Familiarity and the Blemishing Effect on Company Image

Corporate social responsibility(CSR) is a major issue for in many modern corporations. Both low familiarity and high familiarity companies are actively involved in CSR activities. Since consumers do not have access to all information about the CSR activities conducted by these companies, they must evaluate these activities based on information made available by the companies themselves or from the media. Thus,much information, both positive and negative, may remain unknown. In this study, a survey was administered to determine the effect on company image of a release of positive information followed by a slightly negative message about the CSR activitiesof low and high familiarity companies. The results indicated that the blemishing effectmay not always occur even under low effort conditions as in Ein-Gar, Shiv, and Tormala(2012). In addition, no blemishing effect was observed for high familiaritycompany and low familiarity company under high effort conditions. Our findingsrevealed that the blemishing effect was more often evident for completely lowfamiliarity companies than for high familiarity companies. The research can assistmanagers in understanding how consumers assess the message types and be used as aguidance to enhance company image. This research can assist managers inunderstanding how consumers assess the message types and be used a s a guidance to enhance company image.