THE EFFECTS OF MEDIA ON PUBLIC ATTITUDE DURING THE BRAND VALUE CRISIS: EVIDENCES FROM GRIGEO CASE

Abstract

Many scholars have focused on consumers when analysing the brand crisis and the importance of the media during the event, creating a lack of empirical research on public attitudes. In addition, the empirical studies of public attitude conducted so far analyse it abstractly, dividing the attitude into positive, negative and neutral. The significant effects of the brand value crisis drive the need for more detailed research, i.e. to analyse the public's attitude through the components of emotions, cognition and behaviour. Such a study would allow us to understand better the expression of public attitudes against the background of brand crisis and media information about the crisis and how public attitudes, brand crisis and media information interact. It should also be noted that each crisis is unpredictable and different, so each investigated case of a crisis becomes another source of knowledge and crisis prevention. This study aims to evaluate the effect of media on public attitude during the brand value crisis. This study uses the media content quantitative analysis method to examine the media effect on public attitude during the reputational crisis of the paper and wood industry company group in the Baltic countries. The research revealed that during the brand value crisis, the media is dominated by information that emphasises immorality. The brand value crisis has had a negative impact on public attitudes through all three of its components. The established unfavourable public attitude towards the brand was demonstrated by feedback, causing negative consequences for the brand. The research findings allow the authors to confirm the obvious relationships between the brand value crisis, media information reflecting immorality, and public emotions, cognition, and behaviour. The study revealed the case of a brand value crisis that provoked a strong public reaction. Public attitudes have been analysed through its components (emotions, cognition, and behaviour), thus making it clearer to identify preventive communication activities and avoid the larger-scale development of the brand value crisis. This study provides a basis for the theoretical development of crisis management and expands the discussion of the crisis’s effect on public attitude. The research findings may provide insights into corporate crisis communication and be prerequisites for sound brand communication solutions in public, by anticipating the possible development of public attitudes and seeking to control them. The interaction between the symbolic value and the effects of the brand, and the emotions, cognition and behaviour of the public, which was formed with the dominance of media information reflecting the immorality of the brand value crisis, was established. The interaction between the brand value crisis and pubic attitude regarding in terms of the impact of media information has been reasoned.