Journal article
When Humanizing Brands Goes Wrong: The Detrimental Effect of Brand Anthropomorphization Amid Product Wrongdoings
Journal of marketing, v 77(3), pp 81-100
01 May 2013
Abstract
The brand relationship literature shows that the humanizing of brands and products generates more favorable consumer attitudes and thus enhances brand performance. However, the authors propose negative downstream consequences of brand humanization; that is, the anthropomorphization of a brand can negatively affect consumers' brand evaluations when the brand faces negative publicity caused by product wrongdoings. They find that consumers who believe in personality stability (i.e., entity theorists) view anthropomorphized brands that undergo negative publicity less favorably than nonanthropomorphized brands. In contrast, consumers who advocate personality malleability (i.e., incremental theorists) are less likely to devalue an anthropomorphized brand from a single instance of negative publicity. Finally, the authors explore three firm response strategies (i.e., denial, apology, and compensation) that can affect the evaluations of anthropomorphized brands for consumers with different implicit theory perspectives. They find that entity theorists have more difficulty in combating the adverse effects of brand anthropomorphization than incremental theorists. Furthermore, they demonstrate that compensation (vs. denial or apology) is the only effective response among entity theorists.
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Details
- Title
- When Humanizing Brands Goes Wrong: The Detrimental Effect of Brand Anthropomorphization Amid Product Wrongdoings
- Creators
- Marina Puzakova - Oregon State UniversityHyokjin Kwak - Drexel UniversityJoseph F. Rocereto - Monmouth University
- Publication Details
- Journal of marketing, v 77(3), pp 81-100
- Publisher
- Sage
- Number of pages
- 20
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Marketing
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000317803800006
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84877253576
- Other Identifier
- 991019168390204721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Business