How harmful are online firestorms for brands?

Abstract

Purpose Adopting an exploratory approach, this paper aims to focus on the potential negative consequences that online firestorms (OFs) might have on consumer–brand relationships. Specifically, the authors focus on the individual level through taking a close look at the content that users generate during these attacks. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted content analysis to study four recent brand-related OFs that occurred on Twitter. Findings The results show that brands are at the core of the users’ conversations, although other actors, such as competing firms, can also be affected. Negative comments greatly exceed positive ones. Actions against the brand, both passive (avoidance) and active (vengeance), emerged during the OFs. Research limitations/implications The exploratory nature of the study could cast doubt on the generalizability of the results. Moreover, the number of OF analyzed is limited, although they represent an interesting variety of brand misconducts. Practical implications Nowadays, brands are publicly scrutinized through social networks, as the networks enable users to speak out about brands’ perceived mistakes and wrongdoings. This paper confirms that managers should monitor, understand and try to respond to OFs to minimize their impact. Originality/value Online firestorms are a recent phenomenon that has gained attention finally, as they can reach hundreds of users in real-time and can involve a huge amount of comments posted online against a brand. These attacks could severely damage the brand, even when there is no strong evidence of the posted content being true. This paper adds to the scarce literature on the topic and analyzes the negative effects for brands.

Brand transgressions in advertising related to diversity, equity and inclusion: implications for consumer–brand relationships

“…The emotional aspect of negative e-WOM influences repatronage, switching behaviours, brand retaliation (Delgado-Ballester et al, 2020;Van Noort and Willemsen, 2012;Sun et al, 2021), participation in online firestorms as a form of brand revenge (Delgado-Ballester et al, 2021) and the generation of more negative e-WOM (Hancock et al, 2023;Herhausen et al, 2019;Legocki et al, 2022). Table 1 provides a summary of the main contributions regarding the implications of negative e-WOM related to transgressions on consumer-brand relationships.…”

“…The emotional aspect of negative e-WOM influences re-patronage, switching behaviours, brand retaliation (Delgado-Ballester et al. , 2020; Van Noort and Willemsen, 2012; Sun et al ., 2021), participation in online firestorms as a form of brand revenge (Delgado-Ballester et al.…”

Calming the Storm: How Non-Negative Messages From Fellow Consumers Can Dispel Negativity in a Social Media Firestorm

“…Ott & Theunissen, 2015). The upshot of the ease with which information can be shared on social media is that, as Berthon et al (2012) put it, “local events seldom remain local.” Finally, the relatively anonymous social media environment seems to encourage some users to express their dissatisfaction in a tone of voice that can be classified as outright aggressive or hostile (Delgado et al, 2020; Sinclair et al, 2017).…”

Transmission of negative brand-relevant content on social media

“…However, the two-way dialogue facilitated by digital platforms means that brands only have limited control over the message and it can become viral for the wrong reasons (Hansen et al, 2018; Herhausen et al , 2019). This virality can lead to firestorms of negative publicity, which can have acute and prolonged effects on consumer behavior and consequently brand value (Pfeffer et al , 2014; Kucuk, 2019; Delgado-Ballester, 2019).…”