Visualizing ESG Signaling Through User-Generated Content: A Strategic Foresight Framework for Symbolic Legitimacy in Hospitality Branding

Abstract

Social media platforms today have become essential for consumer-brand interactions, with visual content playing a pivotal role in shaping engagement and brand perception. Although text-based user-generated content (UGC) has been widely studied, the potential of visual UGC, particularly in the travel, tourism and hospitality (TTH) sector, remains underexplored. To address this gap, we adopt a dual-phased approach; first, we propose a multimodal framework, whereby we combine and analyze data (textual, visual, and tag data) of various brands. Then, we used Google Cloud Vision API, sentiment analysis, and self-organizing maps (SOM) to complete the framework, with the help of which we segregated the pictures first through content and later through context. This enabled us to view consumer perceptions and branding strategies through a new lens. In the second phase, we culled data from Instagram sourced from the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) and analyzed the same. Broadly, the results herein show that social themes (e.g., cultural heritage and wellness) are primarily represented through engagement, while governance cues (i.e., trust, security and transparency) emerge in spurts, possibly owing to some external events and/or environmental motifs (eco-consciousness and sustainability) that are displayed late but play a role in accelerating growth. We contribute theoretically to literature by amalgamating strategic foresight, symbolic legitimacy, visual semiotics, signaling theory, and stakeholder co-creation, and in the process, explaining ESG communication as a sociotechnical process. In terms of our practical contribution, we identified cluster-specific ESG themes, which would help brand marketers better position the brand and help in managing crises with robust strategies for sustainability. Holistically, we believe that our findings would help hospitality organizations to refine their branding strategies, enhance consumers' trust, and in the process, sustain competitive advantage.