The perils of self‐brand connections: Consumer response to changes in brand meaning

Abstract

Companies commit considerable resources to building brand associations that resonate with consumers’ identities and facilitate strong consumer–brand bonds. The current research investigates a potential disadvantage of this popular strategy. The results from three studies show that consumers with a high degree of self‐brand connection respond negatively to brand developments (e.g., brand acquisitions and repositioning) that change brand meaning. The authors show that this effect is due to a change in the identity signaled by the brand. The results contrast with existing research, which has consistently found that brand connections promote probrand behavior and serve as a buffer against negative brand information.

What if something unexpected happens to my brand? Spillover effects from positive and negative events in a co‐branding partnership

“…It may be worthwhile to explore other parent brand or consumer characteristics that might impact the received spillover. For example, in the context of brand development (Gaustad, Samuelsen, Warlop, & Fitzsimons, ), it may be important to determine whether the consumer has a strong positive connection with the parent brand because brand loyal consumers might “protect” their brand attitudes more strongly and reject dissonant publicity. It would also be interesting to examine whether the consumer's coping mechanism for these other influencing factors is different for positive and negative information as well and if consumers generally tend to choose the approach for dissonance reduction that is more in favor of the brand under inspection.…”

The higher they climb, the harder they fall: The role of self‐brand connectedness in consumer responses to corporate social responsibility hypocrisy

“…Thus, following hypocritical perceptions, highly connected consumers are especially likely to distance themselves from the brand. Disidentification theory (Wolter et al, 2016) suggests that consumers develop their self‐concept by disidentifying with organizations they perceive as inconsistent with their own image and values (Bhattacharya & Elsbach, 2002; Gaustad et al, 2018). By avoiding the hypocritical brand, brand‐connected consumers dissociate their self‐concept from negative brand meanings (Cheng et al, 2012).…”

Disruptive Events and Associated Discontinuities: A Macromarketing Prescription

“…Such messages can enhance audiences’ attitudinal certainty, especially to overcome alienation-related sentiments. Because System 2 message processing demands high motivation and involvement, parsing a System 2 message from its System 1 origins can elicit a negative response analogous to changing a brand meaning for highly involved consumers (Gaustad et al 2018). Indeed, criticisms of the U.K. government’s repositioning its original call to the public during the Covid-19 crisis typify such a negative response.…”