Online Brand Derision: When Brand Animosity Drives Avoidance and Negative Communication (An Abstract)

Brands tend to polarize consumers. As a result, consumers engage in behavior and communication in support of a focal brand or against that brand’s competitors (e.g., Gregoire et al. 2009; Lovett et al. 2013; Wolter et al. 2015). As brand-directed word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior by consumers represents an opportunity to indirectly influence consumer behavior in a cost-effective and rapid manner, marketers are attempting to create “talkable brands,” which have characteristics that promote WOM (e.g., Berger 2014; Hollebeek et al. 2014; King et al. 2014; Lovett et al. 2013). But such efforts come with the concomitant risk of brands stimulating unfavorable behaviors such as opposition and avoidance (e.g., Wolter et al. 2015).