Beyond Brand Hate: Are You Willing to Forgive a Negative Experience with Your Smartphone Mobile Communications’ Brand?

Jorge Costa () and António Azevedo ()
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Jorge Costa: University of Minho
António Azevedo: University of Minho

Corporate Reputation Review, 2023, vol. 26, issue 2, No 1, 83-96

Abstract: Abstract This paper aims to assess the antecedents of brand forgiveness in smartphones and mobile communications sectors. A new conceptual model postulates that past negative experiences (PNE), symbolic incongruence and ideological incompatibility positively predict brand hate, which in turn determines brand avoidance (BA), negative word of mouth (NWOM) and brand retaliation (BR). Beyond that, the model also claims that those three types of behaviours are negatively correlated with consumers’ willingness to forgive the brands with a bad reputation. An online questionnaire was answered by 208 consumers, who mentioned several mobile communications brands for which they had negative feelings, the causes for those feelings and their consequences. Brand forgiveness was higher only when consumers revealed a low BA or low NWOM. Moreover, a cluster analysis identified three clusters/segments: Cluster 1—Male Heavy Brand Haters/No Forgivers (N = 79); Cluster 2—Female Forgivers (N = 55); Cluster 3—Mainstream Haters/No Forgivers (N = 74). Brand managers must implement claims monitoring and management policies in order to mitigate the negative experiences resulting from product and services nonconformities. Moreover, brands must have crisis communication plans in order to prevent and control all kinds of mediatic ideological incompatibilities with the major target segments.

Keywords: Brand hate; Past negative experiences; Brand forgiveness; Brand avoidance; Negative word of mouth; Smartphones; Mobile communications; Cluster analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1057/s41299-022-00139-7

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