scholarly journals Can Companies Survive a Multi-Brand Crisis? Research on Consumer Scapegoating

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 3990
Author(s):  
Xuan Zhang ◽  
Hongxia Zhang ◽  
Jill Lei ◽  
Hongzhi Gao
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Contrast Effect ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Brand Trust ◽  
Brand Crisis ◽  
Psychological Mechanism

Compared with single-brand crises, multi-brand crises have broader and deeper influence. However, there is only a limited amount of research regarding this field, especially for the phenomenon of consumer scapegoating. This research aims to further explore the consumer scapegoating effect and its psychological mechanism in the context of a multi-brand crisis. Through two experimental studies, this research discusses the influence of a multi-brand crisis and also the emergence of a scapegoat brand on two brand categories, the crisis brand category and the competing brand category. Furthermore, the current research also explores the mechanism of the consumer scapegoating effect. Results show that when a multi-brand crisis happens, consumer brand trust in the crisis brand category decreases because of assimilation, and consumer brand trust in the competing brand category increases because of contrast effect. Besides, from the perspective of the crisis brand category, the emergence of a scapegoat brand could be treated by consumers as a signal that the crisis is over, especially for a severe crisis. Results also support that cognitive dissonance mediates the process that the emergence of a scapegoat brand leads to an increase in consumer brand trust in the crisis brand category and a decrease of consumer brand trust in the competing brand category.

“Donate to help combat COVID-19!” How typeface affects the effectiveness of CSR marketing?

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 3315-3333
Author(s):  
Huiling Huang ◽  
Stephanie Q. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Brand Loyalty ◽  
Message Framing ◽  
Brand Trust ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
Donation Intention ◽  
Hospitality Managers ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Contemporary Context

Purpose Corporate social responsibility (CSR) marketing has become ubiquitous in the hospitality industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of donation appeals containing warmth-focused versus competence-focused messages in hospitality CSR marketing. Moreover, we offer an innovative visual design strategy focusing on the typeface (handwritten vs machine-written) in donation appeals to encourage consumers’ donations and boost their brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach This research used a 2 (message framing: warmth-focused vs competence-focused) × 2 (typeface: handwritten vs machine-written) between-subjects experimental design. Findings The findings suggest that donation appeals featuring warmth-focused messages combined with handwritten typeface and competence-focused messages combined with machine-written typeface can maximize donation intention and brand loyalty. Furthermore, results from the moderated mediation analyses indicate that brand trust is the psychological mechanism underlying these effects. Practical implications Hospitality managers should use typeface design, which is easy and inexpensive to manipulate, to enhance the effectiveness of CSR marketing. Specifically, for donation appeals featuring warmth-focused (competence-focused) messages, the handwritten (machine-written) typeface can boost consumers’ donation intention and brand loyalty. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to reveal the competitive advantage of typeface design in hospitality CSR marketing. This research sheds light on the congruency effects of message framing and typeface design in donation appeals on consumers’ donation intention and brand loyalty while using the contemporary context of The Coronavirus Disease 2019 to test the theory.

scholarly journals Promoting pro-environmental behaviours through induced hypocrisy

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-90
Author(s):  
Philippe Odou ◽  
Peter Darke ◽  
Dimitri Voisin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Ethical Consumption ◽  
The Self ◽  
Actual Behaviour ◽  
Environmental Behaviours

In the field of ethical consumption, research in recent years has attempted to explain the gap between principles and actual behaviour. Three experimental studies show that when the contradiction between what individuals say and what they do is made salient in the field of environmental protection, that is to say in a situation of induced hypocrisy, they indirectly reduce the resulting cognitive dissonance by being more altruistic towards associations that act for the environment but not towards humanitarian associations. This effect of induced hypocrisy fades as individuals become less vulnerable to the threat to the self by affirming values that are important to them.

Brand trust and avoidance following brand crisis: A quasi-experiment on the effect of franchisor statements

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunju Shin ◽  
Riza Casidy ◽  
Alyssa Yoon ◽  
So-Hyang Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Brand Trust ◽  
Brand Crisis ◽  
Quasi Experiment

The negative spillover effect in sports sponsorship

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaofeng Yuan ◽  
Chunhui Huo ◽  
Tariq H. Malik
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Brand Trust ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sports Sponsorship ◽  
Sports Team ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Negative Spillover

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a possible negative spillover effect in sports sponsorship to answer whether the sponsored team’s poor performance will have a negative effect on audiences’ trust in its sponsor’s brand. The authors further analysed whether the audience’s attitude towards the team plays a mediating role and whether the audience’s personality type (active vs passive) plays a moderating role in this negative spillover effect. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies were conducted with 380 Chinese undergraduates and MBA student participants over two years. The authors designed the experiment as a computer-mediated intervention in which good, poor and neutral performance groups were compared. After the respondents were exposed to the intervention, we asked them to answer questions using a computer terminal. We analysed the data from the three experiments through analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression analysis and a bootstrap. Findings The audiences who were exposed to a team’s poor performance condition reported less trust in the sponsor’s brand relative to those exposed to a good performance condition, and the brand trust was even lower than for those who were exposed to a control condition (no performance information). Further, the audience’s negative attitude towards the sports team mediated the negative effect of the team’s poor performance on its sponsor’s brand trust. The negative effect was more obvious for individuals with Type A personalities (active) than for those with Type B personalities (passive). Originality/value The prior literature has neglected a possible negative effect of a sports team’s performance on its sponsor’s brand trust. In particular, questions of whether, how and when this negative effect occurs are critical for sponsors, teams, and audiences. Since sports team sponsorship is burgeoning in China, the negative implications are unclear in this new context. Thus, the revelation that the negative spillover effects of a team’s poor performance on audiences’ trust in the sponsor’s brand provides two original contributions. First, the negative effect reveals value for multiple sponsorship stakeholders. Second, the Chinese context in this study adds value for future research and practice regarding both Chinese-foreign and domestic Chinese decisions.

scholarly journals Regional Differences in Cognitive Dissonance in Evacuation Behavior at the Time of the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatsuhito Kono ◽  
Masaya Okuno ◽  
Kazuho Yamaura
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Tsunami Disaster ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
Evacuation Behavior ◽  
Decision Making Model

Abstract This paper constructs an evacuation decision-making model that takes cognitive dissonance into consideration. The purpose of this construction is to clarify the psychological mechanism for the evacuation behavior of residents during an emergency, based on Akerlof and Dickens (1982). Specifically, we empirically explore people’s psychological mechanism (e.g. cognitive dissonance) for evacuation behavior when a tsunami disaster occurs. As a result, we show that the level of anxiety depends on the area where residents live and that the average anxiety of residents is mostly correlated to the level of damage of past disasters, and that it is affected also by the ages of residents. Since the level of anxiety largely affects an individual’s evacuation behavior, this result can indicate for what kinds of people intervention and assistance are required based on the level of anxiety.

Media amplification of a brand crisis and its affect on brand trust

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 530-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Yannopoulou ◽  
Epaminondas Koronis ◽  
Richard Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Brand Trust ◽  
Brand Crisis

Thinking styles affect reactions to brand crisis apologies

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 1263-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liangyan Wang ◽  
Shijian Wang ◽  
L. Robin Keller ◽  
Jie Li
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Thinking Styles ◽  
Thinking Style ◽  
Process Information ◽  
Perceived Efficacy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Crisis ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This article aims to examine how a person’s thinking style, specifically holistic versus analytic, and a firm’s crisis apology with the remedial solution framed in “why” (vs “how”) terms can interactively impact consumers’ perceived efficacy of the firm to respond to the crisis and their impression or evaluation of the brand. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses were tested through three experimental studies involving 308 participants recruited in China. Participants answered survey questions investigating the interactive effects from consumers’ thinking style (culture as a proxy in Study 1, measured in Study 2 or primed in Study 3) and a brand’s crisis apology with the remedial solution framed in “why” (vs “how”) terms on consumers’ perceived efficacy and evaluation of the firm. Findings The frame of the remedial solution resulting in a higher evaluation improvement depended on a consumer’s thinking style. For holistic thinkers, a “why” (vs “how”) framed remedial solution resulted in a higher evaluation improvement; however, for analytic thinkers, a “how” (vs “why”) framed remedial solution resulted in a higher evaluation improvement. Additionally, the results showed that a consumer’s perceived efficacy of the brand being able to successfully respond to the crisis mediated the interactive effects of the remedial solution framing and thinking styles on the evaluation improvement. Practical Implications The findings provide evidence that framing of the remedial solution can be leveraged as a tool to reduce negative impact resulting from a brand crisis. Specifically, the results suggest that companies may do well to employ a “why” framed remedial solution, particularly in cases where consumers are likely to process information holistically. Conversely, a “how” framed remedial solution may be effective in situations where consumers are likely to process information analytically. Originality/value This research contributes to the literature, being among the first to consider how the remedial solution framing in a firm’s apology can enhance people’s evaluation of the brand and decrease the perceived negative impact resulting from the brand crisis.

EXPRESS: Not All Wrongdoers Are Equal in the Public Eye: A Moderated Mediation Model of Country Stereotypes, Condemning Emotions, and Retaliatory Intent in Corporate Crises

2020 ◽  
pp. 1069031X2098380
Author(s):  
Camilla Barbarossa ◽  
Timo Mandler
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Corporate Value ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Prior Beliefs ◽  
The Public ◽  
Moderated Mediation Model ◽  
Corporate Ability ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
Corporate Crises ◽  
Value Crisis

Corporate crises generate condemning emotions and retaliatory intent toward wrongdoing companies. However, not all wrongdoers are equal in the public eye. Consumers’ prior beliefs about a company’s country-of-origin may bias these responses. In three experimental studies (combined N = 1,008), the authors (1) establish that country stereotypes of warmth – but not of competence – can buffer condemning emotions and retaliatory intent toward a wrongdoing company. They further (2) reveal the psychological mechanism of greed attributions that underlies this bias and (3) identify the type of crisis as a crucial contingency factor that facilitates (corporate ability crisis) or suppresses (corporate value crisis) the buffering effect of country warmth.

scholarly journals Do we always follow others? The impact of psychological distance on consumers’ observational learning modes

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenyan Gu ◽  
Zhe Zhang ◽  
Yuansi Hou
Keyword(s):  
Observational Learning ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Retailers ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
Learning Modes ◽  
Effective Product ◽  
Product Strategies ◽  
The Impact

Purpose To investigate the psychological mechanism of observational learning in the online retailing context, the purpose of this paper is to show how the psychological distance between consumers and products affects modes of observational learning. Design/methodology/approach Five experimental studies are conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings show that which modes of observational learning are adopted by consumers is affected by consumers’ psychological distance. Specifically, when the psychological distance between consumers and products is proximal, consumers tend to adopt the termed adequate observational learning mode by considering the interaction of information about popularity and the breadth of appeal of a product to make purchase. However, when the psychological distance is distal, consumers would consider information of popularity and breadth of appeal separately without considering the interaction, termed as inadequate observational learning mode. The observed relationship between psychological distance and observational learning mode could be explained by the construal level. Research limitations/implications This research advances the observational learning and psychological distance literature by investigating the psychological mechanism behind observational learning modes. Limitations include the use of scenario-based experiments to test the hypotheses, investigation of a single product attribute (i.e. breadth of appeal) and assessment of popularity information by sales volume alone. Practical implications The current research provides a deeper understanding of consumer observational learning modes, which can help online retailers to develop effective product strategies and marketing tactics and, finally, achieve stronger competitive positions. Originality/value The present research contributes to the literature by examining the psychological mechanism involved in observational learning. This research distinguishes adequate and inadequate observational learning modes from the perspective of psychological distance.

scholarly journals The Effect of Brand Trust as Extrinsic Characteristics on Young Consumers’ Product Preferences: An Experimental Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (25) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Gulnil Aydin ◽  
Aybeniz Akdeniz Ar ◽  
Elif Dogan Savas
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Brand Trust ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Quality Perceptions ◽  
Intrinsic Quality ◽  
Product Preferences ◽  
The University ◽  
Perceptual Factors

Purpose: This study was carried out in order to be able to evaluate the effects of intrinsic (quality, taste, smell, etc.) and extrinsic (brand, packaging, country of origin, etc.) characteristics in product preferences and quality perceptions and to understand the importance of brand trust as an extrinsic characteristic in preferences. Design / Methodology: In the study, the evaluations of the university students about the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of the cocoa hazelnut cream brands were investigated. In the experimental study with the participation of 50 students, the effects of the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics on product preferences and quality perceptions were evaluated with the help of the blind and visibility tests applied to participants. Findings: As a result of the research, it was seen that participants changed their evaluations positively after seeing the brand, which they trust, regarding to the intrinsic characteristics evaluations that they have made without seeing the brand and the package and they diversified their perceptions positively regarding to the intrinsic characteristics for the brands that they trust and like the packaging. Research Limitations / Implications: The fact that the number of samples taken for the research in the experimental studies is not too high is a constraint on the evaluation of the results. For this reason, the basic suggestion for future studies is to conduct the research with a wider number of the samples. Originality / Value: This experimental study is important as it reveals the result that the perceptual factors remain at the forefront for the customers about food products.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document