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This research explores how consumers react in a crisis situation that happens to a brand with which they disidentify. Consumer–brand disidentification (CBD) is a state of self‐categorization regarding the separation from and rejection of a brand. It predestines individuals to move away from and go against the misbehaving company because the failure of the object of disidentification provides a perfect opportunity for them to validate their identity. We argue that disidentification is closely related not only to a person's propensity to behave but also to feel in a specific way. Surveys data were collected in the United States and Germany to answer the research question regarding the role of emotions in the relationship between CBD and consumers' intention to demonstrate brand‐opposition behavior. Volkswagen, which experienced a crisis related to its manipulation of emission tests, served as the brand stimulus. The results show that CBD can stimulate hostile emotions and schadenfreude, which can function as mediators of the influence of disidentification on brand opposition (negative word‐of‐mouth, brand avoidance, punishing the brand). This research contributes to the growing body of research on the "dark side" of consumer‐brand relationships and its perils for brands. It also enhances understanding of the role of emotions in (dis)identification and social identity research and widens the scholarship on emotions in crises. Managerial implications include to thoroughly consider trade‐offs of creating a strong and unique brand that may give rise to disidentification; monitoring negative voices, especially online; and differentiating disidentified consumers from other types of opposing stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative publicity has the potential to create negative corporate associations. However, consumers' identification with a company might moderate the extent of this effect. This article examines the impact of consumer-company identification on reactions to variable levels of negative publicity about a company. Exposing consumers who had strong identification with a company to moderately negative publicity was found to result in less negative corporate associations than for consumers who had relatively weak identification. In contrast, consumers' levels of identification did not affect reactions to extremely negative information, resulting in equally negative corporate associations for those with strong versus weak consumer-company identification. Thus, strong identification mitigates the effects of moderately negative publicity but does not attenuate the effects of extremely negative publicity. Consumers' perceptions of and thoughts regarding negative information about a company partially mediated the effect of identification on attitudes and behavioral intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processes that mediate the effectiveness of 2-sided advertising were studied. We predicted that (a) 2-sided (vs. 1-sided) advertisements increase perceived source credibility and that (b) the logical relation between the negative and positive product attributes mentioned in the 2-sided ad (e.g., little space, implying a cozy atmosphere) facilitates favorable inferences about the positive attributes, especially when recipients have sufficient time to process the message content. Results supported these predictions. However, the effects of message type and processing time on attitudes were mediated by inferences about positive attributes but not by perceived source credibility. Implications of these findings for consumer judgment and decision making are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While prevailing marketing practice is to encourage ever-stronger relationships between consumers and brands, such relationships are rare, and many consumers are relationship-averse or content with the status quo. The authors examine how marketers can more effectively manage existing brand relationships by focusing on the psychological distance between consumers and brands in order to match close (distant) brands with concrete (abstract) language in marketing communications. Through such matching, marketers can create a beneficial mindset-congruency effect leading to more favorable evaluations and behavior, even for brands that are relatively distant to consumers. Study 1 demonstrates the basic mindset-congruency effect, and Study 2 shows that it is capable of affecting donation behaviors. Study 3 documents two brand-level factors (search vs. experience goods, brand stereotypes) that moderate this effect in managerially relevant ways. Study 4 shows that activation of the mindset-congruency effect influences consumers to spend more and that these behaviors are moderated by consumer category involvement. The authors conclude with marketing and theoretical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has identified customer satisfaction and customer-company identification as two of the most important concepts in relationship marketing. Yet despite their proclaimed importance, research on their long-term effectiveness is surprisingly scarce. Furthermore, comparative research acknowledging the concepts' different theoretical roots and illuminating the differences in their long-term effectiveness is lacking. In addition, little is known about how competitive actions affect the long-term effectiveness of both concepts. This study makes a first attempt to address these research gaps and offers a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of customer satisfaction and customer-company identification in driving important customer outcomes over time. Latent growth analyses of rich longitudinal data from customers over nine measurement points spanning 43 weeks (n = 6,930) show that customer satisfaction and customer-company identification have positive initial effects on customers' loyalty and willingness to pay but differ in their ability to maintain these positive effects over time. Whereas the positive effects of customer satisfaction decrease more rapidly, the effects of customer-company identification are significantly more persistent. Analysis of the moderating effects of relative competitive advertising suggests that customer-company identification is more effective at immunizing customers against competitive actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media channels are increasingly used by consumers to post complaints to companies. In contrast to traditional channels, the complaint and a firm’s recovery efforts are visible to passive observers who are virtually present. Additionally, these unaffected users may become involved by supporting a complainant with negative comments or by supporting the firm with positive comments, leading to interactive virtual presence (VP). We reveal that such VP affects how a complainant reacts to successful and unsuccessful service recovery. Based on social influence theory (SIT), we investigate the influence of a mere VP as well as interactive VP of positive and negative valence on the complainant’s satisfaction and purchase intentions and analyze the role of expertise of those who are virtually present. The results indicate that SIT is applicable to virtual environments but that restrictions apply. Specifically, mere VP enhances the effects of recovery success, but—in contrast to SIT—not the negative results of unsuccessful recovery, and interactive VP leads to attitude polarization. Moreover, high-expertise individuals who engage in positive (negative) interactions after unsuccessful (successful) recovery are deleterious. When experts disconfirm successful recovery, they have higher credibility and reduce confidence in the firm. However, in contrast to SIT, experts trying to mitigate unsuccessful recovery are perceived as less credible, which also reduces confidence. Overall, if service recovery via social media is successful, firms will benefit from VP. However, caution is advised when using expert users who may interfere with service recovery processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention of a cause-related marketing campaign is to encourage the purchase of a brand so donations can be made to the partnering cause. This study compared two ads, one that portrayed the cause as the visual element and one that portrayed the brand, to determine which executional technique produced a greater effect on advertising outcome variables. By comparing two models using 495 nonstudent consumers, the study shows the brand photo had a greater effect on purchase intentions than the cause photo. The study also shows that attitude toward the cause-brand alliance is influenced by the familiarity of the brand supporting other research on brand familiarity's influence on attitude formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]