Dark Side of Consumer Behavior: Brand Hate and Anti-Brand Actions

Abstract

Negative consumer emotion towards brand like brand hate is a common phenomenon nowadays which causes anti-brand actions. This study aims to find out the influence of unfavorable brand image and negative past experiences on consumer brand hate and its impact on negative word of mouth and exit. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the 157 respondents who were the users of different mobile brands. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study suggest that negative brand image has significant influence on consumer brand hate which has positive influence consumers to take anti-brand actions like negative word of mouth and exit. The study should have included other constructs that causes consumer brand hate with large sample size. The study provides guidelines for marketers as they can understand how brand hate is impacted and its consequences.