The effects of social media on brand attitude and WOM during a brand crisis: Evidences from the Barilla case

Abstract

Brand crises endanger companies. Social media are a key platform where stakeholders elaborate and react to crises. This research explores whether social media audience and traditional mass media audience react differently to a brand crisis in terms of their (1) attitude towards the brand and (2) word-of-mouth (WOM). As to the brand attitude, we argue that stakeholders mainly exposed to the brand crisis via social media have a more negative reaction towards the brand compared to those who are principally exposed via traditional media. As to the behaviour, we posit that social media exposure intensifies WOM. By analysing the Barilla crisis, the findings suggest that the social media act as ‘multipliers’ of the reaction of stakeholders to a brand crisis

The Effectiveness of Utilizing Social Media as a Public Relations Platform during an Organizational Crisis within the Cruise Ship Industry

“…A crisis is a wholly unanticipated event (Bundy, Pfarrer, Short, & Coombs, 2016). The management team has no control over the natural forces that create it (Pace, Balboni, & Gistri, 2017), but it must spring into action to mitigate the crisis immediately. When a crisis occurs, it is imperative to rebuild the reputation of the company by maintaining an operational public relations team (Pace, Balboni, & Gistri, 2017;Jin, 2014).…”

“…The management team has no control over the natural forces that create it (Pace, Balboni, & Gistri, 2017), but it must spring into action to mitigate the crisis immediately. When a crisis occurs, it is imperative to rebuild the reputation of the company by maintaining an operational public relations team (Pace, Balboni, & Gistri, 2017;Jin, 2014). In a crisis event, the public relations department of the cruise ship company is responsible for controlling the message flow and rectifying any negative publicity brought about by the crisis.…”

Volkswagen’s Diesel Emission Scandal: Analysis of Facebook Engagement and Financial Outcomes

“…Al. [9] they argue that when a consumers is exposed to a brand crises on social media it causes a more negative reaction towards the brand than if it was through traditional media. Personal experiences with the products of a brand and the experiences of others determinate of what people think of a particular brand [10].…”

“…Some stakeholders can be very engaged in the particular issue and react strongly. Furthermore, they also becomes important for the firms because they can inhibit a position as brand creators [9] and they describes "Stakeholders can amplify and extend the crisis, providing further meanings and resonance to the critical event" [9, p.136]. Thereby stakeholders can play a critical part in the event of a crisis and it is important to execute a precise communication strategy with these stakeholders.…”

“…Furthermore makes a $1,3 billion settlement to owners of the 3.0 liters diesel motors that where placed in Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche 8 . VW decided to recall upwards of 8,5 mio of the cars in Europe alone, which were affected by the illegal software 9 . People experienced a loss of power and acceleration as well as worse fuel consumptions after recalls meaning that cars where also affected even after the removal of the software 10 .…”