Brand Crisis Research Articles

Leveraging virtual brand community engagement and consumer brand identification as a bounce-back brand recovery strategy: Role of brand endorsers

ABSTRACT Brand community engagement in the virtual environment during a brand crisis has gained attention from firms and marketing scholars due to innovative technologies. However, there is a limited empirical insight into its antecedents and consequences. This study, grounded in signaling and social identity theories, introduces the relationship between endorser credibility, virtual brand community engagement, and consumer brand identification as a pro-active brand recovery strategy. It also examines the impact of virtual brand engagement and consumer brand identification on brand love and forgiveness. The data were collected from online automobile brand community members. The results show that celebrity endorsers' trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertise can be used as communication signals to expedite the process of consumer brand identification and virtual brand community engagement. Consumers who strongly identify with the brand and engage in its virtual community are more likely to develop an emotional bond with the brand and forgive it following a crisis. Interestingly, the study finds that the relationships between endorser credibility attractiveness and virtual consumer brand identification, endorser credibility trustworthiness and consumer brand identification, and consumer brand identification and virtual brand community are nonlinear.

When Connection Turns to Anger: How Consumer–Brand Relationship and Crisis Type Moderate Language on Social Media

Abstract Social media offers brands the ability to gauge consumer reactions to marketing and brand crises. While social media listening has focused on aggregate patterns, consumers differ in how they react to a crisis faced by a particular brand. Analyzing consumer behavior for 39 brands pertaining to 77 brand crises through the lens of consumer posts on brands’ Facebook pages, we find that consumers’ prior online interactions with the brand and the nature of the brand crisis moderate the language they employ in their posts. Specifically, these factors affect the extent to which consumers express anger and the familiarity of their language. While consumers who have not engaged with the brand previously employ more familiar language and self-referencing following values-related crises compared to consumers who have interacted with the brand, these individuals express more anger after performance-related crises. In contrast, consumers who have previously interacted with the brand express more anger in the wake of values-related crises. We discuss the implications of our findings for brand managers using social media posts as a means of monitoring consumer perceptions.

Synthesis of forty years of brand crisis literature

PurposeThe brand crisis literature remains unilateral and scattered, necessitating academic effort to comprehend the extant body of knowledge. This study aims to provide the required comprehensive overview of the domain, by outlining its significance, progression and future research directions.Design/methodology/approachFollowing the PRISMA approach, journal articles for review are selected. The study uses a hybrid (structured and bibliometric) review, to provide a systematic insight and graphical visualization of the existing literature. It applies VOSviewer software to analyse bibliographic data through citation and co-occurrence analysis.FindingsThe hybrid review outlines most-cited articles, authors, frequently used theories, methodologies and data analysis techniques in this domain. Findings are further presented as integrative framework that distinctly highlights prior studies from a dichotomous perspective and across three stages of crisis. Finally, research opportunities and directions for future research are presented.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is useful for scholars and practitioners to understand the brand crisis literature and to cognize the inferences drawn by distinct researchers. It provides contemporary research agendas using the theory, context and method (TCM) framework, to augment future investigations through interdisciplinary approach.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge this is the first study that synthesizes the academic work of brand crisis using a hybrid method. Also, the novelty of the work lies in presenting the future research direction in the form of multiple (macro, meso and micro) levels with inter-disciplinary theoretical underpinnings.

When CEO Pay Becomes a Brand Problem.

For over four decades, the topic of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation has attracted considerable attention from the fields of economics, finance, management, public policy, law, and business ethics. As scholarly interest in CEO pay has increased, so has public concern about the ethics of high CEO pay. Despite growing interest and pressure among the public and government to reduce CEO pay, it has continued to increase. Using a multi-method design incorporating a pilot study, two online experiments, and an event study, we investigate the impact of CEO pay on consumer purchase intent and find that this negative relationship is magnified under conditions of brand crisis. We also find that the negative interaction of high CEO pay and brand crisis on purchase intent is more negative when the brand has strong equity. Finally, when the CEO is awarded high pay while the firm they manage is undergoing a brand crisis, consumers lose trust in the firm's brand which reduces consumer purchase intent. This research provides insight on how governance decisions can impact consumer perceptions of corporate brands and consumer behavior, with implications for public policy leaders, boards of directors, CEOs, and Chief Marketing Officers regarding how to manage and message CEO pay.

Moving beyond negative spillover: The positive consequences of an innocent brand's responses to another brand's crisis

AbstractThis study investigated (a) the negative spillover effects of brand's food‐safety crisis on an entire industry, dominant and nondominant innocent brands in the same product, and (b) the impacts of the innocent brand's response on the responded brand and the entire industry. The study conducted a 2 (market position: dominant vs. nondominant) × 2 (response: no‐response vs. response) between‐subjects design with one additional control group. The findings showed that the negative impact of the dominant brand's crisis spilled over only to nondominant brands, but the innocent brand's response served to overcome the negative effect by recovering the consumer's deteriorated beliefs about the brand and its products to the pre‐crisis level. However, the innocent brand's response did not significantly affect the industry.

Brand recovery after crisis: The interplay of relationship norms and types of brand apology in consumer responses to recovery efforts

ABSTRACT This research examines how the interplay of consumer-brand relationship norm type (communal vs. exchange norm) and apology type (emotional vs. informational apology) impact consumers’ responses in a brand crisis. Findings suggest that an informational apology was more effective in an exchange norm consumer-brand relationship than an emotional apology. On the other hand, in a communal consumer-brand relationship, an emotional apology was more effective than an informational apology. Further, findings revealed the significant mediating role of forgiveness in understanding the way consumers respond to brand’s recovery effort (apology) in a brand crisis. With regards to the role of consumer-brand relationship in a brand crisis, these findings offer practical guidelines for practitioners for developing effective brand apology strategies.

Will consumers give us another chance to bounce back? Effects of precrisis commitments to social and product responsibility on brand resilience

Purpose Merely being known as a highly ethical or strong performer cannot shield a company from every kind of crisis. From product failures to environmental and social issues, a brand’s ability to manage crises and rapidly regain consumer trust is essential. This study aims to explore whether consumer perceptions of a brands’ prior commitments to two different areas of corporate responsibility (social and product responsibility) alleviate the postcrisis attribution of accountability and further build brand resilience, examining differences between two types of crisis situations – values versus performance crises. Design/methodology/approach A scenario-based online survey on product versus ethical labor issues was conducted. The data were collected from a highly valid, nationwide sample set of more than a thousand US consumers. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used as the primary data analysis method. Findings A brand’s precrisis commitment to social responsibility was found to decrease attribution of accountability across both types of crises. It also strengthened brand resilience, but this effect was more prevalent in a performance than a values crisis. The effects of precrisis commitment to product responsibility on brand resilience were minimal or insignificant across crisis types. Originality/value Previous research underexplores which types of corporate responsibility commitments provide a firm with a better protection against crises. This study significantly advances the knowledge regarding the type of commitments that can substantially increase brand resilience, which supports the rationale of making stronger commitments to social responsibility than to product responsibility. Practical insights are provided into how investments in corporate social responsibility help alleviate consumers’ negative perceptions during the outbreak of a brand crisis and build more brand muscle that enables resilience against future crises.

Tanishq: Brand Activism Gone Wrong?

Mansoor Khan, 45, brand manager, Tanishq Jewellery for Media and Communications, was facing lots of backlashes for Tanishq’s advertisement on interfaith marriage advertisement aired to promote unity and harmony amongst different communities. In contrast to its stated objective of promoting unity and oneness, this interfaith marriage advertisement created a huge controversy in social media dividing its consumers and netizens into two opposing camps supporting and some even boycotting the advertisement. The brand Tanishq was trolled because of its alleged insensitivity and blindness towards the recent spate of killings in interfaith love affairs and marriages across different parts of India. This controversial advertisement of interfaith marriage and its resultant controversy has left the brand manager pondering should brands rely on more mainstream work rather than any edgy or controversial messaging? Should brands add their business voice to the societal and cultural debates or just stick to conventional advertisement? Or should Tanishq take a moral high stand and continue to promote the advertisement or should it withdraw the controversial advertisement? Whether the reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, who they try to impress? Therefore, this case intends to teach the postgraduate students of marketing about concepts and theories of brand activism, celebrity endorsement, brand management and brand crisis management.

Research on the Mechanism of Brand Equity in Catering Enterprises and Its Brand Crisis Management

Research on the Mechanism of Brand Equity in Catering Enterprises and Its Brand Crisis Management

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

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.

Impact of social media brand blunders on brand trust and brand liking

More companies are engaging with consumers in real-time on digital platforms, which may lead to accidental or unintentional sharing of messages. Accordingly, how to manage online brand crises has become an increasingly important issue for marketing managers. The present research explores how online brand blunders influence consumers’ trust and liking toward the blunderer brand, and the role of brand commitment in this relationship. Three studies show that consumers evaluate online brand blunders differently than they do product performance problems. Specifically, upon receiving negative brand blunder information, high (vs. low)-commitment consumers’ brand trust and brand liking decrease to a higher extent due to finding the blunder less humorous and more offensive. On the contrary, upon receiving negative product performance information, low (vs. high)-commitment consumers’ brand trust and brand liking decrease to a higher extent, which supports previous literature. Our findings suggest that managers should prioritize high and low-commitment consumers differently and tailor blunder communication in handling online brand crises.

Enhancing Sustainable Cosmetics Brand Purchase: A Comprehensive Approach Based on the SOR Model and the Triple Bottom Line

Profitable and dynamic, the cosmetics industry strives to conform to the environmental ideals and practices of the 21st century. For years, NGOs, the media, and consumers have accused cosmetics brands of pollution, environmental disasters, and safety concerns. These allegations can spread faster in the online environment and cause genuine brand crises. Many cosmetic company managers continue to assess the necessity of accelerating their business toward sustainability initiatives and being more consumer centric. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the impact of economic, social, and environmental sustainability on brand attachment and brand attractiveness, which may result in a positive WOM, enhance purchase intention, and finally lead to the intention to join online brand communities. To implement the research scope, the authors developed a conceptual model based on the triple bottom line (TBL) and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) approach. To assess the conceptual model, the authors have conducted quantitative research, through an online questionnaire, with data being collected from consumers via an online survey platform. The snowball sample comprised 1632 valid responses from consumers of sustainable cosmetics brands. Further on, the conceptual model was assessed employing structural equations modelling via SmartPLS. The results confirm the impact of the three pillars of TBL (i.e., economic, social, and environmental sustainability) (stimuli) on brand attachment and brand attractiveness (organism), which finally generates positive WOM, triggers purchase intention, and enhances consumers’ intention to join an online brand community (response). From a theoretical perspective, our research contributes to extending knowledge based on the SOR approach and TBL applied to sustainable cosmetics brands. Considering the significant effects of economic, social, and environmental sustainability on consumer perception and intention, the study also pinpoints some major management implications for the cosmetic industry.

Brand Crisis and Customer Relationship Management on Social Media: Evidence from a Natural Experiment from the Airline Industry

The rise of social media platforms has created new opportunities for successful customer relationship management (CRM) activities. Compared with traditional CRM, social media–based CRM enables brands to easily and directly communicate with their customers, which can strengthen customer relationships. The public nature of social media offers an innovative way for brands to engage and manage their customer relationships, increasing brand awareness and enabling easy access to prospective customers. However, public customer engagement on social media does not come without risk. For example, negative word of mouth on social media stemming from poor customer engagement or a brand response can disseminate and reach a large audience. Despite the popularity of social media platforms as customer relationship channels, it is still unclear how a brand crisis can change a brand’s social CRM efforts. Leveraging a natural experiment setting, we investigate the impact of the United Airlines crisis on three dimensions of social CRM efforts: informativeness, timeliness, and attentiveness. Contrary to traditional CRM efforts and recommendations, we find that the brand crisis increases informativeness efforts but reduces timeliness and attentiveness efforts.

Rise from the ashes or repeat the past? The effects of fresh start mindset and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness

PurposeMany managers and scholars focus on how to repair brand image after a corporate crisis. This research paper aims to propose that a fresh start mindset (FSM) and brand crisis type can jointly influence consumer forgiveness.Design/methodology/approachThree studies were conducted to examine the authors’ hypotheses. Study 1 is a 3 (FSM: high vs low vs control) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) between-subjects factorial design to test the interaction effect of FSM and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness. Study 2 is a 2 (FSM: high vs low) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) between-subjects factorial design to identify the affective and cognitive mechanisms in the influence of FSM and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness. Study 3 is a 2 (FSM: high vs low) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) × 3 (strategy: defensive strategy vs accommodative strategy vs reticence) between-subjects factorial design, aimed to identify the possible boundary conditions of this effect and tested the moderating role of brand crisis response strategies.FindingsStudy 1 finds that the FSM interacts with brand crisis type to affect consumer forgiveness. Specifically, consumers faced with uncontrollable (vs controllable) brand crises tend to increase (vs decrease) consumer forgiveness after a corporate crisis. Study 2 identifies the underlying mechanism, such that two distinct mechanisms drive the interaction effect. Affective empathy and perceived responsibility mediate the interaction effect of FSM and brand crisis type on forgiveness. Study 3 replicates the findings of studies 1 and 2 and confirms the boundary condition of the effect, showing that crisis response strategy moderates the interaction between FSM and brand crisis type.Originality/valueTheoretically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research observes the interactive effect of FSM and brand crisis for the first time, thus extending the existing research on both FSM and brand crisis. This study also enriches existing empathy and responsibility literature by examining the mediating role of empathy and perceived responsibility. Practical implications for marketers are apparent, especially after a brand crisis occurs. Corporates can deal with different types of the brand crisis based on consumers’ FSM. Finally, future research with regards to the findings is discussed.

Intention to repurchase after a data leak on Tokopedia: Mediated by consumer forgiveness

During a brand crisis, this research investigates the impact of brand super-recovery efforts and online brand community engagement (OBCE) on repurchase intention as mediated by consumer forgiveness. The data for this quantitative study was gathered from members of the Tokopedia community in Central Java. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling is the analytical technique used (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that brand super-recovery efforts and online brand community engagement (OBCE) influence repurchase intention directly or indirectly via the mediating variable of consumer forgiveness. The results indicate that when a brand crisis occurs, the presence of a brand super-recovery effort, online brand community engagement (OBCE), and consumer forgiveness can reduce the negative impact of a brand crisis and encourage customers to repurchase. This research results have significant implications for theory and practice.

The buffering effect of continuous corporate social responsibilities engagement on negative consumer responses toward brand crises

AbstractThis study aims to investigate how the extent of skepticism toward a firm's overall CSR practices spills over to consumers' evaluations of an actual incident, through examining recent crises involving Gucci and H&M. A total of 531 responses obtained through an online survey method were analyzed, and the results revealed that a low level of consumer skepticism toward a firm's corporate social responsibilities (CSR) practices increased trust, which in turn encouraged resilience (forgiveness) intentions for the firm's misconduct. Moreover, the resilience intention mitigated the extent to which consumers attributed the incident to the firm, perceived the severity of the incident, and perceptions of the firm's self‐interest motives. The findings suggest that a firm's continuous and consistent CSR engagement can play a buffering role in alleviating negative consequences when brand crises occur. Therefore, the findings of this study will inform risk management by highlighting the protective effect of a firm's continuous CSR efforts.

The effect of brand crises on endorser reputation and endorsement portfolios

AbstractWe often hear about a brand dropping a celebrity after the endorser has negative publicity. However, endorsers are not the only ones who are responsible for negative news; many brands also generate negative publicity as well. The growing frequency of brand crises and the demonstrated relationship between brand‐ and endorser‐reputation begs the question: What impact might a severe brand crisis have on a celebrity endorser's reputation and endorsement portfolio? Study 1 finds that negative publicity only impacts the brand's moral reputation if internal locus attributions are made. In turn, moral reputation positively impacts attitudes toward the brand, endorser, and other brands in their endorsement portfolio. Next, Study 2 discovers that endorsers may be perceived to have greater authenticity, leading to more favorable consumer attitudes, if they “drop” the offending brand. Finally, Study 3 finds that “dropping” the offending brand can mitigate negative spillover effects on attitudes toward bystander brands.

Social support and reputational defense strategies of Chinese social networking site users in Sun Yang’s controversy

This study examines the online expression of Chinese social networking site (SNS) users in a human brand crisis. Using the case of Sun Yang’s doping allegations controversy, the research employed content analysis to examine how Chinese users rendered social support and acted as surrogate crisis responders for Sun in a collectivist Chinese culture. The results indicate that (1) Sun’s supporters were most likely to display emotional support, and this pattern continued over time, (2) Chinese SNS users were inclined to implement the reputational defense strategies of attacking the accuser, denial, and reminding in response to their hero’s case, and (3) the prevalence of the three defense strategies varied over time. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided regarding how parasocial relationship with the accused human brand and in-group/out-group differentiation affect SNS users’ online expressions of social support and reputational defense in the Chinese culture.

A Techno-Business Platform to Improve Customer Experience Following the Brand Crisis Recovery: A B2B Perspective.

A platform is a business model that allows business-to-business (B2B) participants to connect, interacts, create and exchange value. B2B exploits social media for brand building and branding is vulnerable to attacks, which leads to a brand crisis. B2B should characterise such crisis and respond proportionally to avert damage to social listening (SL). To diminish damages, the solution is to measure customer experience (CX), especially in a crisis situation. The study proposes an analytics-enabled customer experience (AeCX) platform for emotion detection in social media and measures CX after recovering from such crisis, by exploring recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), techno-business features (TBF), SL and perceived risk (PR). A quantitative research methodology is used on primary data collected from 302 B2B participants. The study reveals improvement in CX and the results provide evidence that social media channels and the TBF of AeCX have become important.

The Impact of Green Brand Crises on Green Brand Trust: An Empirical Study

In recent years, brand crises and greenwashing events have become common for Chinese consumers. However, compared to ordinary brands, it is more challenging for green brands to rebuild trust relationships with consumers after a green brand crisis due to their unique energy-saving and environmental protection attributes. The impact mechanism of green brand crises on consumer trust is complicated. To evaluate the different effects of different types of crises, this study used a sample of more than 1000 questionnaires to allow a regressive analysis, robustness test, endogenous test, mechanism test, and heterogeneity analysis. The study’s results show that product functional and value-related crises harm green brand trust, and both brand perceived value and perceived risk play an intermediary role in the mechanism. Brand familiarity plays an essential role in the relationship between the green brand crisis and green brand trust.