Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze customers’ perceptions about brand personality in different cultural environments, checking if the archetypal framework of Mark and Pearson (2001) applies to different brands across countries. Design/methodology/approach: The authors measured consumers’ perceptions in different cultural contexts through a survey, and received 537 valid questionnaires from Portugal, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, countries that have some similar indicators of cultural proximity. The authors wanted to verify if the words and sentences that respondents related to each brand were coherent with the archetype/brand, and the homogeneity of the results in different cultural contexts. Findings: Empirical evidence shows that there is proximity between the literature review and the associations – words and sentences – that consumers from different countries make with those brands. This consistency of results is significantly higher for word associations. Originality/value: Regardless of the results, the perceptions of consumers expressed through the selected words were often diverse and heterogeneous among countries. This could possibly indicate insufficient efforts from global brands toward a coherent brand personality/global-archetypal approach. Therefore, managing brand personality deserves more attention and marketers must understand consumer behavior patterns in different markets.

In this article, we present a study that investigates the effectiveness of social media communication in conveying brands’ green activism actions framed by corporate social responsibility. To address this question, a survey was conducted with 550 participants, comparing their opinions about the green posts made by brands and influencers. Statistical analysis (Wilcoxon rank-sum test means comparison of responses between the two groups) revealed significant differences in consumer perceptions between them. The findings indicate that using social media channels to communicate green initiatives is effective for brands. Moreover, the study concludes that direct brand communication is more beneficial than relying on digital influencers. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the comparative effectiveness of brand-generated social media posts and influencer-generated content in promoting green activism actions. The study highlights the importance of direct brand communication in enhancing consumer perception and engagement with green initiatives. It offers valuable insights for brands seeking to optimize their social media strategies for sustainability messaging.

Codes of ethics and code of conduct formalize an ideal of expected behavior patterns to managers and employees of organizations, providing standards and orientation that states companies interactions with the community, through products /services, sales force, marketing communications, investments, and relationships with other stakeholders, influencing company reputation and overall Marketing performance. The objective of this study is to analyze the differences in codes of ethics of the largest companies based in Brazil and in Portugal, given their cultural and linguistic similarities. Findings show that the use of codes of ethics are more common in Brazil than in Portugal and that codes of ethics are substantially more extensive and cover a larger number of categories in Brazilian companies, reflecting the organizations mission and perception of stakeholders concerns and priorities. We conclude that ethical issues severely impact company reputation and, in a comprehensive sense, overall Marketing performance. Marketing professionals should be systematically aware of how company core values are transmitted to different audiences, including the use of code of ethics to communicate both with internal and external publics.

This article analyzes consumer, local producer, and retailer green orientation regarding local food production and consumption in an urban food market context. This approach extends previous research, mainly focused on green orientation of consumers, by including a broader analysis of the perceptions of different relevant stakeholders. For this purpose, an empirical study was carried out in the context of a local urban market of a medium-sized city through the application of a survey to producers, retailers, and consumers, which included a green orientation scale. Results showed that local consumers and local retailers have a similar high level of green orientation, while local producers are less green-oriented. These conclusions highlight the importance of the green “values” in local communities and the need to reinforce marketing efforts and specific training programs to different stakeholders, namely local producers focused on sustainability.

This study investigates the differential impact of Instagram influencers’ posts and stories on consumer decision-making across the five stages of the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model. Using a survey of 987 Instagram users, we examine how these two content formats influence need recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase behaviour. Our findings reveal that influencers primarily impact the early stages of the decision-making process, with stories being more effective than posts in triggering need recognition and facilitating information search. However, the influence diminishes in later stages, suggesting that other factors play a more significant role in the actual purchase and post-purchase evaluation. This study contributes to the literature on influencer marketing and consumer behaviour by extending the EKB model to the digital age and highlighting the unique ways in which different content formats can shape consumer journeys. The findings offer valuable insights for marketers and influencers seeking to optimise their Instagram strategies.