When Brand Familiarity Breeds Risk: The Curse of Negative Knowledge

Walker Chip ()
Additional contact information
Walker Chip: Chip Walker Brand Strategy

NIM Marketing Intelligence Review, 2018, vol. 10, issue 1, 24-28

Abstract: In today’s world, knowing more about a brand can make people think worse of it. Rather than helping a brand, increased familiarity can actually add risk. This is a phenomenon referred to as “negative knowledge.” It happens when the more consumers know about a brand, the less they like it. Possible reasons can be that consumers feel embarrassed by the brand, that they have bad brand experiences or learn about them in the media or from friends, or that they dislike a company’s business motives. Once consumers know something about a brand, it is hard for them to “un-know” it. During a time of media fragmentation when all managers are struggling to gain more fame for their brands, it’s critical to realize that brand knowledge comes with a potential dark side. While it’s always wise to avoid brand obscurity, marketers must be ever cognizant that what customers know about a brand really can do more harm than good.

Keywords: Brand Knowledge; Brand Risk; BAV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/gfkmir-2018-0004 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:gfkmir:v:10:y:2018:i:1:p:24-28:n:4

DOI: 10.2478/gfkmir-2018-0004

Access Statistics for this article

NIM Marketing Intelligence Review is currently edited by Christine Kittinger-Rosanelli

More articles in NIM Marketing Intelligence Review from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().