This study aims to investigate negative consumer‐brand relationships by developing a “Brand Hate” concept. A hierarchical Brand Hate model is theoretically discussed in light of the psychology and ...consumer behavior literatures. In Study‐I the Brand Hate concept was tested with two different types of consumer brand haters, true haters, and regular haters. The study found that in the study's proposed multidimensional Brand Hate hierarchy true haters display “Boiling Brand Hate” while regular haters reveal “Seething Brand Hate.” Two additional studies were developed to examine the relationship between consumer personality traits and Brand Hate, exploring which types of consumers are more prone to feel hatred toward targeted brands. Study‐II's findings revealed a relationship between consumers who are high in personality traits of “conscientiousness” and those who Brand Hate. Study‐III's findings indicated that “self‐confident” and “competitive” consumers might also be more prone to feel hatred toward those brands that perform poorly and unethically.
Purpose
This study aims to discuss the antecedent roles that corporate social responsibility and consumer complaints perform in consumer brand hate and anti-branding activities.
...Design/methodology/approach
The reasons for the existence of anti-brand websites and how they operate in dynamically changing digital platforms are discussed with a literature review and data analysis.
Findings
The findings of this study reveal that there is a direct link between consumer dissatisfaction and brand hate, and that there is a partially mediating impact by customer dissatisfaction and corporate social responsibility on consumer brand hate.
Originality/value
This study is the first-of-its-kind investigation of the relationships that might exist among corporate social responsibility, consumer complaints and dissatisfaction, consumer anti-branding and brand hate with macro-level indicators. The study is the first of its kind to test macro-level brand hate measures with a set of longitudinal analyses.
Purpose
Although marketer-generated brand anthropomorphism impacts on positive company returns is studied broadly, consumer-generated brand anthropomorphisms that focus on demonizing and hitlerizing ...brands is not extensively studied. This study aims to examine these consumer interpretations of the evil, its symbols and personifications of brands as evil, with a new concept: “reverse brand anthropomorphism.”
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a literature review of brand anthropomorphism and the application of the concept of evil. This paper also uses a qualitative analysis with consumer interviews to explore the proposed reverse brand anthropomorphism concept.
Findings
This study’s findings reveal that consumers see corporations as consciously evil, loosely as an embodiment of Adolf Hitler. Consumer interviews points out that corporate brand power aimed at controlling consumer value systems is associated with “evil,” an evil that secretly aims at possessing consumers and controlling their consumption practices. The findings of this study indicate that consumers also develop their own alternative moral market value systems, ones parallel to religious morality. Although “evil” imagery is often found distractive and disrespectful by consumers, the younger generation accept it as a new and alternative form of market speech.
Originality/value
This is the first study to introduces and conceptualize a “reverse brand anthropomorphism” concept with examples of consumer brand hitlerization semiotics. Further, this study is also the first study to discuss evil in a consumption context.
Consumerism in the Digital Age Kucuk, S. Umit
The Journal of consumer affairs,
09/2016, Volume:
50, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This paper discusses "digital consumerism," which is the application of traditional concepts of consumerism to consumer vulnerabilities in digital markets. The relationship of digital consumerism to ...paradigms of consumer empowerment and consumer vulnerabilities is discussed using examples from the relevant literature. The findings of this literature survey identify new aspects of consumerism in digital markets that have the potential to enhance consumer well-being. The literature survey also revealed that consumer vulnerabilities have grown in complexity faster than regulative efforts. Therefore, there is a need for a reconceptualization of consumerism in order to improve consumer protections and to develop better functioning and healthier digital markets.
The importance of "brand dilution" is changing with the rise in internet-mediated consumer power and increasing consumer involvement in the brand identity and message creation processes. In light of ...recent legal rulings, this study re-conceptualizes brand dilution as a matter of counter-posed brand meanings and associations in digital markets. Anti-branding dilution cases from both a blurring and a tarnishment dilution basis are examined through consumer interviews. The results show that consumer antibranding has less potential for brand dilution, and more potential for brand identity collusion. By addressing both legal and marketing views of the meaning systems associated with the dilution versus collusion perspectives, this study provides an approach for understanding anti-branding dilution discussions and a way to develop better functioning branding exchange systems for digital markets. Consequently, possible changes in future branding ownership issues for digital markets are envisioned.
This study is a semiotic analysis of consumer-generated antibranding efforts and reveals tacit semiotic rules used by digital antibranders. A broad theoretical discussion about the semiotic ...characteristics of branding and antibranding is provided and “digital antibranding semiotics” is defined. The semiotics of consumer digital antibranding efforts are investigated in two studies examining a sample of antibranding images targeted at valuable corporate brands. The first study reveals that antibranders use drama and humor to demonize, criminalize, dehumanize, and “Hitlerize” the targeted brands, creating strong antibrand voices and positioning themselves against corporate greed and wrongdoing. The second study found that consumers successfully decode antibranding semiotic representations and classify them in terms of message clarity, fact finding, and “hostility versus entertainment values.” These findings reveal that both antibranding images with dark humor and clear messages and an aggressive and intriguing message have the potential to influence consumers.
Anti-branding on the internet Krishnamurthy, Sandeep; Kucuk, S. Umit
Journal of business research,
11/2009, Volume:
62, Issue:
11
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Anti-brand web sites are online spaces that focus negative attention on a specific targeted brand. Although anti-consumption movements on the internet have been gaining in numbers and in strength, ...research has not fully uncovered the nature of such sites and their impact on brand value and consumer anti-consumption. We present a conceptual framework describing online anti-branding and investigate causal relationships in two empirical studies. Study 1 investigates the brand value's impact on likelihood of the presence of anti-brand sites. Strong brands are more likely to have anti-brand sites. Study 2 is a content analysis of a representative sample of anti-brand sites that assesses the nature of the language used by such sites. Anti-brand sites use three types of language — market, ideological and transactional speech. The study finds that market speech is most prevalent and relates to brand value.
The industrial revolution was to manufacturers what the digital revolution is to consumers. What we are seeing today is a renegotiation of the relationships between companies and consumers, and a ...fundamental recasting of conventional marketing in favor of the consumer. This study, therefore, discusses consumer power in marketing theory and analyzes consumer power sources and changing power dynamics with case studies. Finally, it contributes to theory by investigating power dynamics in each stage of the consumer decision-making process.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate a neglected phenomenon, conceptualized as “brand-bullying.” The study aims at defining the brand bullying phenomena with adolescents who are actively ...experiencing brand bullying. Potential impacts of brand bullying experience on adult consumption behaviors are also investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a literature review of brand bullying and uses two qualitative analyses with adolescent and adult consumers through face-to-face interviews.
Findings
Study-1 found five different styles of brand bullying behavior with adolescents. Study-2’s findings revealed four distinct styles of brand bullying coping behaviors in adulthood. Study-2 also found that brand-bullying’s negative effects could continue after the bullying process is long over and has the potential to cause consumer brand hate (in the form of brand avoidance and disgust) and can cause conspicuous consumption patterns in adulthood in the future. The study further reports that neither the economically unfortunate nor the wealthy are immune to brand bullying.
Originality/value
This is the first study to investigate the brand bullying concept and its expression among adolescents, as well as its impact on adult consumption behaviors. The study is among the first to report the negative impact of brand bullying on adult consumer behaviors and consumption patterns in adulthood from a consumer psychology perspective.
This study discusses the role of anti-brand websites and their importance in markets within a new conceptualisation—Negative Double Jeopardy (NDJ): ‘the most valuable brands attract more anti-brand ...sites while less valuable brands do not have such hate attraction on the Internet’. In this context, the forms and reasons of anti-brand sites are investigated in light of this newly proposed NDJ phenomenon. NDJ components are identified as ‘Brand Rank’ and ‘Brand Consistency’. Typology of anti-brand sites with regard to NDJ is also studied and finally managerial implications are addressed.
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