Consumers tend to relate to brands in similar ways as they relate to individuals and groups. However, relatively little is known about the attribution of human traits to brands in online contexts. The current research focused on whether perceived interactivity of CSR advertising leads to the attribution of moral, sociable, and competent brand traits, and which of these traits could in turn promote positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions on Facebook. A Facebook CSR advertisement was presented to participants (N=174), after which perceived interactivity, perceived traits, and eWOM intentions were assessed. Higher levels of perceived interactivity were associated with stronger attributions of morality, sociability, and competence traits to brands. Yet, only perceived brand morality was associated with consumers’ willingness to endorse the brand and its CSR message on Facebook. These findings underline the importance of brands’ openness to dialogue regarding the promotion of CSR activities. Furthermore, these findings suggest that consumers are most likely to feel that brands can represent their identity when brand morality is considered to be high. Despite the importance of eWOM for corporate outcomes, few studies have addressed which processes might underlie the relation between interactive advertising and consumers’ eWOM intentions. The current research contributes to the literature in this field by considering the attribution of humanlike personality traits to brands as possible explanatory variables.

Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important for the success of organizations (Coombs and Holladay, 2012; McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). Several studies have focused on consumer responses to CSR and found that positive evaluations of CSR initiatives led to greater loyalty to both companies and their brands and to more positive behaviors toward companies (Dhanesh, 2015; Glavas and Godwin, 2013; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). Therefore, the effective communication of these CSR initiatives appears to be important (Eberle, et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2013). However, research on how consumers perceive a company’s communication of specific CSR motives in relation to its corporate reputation is scarce (De Vries et al., 2013). The current study aimed to investigate the role that communicating CSR motives plays in someone’s perception of a company. To investigate the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motives in explaining consumer-company identification, scepticism and reputation, we conducted two online consumer survey studies. In Study 1 (N=178), we used a well-known personal care product (PCP). In Study 2 (N=220), in the context of a large worldwide furniture retailer, we tried to replicate the findings of Study 1. In contrast to Study 1, we now added situational scepticism. The results of the current study show that the positive relationship between intrinsic CSR motives and company evaluations were replicated from previous studies. In this relationship consumer-company identification and scepticism play a mediating role. However this role seems to be different for positive versus negative attributions. The negative relationship between extrinsic CSR motives and company evaluations seems to be more ambiguous. Suggestions are made for a more meta-analytical approach to distinct consumers’ perceptions on a company’s CSR motives.