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1 – 10 of over 2000Sharon Xin Ying Ong and Natalia Vila-Lopez
Marketing scholars have begun to look at negative emotions that young consumers could develop toward brands, such as brand hate. Brand hate has experienced exponential growth…
Abstract
Purpose
Marketing scholars have begun to look at negative emotions that young consumers could develop toward brands, such as brand hate. Brand hate has experienced exponential growth during the past decades in the cosmetic industry. In this frame, the purpose of this paper is to identify the weight of each of the five key drivers of brand hate and to analyze if these weights are the same (or not) for drugstore and luxury make-up brands regarding.
Design/methodology/approach
To carry on this paper, brand haters in the make-up industry were contacted with the help of cosmetic influencers. Participants of the online questionnaire (N = 162) were existing young makeup consumers. They were divided into drugstore and luxury makeup brand haters by classifying their identified hated brands into either group.
Findings
The authors’ results showed, first, that experiential, identity, moral, deficit-value and advertising avoidance all had a positive effect on brand hate, being identity avoidance the strongest one. Second, drugstore and luxury makeup brand haters do not differ, as far as no differences were identified in the strength of each avoidance type on brand hate.
Originality/value
There is a gap in the literature related to the absence of work investigating brand hate in the make-up industry; moreover, studies measure whether brand hate drivers are the same (or not) for luxury brands and drugstore brands that compete in the same arena. In this framework, this research will provide a specific industry context involving young consumer opinions. Research into consumer–brand relationships has been largely focused on the positive forms, while the negative forms are still a relatively newer area of academic interest. Even more, brand hate has been investigated from a multidimensional approach linking proposals from different authors has been tested.
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Fashion brands are one of the strongest means of expressing consumers identity. This study explores and empirically validates the concepts of brand love and hate for masstige…
Abstract
Purpose
Fashion brands are one of the strongest means of expressing consumers identity. This study explores and empirically validates the concepts of brand love and hate for masstige fashion brands from the purview of emerging markets. This study deciphers three components of masstige fashion brand promise through the lens of hedonic identity, uniqueness and expected social gains for the affluent middle-class consumers. The model is complemented by the impact of environmental and society’s well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical evidence was obtained through an online survey in India. Total of 222 complete responses were used to test hypotheses by fitting a model with the partial least squares algorithm.
Findings
Fashion brand love is triggered by consumers’ hedonic identity and expected social gains. Brand hate is fuelled by environmental and societal well-being concerns, expected social gains and uniqueness. Theoretical contribution is threefold: First, the relevance of social and environmental consequences reflecting consumers’ accepted responsibility for their masstige consumption is introduced. Second, the study deciphers the emotions related to masstige brand love and brand hate for emerging market’s affluent middle-class. Third, empirical results contribute to the ongoing discussion on whether brand hate and love are two distinct concepts or collapse to be two extremes of one and the same continuum.
Practical implications
Middle-class consumers in India are strict in their avoidance and rejection of the lower classes’ preferred fashion brands. Targeting must consider the social classes hierarchy. Marketing-mix design, particularly prices and distribution networks, need to enable a distinction between the social classes.
Social implications
Masstige fashion brand love and hate turn out to be two distinct constructs that co-exist rather than being two extremes of one and the same dimension.
Originality/value
Indian middle-class consumers satisfy their need of environmental and social caretaking by avoidance and brand hate but continue to choose masstige brands to demonstrate social status and are not modernizing their traditional accumulative materialism.
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Ramesh Kumar, Charles Jebarajakirthy, Haroon Iqbal Maseeh, Komal Dhanda, Raiswa Saha and Richa Dahiya
This review aims to synthesize the brand hate literature and suggest directions for future research on brand hate.
Abstract
Purpose
This review aims to synthesize the brand hate literature and suggest directions for future research on brand hate.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted an integrative literature review method to synthesize and assess the brand hate literature.
Findings
The synthesis showed that social identity theory, disidentification theory and duplex theory are prominently used in brand hate studies, and a larger portion of brand hate research was conducted in Western countries. Further, brand-related, self-congruity, personal factors, information influence and brand community influence are the major types of antecedents of brand hate which can produce soft or hard consequences. Lexicometric analysis showed causes of brand hate, consumers' negative emotional and behavioral outcomes and community anti-brand behavior as key themes of brand hate research.
Research limitations/implications
The synthesis has followed predefined criteria for the inclusion research papers. Thus, the review is limited to articles that fulfilled the criteria for inclusion.
Practical implications
The finding will help marketers, specially brand managers, craft strategies to handle brand hate.
Originality/value
The brand hate literature is still developing and remains incoherent, suggesting that a synthesized review is needed. This study has systematically reviewed and synthesized the brand hate literature to study its development over time and proposes a framework which provides a comprehensive understanding of brand hate.
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Saman Attiq, Muhammad Junaid Shahid Hasni and Chun Zhang
This study aims to extend the body of knowledge on brand hate and further examine its significant antecedents and consequences to investigate how brand hate affects consumers’…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to extend the body of knowledge on brand hate and further examine its significant antecedents and consequences to investigate how brand hate affects consumers’ behavioural responses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a questionnaire to collect data from 403 consumers of Pakistan’s mobile telecommunication industry. Smart partial least square was then used to analyse the data.
Findings
This study provides insights into the conception of brand hate in the context of Pakistani consumers. This study’s findings indicate that “neuroticism”, as a consumer-related antecedent, “perceived price unfairness”, “poor product/service quality” and “post-purchase service failures” as company-controlled determinants have significant impacts on brand hate. This, in turn, leads to brand avoidance and brand retaliation. Managerial implications and avenues for future research are also discussed. This study provides insights into the conception of brand hate in the context of Pakistani consumers.
Originality/value
The original findings of this work can thus provide meaningful guidance for companies to mitigate the spread of brand hate among consumers.
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Amélia Brandão and Paolo Popoli
This paper aims to investigate whether brand anthropomorphism has a direct impact on brand hate and what are the prevailing factors that play a significant role in this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether brand anthropomorphism has a direct impact on brand hate and what are the prevailing factors that play a significant role in this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study provides insights on brand anthropomorphism phenomenon and negative consumer–brand relationships in the context of social media-based anti-brand communities. Using a quantitative analysis of the data gathered from an online survey, this study analyzes brand anthropomorphism in the three main online anti-brand communities toward Apple.
Findings
Findings indicated that brand anthropomorphism in itself does not impact on brand hate directly. Nevertheless, when it is used by consumers to express their negative feelings toward the hatred brand, the consumers’ attribution of responsibility and intentionality to Apple brand’s behavior positively affects brand hate, and ideological incompatibility is a good moderator for brand hate.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this study are based on a limited number of survey respondents because anti-brand community members are very difficult to access, and thus, it was not easy to have their collaboration for this research.
Practical implications
This study highlights the power of social media as a tool for establishing negative consumer–brand relationships. Therefore, brand managers must recognize that consumer activists may be a serious threat to the company and deal with the consumers’ tendency to use anthropomorphism to express their hate.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the link between brand anthropomorphism and brand hate, analyzed through a quantitative analysis.
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Isha Sharma, Kokil Jain and Abhishek Behl
Consumer–brand relationship literature has seen a recent surge of work on the concept of brand hate. Considering that hate is not easily acknowledged, it is challenging to uncover…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumer–brand relationship literature has seen a recent surge of work on the concept of brand hate. Considering that hate is not easily acknowledged, it is challenging to uncover the psychological mechanisms that underpin its development. Using the concept of “self” as over-arching theory, this study aims to uncover consumers’ psychological triggers for hating a brand by providing contextualized perspectives from the informants.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use an interpretive approach focused on exploring the role of self in explaining the development of brand hate. Data is collected through 25 in-depth interviews and inductively analysed using the NVivo 12.
Findings
The findings of the study align with the motivational perspective of hate discussed in psychology literature. Six psychological strategies (coping, moral consciousness, ego defense, self-esteem protection, power reinstatement, and self-concept strengthening) cater to three motives of the self (self-preservation, self-defense, and self-enhancement).
Originality/value
The current study uses an interdisciplinary approach and draws perspectives from psychology, sociology and interpersonal relationship theories to study consumer brand hate. It uncovers the subconscious mechanisms that lead to the germination of brand hate and provides answers to unexplained and missing pieces in the existing literature. In particular, it offers a detailed perspective on how self-related motives can explain the psychology of brand hate.
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A conceptual confusion has evolved in brand hate (BH) research mainly due to multiple conceptualizations, models and constructs in the field. As such, there is an urgent need to…
Abstract
Purpose
A conceptual confusion has evolved in brand hate (BH) research mainly due to multiple conceptualizations, models and constructs in the field. As such, there is an urgent need to bring these insights together for a holistic understanding of research in BH, fostering its growth. This paper aims to fill this theoretical gap by bringing together the field of BH and delineating opportunities for further research.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was conducted for a period of about two decades, from 1998 to August 2021. The authors included the English articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals with full texts relevant to this study, leading to a usable sample of 55 articles.
Findings
The authors’ findings reveal that the literature has inadequately distinguished BH as emotion and relationship, while the theoretical domain used to explore BH remains largely dominated by the psychology literature. Furthermore, BH research has primarily focused on services, with little distinction made between hatred across product and service context, with most studies set in developed countries. The authors further identify the need to investigate boundary conditions influencing BH and develop a more robust measure of BH to capture its dynamic facet.
Research limitations/implications
By presenting a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the research in BH and highlighting the future research avenues, this study is believed to spur scholarly research and serve as a valuable tool for the researchers in advancing the research in BH.
Practical implications
Analysis of determinants and antecedents of BH provide managers an opportunity to nip the evil in the bud by preventing such situations that may lead to BH. Furthermore, insights into different BH consequences and boundary conditions allow brand managers to devise appropriate strategies to mitigate adverse reactions and foster positive consumer–brand relationships.
Originality/value
This study provides a thorough analysis of the current state of BH research in one place and draws a road map for scholars to further the research in this area.
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Isha Sharma, Kokil Jain, Abhishek Behl, Abdullah Baabdullah, Mihalis Giannakis and Yogesh Dwivedi
Deepfakes are fabricated content created by replacing an original image or video with someone else. Deepfakes have recently become commonplace in politics, posing serious…
Abstract
Purpose
Deepfakes are fabricated content created by replacing an original image or video with someone else. Deepfakes have recently become commonplace in politics, posing serious challenges to democratic integrity. The advancement of AI-enabled technology and machine learning has made creating synthetic videos relatively easy. This study explores the role of political brand hate and individual moral consciousness in influencing electorates' intention to share political deepfake content.
Design/methodology/approach
The study creates and uses a fictional deepfake video to test the proposed model. Data are collected from N = 310 respondents in India and tested using partial least square–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS v3.
Findings
The findings support that ideological incompatibility with the political party leads to political brand hate, positively affecting the electorates' intention to share political deepfake videos. This effect is partially mediated by users' reduced intention to verify political deepfake videos. In addition, it is observed that individual moral consciousness positively moderates the effect of political brand hate on the intention to share political deepfake videos. Intention to share political deepfake videos thus becomes a motive to seek revenge on the hated party, an expression of an individual's ideological hate and a means to preserve one's moral self-concept and strengthen their ideologies and moral beliefs.
Originality/value
The study expands the growing discussion about disseminating political deepfake videos using the theoretical lens of the negative consumer-brand relationship. It validates the effect of political brand hate on irrational behavior that is intended to cause harm to the hated party. Further, it provides a novel perspective that individual moral consciousness may fuel the haters' desire to engage in anti-branding behavior. Political ideological incompatibility reflects ethical reasons for brand hate. Therefore, hate among individuals with high moral consciousness serves to preserve their moral self.
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The purpose of this paper is to use the concept of brand hate as part of an exploratory study in order to investigate the antecedents and consequences of extreme negative affect…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use the concept of brand hate as part of an exploratory study in order to investigate the antecedents and consequences of extreme negative affect within the food category.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employed a mixed research design. A short survey of 324 French business school students identified Starbucks as the most hated food brand (measured in terms of frequency of mentions). In total, 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who had identified Starbucks as a hated brand.
Findings
The research study found that not all consumers feel brand hate at the same level and so-called haters expressed differing severity of hate towards Starbucks, i.e. cold, warm and hot brand hate. Findings revealed that the antecedents of extreme negative affect are to a certain extent dependent on the intensity of brand hate. Consumer reactions were discussed in terms of attachment–aversion relationships which were categorised according to soft and hard brand hate.
Research limitations/implications
Future research is required to broaden the conceptual scope of brand hate as a construct and apply it in other domains of research, as well as further clarify antecedents and potential outcomes. The authors accept that the study is limited and specific to Starbucks in France. Further research should therefore broaden the scope of context in which brand hate occurs, for example, expanding the geographical scope of the work to other countries and to other food- and drink-related brands. The authors also accept that the study reflects a relatively homogeneous sample and is thus not representative of the general population.
Practical implications
Brand managers need to recognise the risk that brand hate will not only distance former customers, but also spread to existing and future customers. Food brand executives need to therefore consider approaches to address the causes and effects of brand hate.
Originality/value
Brand hate within the literature is a very recent phenomenon and studies remain rare. The rise of the so-called activist consumer is an emerging phenomenon within the food sector. The discussion of brand hate within a food context represents a new avenue of research.
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This study aims to examine the emotional components of brand hate and the variation of emotions across different levels of brand hate.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the emotional components of brand hate and the variation of emotions across different levels of brand hate.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 uses in-depth interviews and data triangulation. Studies 2-5 make use of quantitative methods to test and validate the multidimensional structure of brand hate and the variation of its composing emotions.
Findings
Study 1 suggests that brand hate is a multidimensional construct comprised of anger-, sadness- and fear-related emotions; possible antecedents and consequences are discussed. The quantitative results from Studies 2-5 confirm the findings in Study 1. A three-factor scale consisting of nine items is developed. The proposed model is tested among different samples and is compared with the currently available brand hate models. In addition, the findings show that emotions weigh differently for different brand hate levels.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the brand hate literature and provides a structure to understand brand hate more thoroughly.
Practical implications
Companies can benefit from the research through a better knowledge of brand hate. Managers can use the multidimensional measurement to detect brand hate and better cope with it.
Originality/value
This study is among the first few attempts to examine the multidimensionality of brand hate and to investigate the variation of emotions in different brand hate levels. This study contributes to a more precise description of the brand hate construct and improves understanding of consumer-brand relationships.
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