self-definition as morally superior’ and (3) ‘providing a common sense of mission’.

Pink ribbons, red dresses, and greenwashing—American corporations are scrambling to tug at consumer heartstrings through cause-related marketing, corporate social responsibility, and ethical branding, tactics that can increase sales by as much as 74%. Harmless? Marketing insider Mara Einstein demonstrates in this penetrating analysis why the answer is a resounding \"No!\" In Compassion, Inc. she outlines how cause-related marketing desensitizes the public by putting a pleasant face on complex problems. She takes us through the unseen ways in which large sums of consumer dollars go into corporate coffers rather than helping the less fortunate. She also discusses companies that truly do make the world a better place, and those that just pretend to.

Despite the moral gravity and far-reaching consequences of ethical judgment, evidence shows that such judgment is surprisingly malleable, prone to bias, informed by intuition and implicit associations, and swayed by mere circumstance. In this vein, this research examines how mere colors featured in logos can bias consumers' ethical judgments about a retailer. Exposure to a logo featuring an eco-friendly color makes an ethically ambiguous practice seem more ethical; however, exposure to a logo featuring a non-eco-friendly color makes the same practice seem less ethical (Study 1). This effect is due to the embodied meaning of color, not referential meanings associated with the names of colors, and it is mediated by perceptions of a retailer's eco-friendliness (Study 2a). Furthermore, although the word \"green\" appears to influence ethical ratings of retail practices more than the word \"blue,\" visual exposure to either color evokes similar perceptions of eco-friendliness and influences ethical judgments (Study 2b). Study 2c assesses and rules out alternative explanations for this effect. Critically, an eco-friendly color can skew judgments even when the practices judged are not ethically ambiguous (Study 3). Individual differences in ethical sensitivity moderate the observed effect, such that individuals who are less ethically sensitive are less influenced by color (Study 4). The article concludes with a discussion on how logo colors shape consumers' perceptions of retailer ethicality.

Purpose As B2B firms face increasing scrutiny due to increased stakeholder awareness of environmental and social concerns, doing business with a conscience has become an important imperative. Despite a growing focus on conscientious corporate branding (CCB), the construct has never been clearly defined, and many of the exemplars used to depict CCB have focused on a B2C context. The purpose of this research paper is to define CCB, to develop a framework that leaders can apply to build and manage a conscientious corporate brand and to demonstrate application of the components of the framework in the B2B context. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an exploratory approach and focuses on extant literature relating to operating with a conscience, including organizational purpose, ethical leadership, ethicalization of the organization, stakeholder co-creation, sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Findings This study shows how companies in a B2B context can use a framework that includes dimensions of purpose, ethics, stakeholder co-creation, sustainability and CSR to build a CCB through reconciling and integrating leadership and stakeholder perspectives to create and communicate sustainable and responsible behavior. Research limitations/implications This study opens the door for further research into the actions required to build CCBs. There is a need to validate the CCB framework in future studies. Practical implications This study identifies how to build a conscientious corporate brand and applies it in the B2B context. Originality/value This study expands our understanding of CCBs by providing a definition and framework to guide scholars and practitioners. Given the paucity of focus on CCB in the B2B context, the authors exemplify the framework using B2B examples.