How the Interplay of Consumer-Brand Identification and Crises Influences the Effectiveness of Corporate Response Strategies

Abstract

Consumer-brand identification (CBI) establishes when consumers use the defining attributes of a brand to define themselves. This study examines whether and how CBI influences the effectiveness of corporate response strategies suggested by the situational crisis communication theory in preventable crises and whether this influence is moderated by a threat to the self-defining attributes shared between consumers and a brand. A total of 868 consumers of two brands took part in an online experiment. CBI increases the effectiveness of corporate response strategies at mitigating negative consumer reactions. Response strategies are even more effective when a crisis does not threaten the shared defining attributes. Additionally, compensation is the strategy that really reduces consumers’ negative reactions, instead of apology strategy. More theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Exploring Negative Spillover Effects on Stakeholders: A Case Study on Social Media Talk about Crisis in the Food Industry Using Data Mining

“…The public-centered approach focuses on the receiver side of crisis communication, exploring the effect of organizational messages on receivers. A considerable body of research is, therefore, dedicated to evaluating public reactions to crisis-related messages on social media-whether positive or negative [5,11,[14][15][16].…”

Impact of Online Crisis Response Strategies on Online Purchase Intention: The Roles of Online Brand Attitude and Brand Perceived Usefulness

“…Nevertheless, once the representative uses a diminishing approach in reaction to a preventable crisis, accountability is abandoned, and they will not offer any apology (Coombs & Holladay, 2009;Ma, 2020). Therefore, consumers will be less motivated to forgive the brand in crisis and would, therefore, have a negative OBA, which would harmfully influence the consumer's OPI (Lis & Fischer, 2020;.…”

“…Purchase intention is also a probability that lies in the hands of customers who intend to pay for a particular product or service (Grewal et al, 1998;Zhang et al, 2020), which depends mostly on online crisis response strategies (Vignal Lambret & Barki, 2018). Research shows that successful online crisis response strategies may increase OPI (Beldad et al, 2018;Coombs, 2007;Ma, 2020). Some studies also indicate that online crises negatively predict the intention to purchase (Cai & Leung, 2020;Dutta & Pullig, 2011).…”

“…However, our research suggests that the higher-ups in the business may control OPI behaviors by encouraging online crisis response strategies. One way to increase online crisis response strategies is to diminish its online crisis and contextual causes (Coombs & Holladay, 1996;Ma, 2020).…”

“…Given the subsequent lack of knowledge and the scarcity of research on how to best overcome an online crisis, firms may depend on the perceptions from the general crisis management works, which is welldefined as "a reflective model and centers mainly on image renovation, by taking corrective actions, explaining and framing what has happened, who is responsible, and what has been done to address the online brand crises" (Coombs, 2007). Similarly, on the other extreme, by offering an apology and taking corrective actions, these brands may accept responsibility to rebuild the online brand's image (DiStaso et al, 2015;Ma, 2020).…”