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This study aims to examine the effects of celebrity negative publicity on attitude towards brand, corporation, brand reputation and corporate reputation, both directly and through the moderating effects of social media involvement, brand commitment, identification and attribution (both types). Associative network theory has been used to explain these effects.

A quantitative survey of 550 respondents was carried out in London and surrounding areas. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.

The findings suggest that celebrity negative publicity affects brand reputation and corporate reputation. Further, the moderating effects of social media involvement and brand commitment on attitude towards brand and corporation, identification on attitude towards brand, attribution types on attitude towards corporation were not found.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the effects of celebrity negative publicity on attitudes towards brand, attitude towards corporation, brand reputation and corporation reputation, directly, and through the moderating effects of attribution (both types), identification, commitment and social media. Findings from this study will minimise the gap in the literature on the topic and will help managers and policymakers to understand the effects of celebrity negative publicity in detail.

This research aims to examine the moderating role of consumers’ persuasion knowledge (PK) on the persuasive effect of combined advertising and publicity within the same medium. The synergistic effect experienced when two messages are thus combined is reversed for readers with high PK who are first exposed to publicity then to advertising. Believability of the message is found to be a mediator within this context.

Based on a review of the appropriate literatures on PK and integrated marketing communication (IMC), this paper tests the hypotheses using two experimental studies.

The results of two experiments show that publicity-then-advertising yields poorer persuasion than advertising-then-publicity, especially under a high PK condition. The reduced synergistic effect of combinations of advertising and publicity is found especially when consumers activate temporary PK and/or when they have chronically high PK. A mediator for a decrease in the synergistic effect of combinations of advertising and publicity, believability, is examined.

This study contains significant managerial implications for marketing communicators about how to most effectively combine and coordinate publicity and advertising in the implementation of an IMC strategy.

Other than making a contribution to the IMCs’ literature, this research extends understanding of the power of PK within an IMC framework. The research contributes yet another extension to the original PK model of Friestad and Wright (1994) by suggesting an underlying theoretical mechanism to explain how PK works in the IMC domain.

The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between publicity, advertising activity and corporate sales in the context of a company’s existing reputation.

The study brings together four unique industry datasets and uses discriminant analysis and multiple regression methods to examine the relationship between existing corporate reputation, publicity, advertising activity and sales levels for major multi-national companies in the technology products sector.

Positive publicity is most important in distinguishing between firms with higher and lower sales. The effects of negative publicity and advertising are dependent on a firm’s existing reputation. For companies with weaker reputations, positive publicity in tandem with business-to-consumer (B2C) advertising is most highly associated with higher company sales. Conversely, for firms with stronger existing reputations, advertising has a significantly diminished role; positive and even negative publicity are most crucial in distinguishing between companies with high and low sales. Negative publicity can be harmful to these firms though if it is not balanced by more positive publicity. Finally, the topic of news coverage is related to sales. Generally, stories that are positive reporting on business outcomes, leadership and business future and marketing practices are most important in discriminating between firms with stronger vs weaker sales.

For this set of technology product firms, publicity and advertising are relevant for sales. Firms with higher levels of sales have both more positive and negative publicity, but the volume of positive stories is much higher. Attracting negative publicity is common for firms that achieve higher sales, but it is offset by a greater number of positive stories, an aspect that public relations efforts can influence. B2C advertising spending meanwhile matters more for firms with weaker rather than stronger existing corporate reputations. It is most effective for firms with weaker existing reputations to maximize the positive signals in the marketplace as exemplified by positive publicity and B2C advertising efforts.

Little research has examined the relationship between different forms of corporate communications and sales; this study is a rare examination using publicity, advertising spending, existing reputation and sales in a durable goods and services context where there has been a particular dearth of even basic advertising studies. Beyond understanding the relative importance of publicity v. advertising, it also uniquely focuses on the individual topics of news publicity.

This research aims to systematically explore the cognitive and emotional effects of values-related and performance-related negative brand publicity and investigate how the psychological effects translate into different behavioural outcomes. In addition, it examines the relative effectiveness of two major brand response strategies in mitigating negative publicity.

Two experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 examines the effects of values- and performance-related negative brand publicity, using a 3 (negative brand publicity: values-related vs performance-related vs control) × 2 (brand: Dove vs Axe) between-subjects experiment. Study 2 further compares the effects of two major brand response strategies on consumers’ post-crisis perceived trustworthiness and trust and responses towards a brand involved in negative publicity. A 2 (negative brand publicity: values-related vs performance-related) × 2 (brand response strategy: reduction-of-offensiveness vs corrective action) between-subjects design was used.

The results suggest that values-related negative brand publicity is perceived as being more diagnostic and elicits a stronger emotion of contempt, but a weaker emotion of pity than performance-related negative brand publicity. Moreover, values-related negative brand publicity has a stronger negative impact on consumer responses than performance-related negative brand publicity. Interestingly, compared to perceived diagnosticity of information and the emotion of pity, the emotion of contempt is more likely to cause differences in consumer responses to these two types of negative brand publicity. Regarding brand response strategy, corrective action is more effective than reduction-of-offensiveness for both types of negative brand publicity, but the advantage of corrective action is greater for the performance-related case.

This research enriches the negative publicity and brand perception literature, showing the asymmetric cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects of values- and performance-related negative brand publicity. It also identifies the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer responses to negative brand publicity, and it provides empirical evidence for the relative effectiveness of two major brand response strategies.

This article examines the issue of publicity within an international context. The tools and processes for a publicity campaign are similar for the domestic and foreign market, although the task of international publicity is more complex, given the various constraints posed by different foreign environments, notably cultural differences, language barriers, media availability and differing regulatory frameworks. The “standardisation” versus “adaptation” debate will be applied, albeit sparingly, to international publicity planning, bearing in mind that, as with all other communication tools, successful international publicity campaigns are largely dependent on the consideration of the peculiarities of foreign environments. The impact of these constraints in terms of strategy and planning are also considered and further areas for research identified.

This paper aims to explore the concept of public relations in the progressive era to gain a greater understanding of the historical development of corporate public relations in the USA.

The paper provides historical analysis of 87 magazine articles dating from 1900 to 1917, which discussed press agentry, publicity, and public relations.

In the early 1900s, publicity meant both legal requirements of corporate disclosure and press exposure of secret corporate activities. The purpose of publicity was to reveal excess and corruption. The term press agent was used in two ways. First, it was used to refer to literary and theatrical press agents, and second, it was used interchangeably with publicity agent to signify individuals hired by corporations to respond to the publicity and explain corporate policies to the public. By the second decade of the twentieth century, corporations, specifically the railroads, were using the term public relations to refer to the practice of developing relationships with the public.

Most historical studies of public relations in the USA have described the development of the field as a linear progression or evolution from press agentry, to public information or publicity, to two‐way communication. This study suggests that that linear evolutionary model is only partially accurate. At least some corporations in the progressive era had a greater understanding of the two‐way street than corporations in this period normally are given credit for.

Studies have shown that negative publicity adversely affects brand trust, but exactly how brand trust can be damaged remains poorly understood. This study aims to explore how negative publicity influences image congruity and, subsequently, brand trust. In addition, the study also examined the effectiveness of two corporate strategies to repair both congruity and trust.

Based on a valid sample of 522 Chinese consumers between the ages 20 and 50, this study adopted a quasi-experimental design involving two types of negative publicity (performance- and value-related) and two initial corporate repair strategies (compensation and public apology) intended to repair brand trust.

Negative publicity shaped brand trust through both functional congruity and self-congruity. Moreover, the type of negative publicity affected the role of image congruity in brand trust. The effectiveness of repair strategies further depended on the type of negative publicity.

Mobile phones were an appropriate focal product for this research, but examining only one product category may limit findings’ generalizability. Negative emotions such as frustration or anger and their relationships with congruity can also be addressed in future work. Subsequent research can additionally consider more conditions to explore alternative routes of processing related to brand trust.

Brand trust is a vulnerable brand asset on which negative publicity can have seriously negative consequences. Marketers and brand managers should assess the extent to which negative publicity can damage image congruity and brand trust and come up with different repair strategies subsequently.

This study contributes to the limited and fragmented literature on consumers’ evaluations of negative information. Findings offer fresh insight into the impacts of negative publicity on image congruity and brand trust. The implications extend beyond negative publicity to other forms of negative information, such as rumors, fake news and negative word of mouth. Results also highlight the importance of adopting appropriate repair strategies to restore consumers’ trust in the event of negative publicity.

This study aims to understand the influence of negative publicity on brand image, brand attitude and brand purchase intention. Specifically, the study examines the role of attribution (or brand blame) and information characteristics in Chinese consumers’ responses to negative publicity.

The study used a quasi-experimental approach involving two negative publicity scenarios (mild and high severity) and a sample of 203 young and educated Chinese consumers. Partial least squares was used to test the hypotheses.

A common assumption is that negative brand information has a negative influence on all aspects of a brand. However, this study finds that brand blame and information severity have differential effects on consumer evaluations of the affected brand. Specifically, brand blame negatively impacted attitudes and purchase intentions, but not brand image. In contrast, information severity negatively impacted brand image, but not attitudes or intentions. Further, the relations between brand image and brand attitudes and intentions depended on the level of information severity. In the mild-severity condition, brand image positively influenced attitudes and intentions, but not in the high-severity condition.

Future research should examine consumer responses to negative publicity across different media and product categories. Cross-cultural studies should also be explored in the future.

When a brand encounters negative publicity, its marketer or brand manager should assess to what extent various brand equity components are influenced by negative publicity before adopting any cognitive-based or imagery-based communication strategies.

This paper contributes to the limited and fragmented literature on consumer response to negative publicity by examining the impact of consumer’s attributions of blame to the brand under conditions of mild and severe negative information on a range of important brand-related outcomes. Specifically, the authors find that negative publicity has a different impact on brand image, brand attitudes and intentions to purchase. The authors suggest that brand managers use this information to guide their marketing communications.

The purpose of this study is to study the impact of relationship marketing orientation (RMO) and relationship quality on customers' commitment and pro-marketer behavior (positive word of mouth and external attribution) after negative brand publicity by using the combined lens of relationship marketing theory and the theory of cognitive dissonance.

A survey was conducted among banking customers in India using an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and the bootstrapping procedure using the SPSS process macro.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, findings of this study suggest that RMO and relationship quality are positively correlated to commitment even after negative publicity. The path between RMO, relationship quality and pro-provider behavior is found to be mediated by commitment. This indirect path is moderated by customers' cognitive dissonance arising out of the negative publicity.

The study establishes the combined roles of RMO and relationship quality in pre-empting the detrimental effects of negative brand publicity. Further, it establishes interactions of cognitive dissonance with these relationship variables, thereby bringing together literature from relationship marketing theory and cognitive dissonance theory.

The exposure of recruitment discrimination often leads to negative publicity, which can substantially affect organizational attractiveness and the behavioral intentions of stakeholders. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between negative publicity and intention to pursue a job, with organizational attractiveness as a mediator and perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate product quality (CPQ) as two moderators.

A survey completed by 382 college students in three universities in Nanjing, China, was used to empirically test the research hypotheses. The respondents were asked their intention to apply for a job at Meituan after the exposure of its recruitment discrimination scandal in 2017.

Perceived negative publicity negatively influences intention to pursue employment via organizational attractiveness. In addition, moderated path analysis indicated that perceived CSR strengthens and perceived CPQ weakens the direct effect of perceived negative publicity on organizational attractiveness and its indirect effect on intention to pursue employment.

Future research should seek to replicate these findings in other contexts and populations, including people who are not new to the job market and to control additional firm-level and contextual variables.

This research confirms a moderated mediation model positioning organizational attractiveness as a mediator of negative publicity's effects on intention to pursue employment and organizational image as a moderator of such effects. This study also contributes to the debate concerning the effect of corporate image by demonstrating opposing effects of its different dimensions amid a discrimination scandal.