CONSUMER RESPONSES TO CONTROVERSIAL MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS - THE CASE OF H&M’S “COOLEST MONKEY IN THE JUNGLE” MERCHANDISE

Abstract

Insensitivity to racial issues has long been one of the main causes of controversy in marketing, and its significance has recently resurfaced due to the current political and social climate caused by events such as the American presidential election and Brexit. In the marketing field, current cases such as advertising from Kellogg’s and Dove have caused outrage across social media. This has shown that even experienced marketers can still find themselves being accused of insensitivity or even racism. With the help of social media, the cases such as those may lead to negative consumer-generated brand stories online and could damage the brand (Gensler et al., 2013;Gregoire, Salle, & Tripp, 2015). This paper has chosen to address the recent case of HM Vromen, Xenos, & Loader, 2015; Lindgren, 2017). The results have also raised new questions concerning several marketing-related themes including the effect of media coverage, brand trust, intentionally controversial marketing, social climate, and direct recommendations for H&M. The findings will provide practical recommendations for marketers, including in relation to managing diversity issues, constantly building a brand image, and identifying and acting upon the sensitive issues within different cultural contexts. As a preliminary study, the limitation of this study lies in the timeline of the research and the amount of data. Further research is recommended to conduct a longitudinal study to gain a more complete view of how the incident may affect consumers and brands over time.