Prevention of Brand Crisis: The Brand Attachments' Role in the Mitigation of Adverse Consumer Reactions

Subject Areas : International Journal of Finance, Accounting and Economics Studies

Mohammad Kashani ¹ (Department of Business Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Karim Hamdi ² (Department of Business Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Mehrdad Navabakhsh ³ (The factuality of humanities and social science. Science and Research Branch. Islamic Azad University. Tehran, Iran.)

Received: 2022-01-23 Accepted : 2022-03-28 Published : 2022-12-01

Keywords: Brand Attachment, continuous brand commitment, prevention of brand crisis, brand advocacy intentions, Zemt,

Abstract :

Past research shows that brands' irresponsible, hypocritical, and discriminatory behaviors lead to consumers' adverse reactions. This issue can expand the consumers' orientation to avoid the brand, which can lead to the loss of market share and a brand crisis. However, extensive research on the brand-consumer relationship has not explained why consumers did not react adversely to such behaviors in some conditions. As a brand crisis preventive measure, this study investigates the commitment of attached consumers when consumers are faced with discriminatory and irresponsible brand behaviors. We conducted a qualitative study using in-depth interviews (Zmet) to show what components contribute to creating brand attachment when a brand behaves irresponsibly. In the second study (SEM), we investigated the willingness of attached consumers to continue their commitment and advocate the brand under the condition.Our findings contribute to the literature by suggesting that brand attachment may reduce adverse reactions to irresponsible brand behaviors. For the first time, this research considered how brand attachment leads to continuance commitment with advocacy intentions under the condition. Our results expand research on brand crisis prevention by demonstrating that attached consumers presumably react less to negative news and are more inclined to continue their commitment and advocate it.