How brand hatred shapes consumer perceptions and preferences
department or school: Business, Sauder School of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Johannes, Boegershausen
issued: 2019-04-09T21:57:28Z
issued: 2019
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Consumers frequently experience negative feelings toward brands; yet existing research has predominantly focused on positive engagements with brands. The current dissertation examines one of the most extreme negative feelings—hatred—and explores how hatred for one brand affects competing brands. Many managers seem to believe that consumers’ hatred for a close competitor would not be harmful or might even be beneficial for their brand. Nine studies using qualitative, experimental, and field data demonstrate that in contrast to managers’ beliefs, hatred for a brand leads consumers to eschew close competitors from the same subcategory. Importantly, such preference shifts do not emerge when consumers are indifferent or dissatisfied. As feeling mistreated and exploited is central to hatred, it triggers concerns about self-protection, which results in avoiding close competitors. Several moderators (i.e., greater variance in consumer ratings and the usage of safety-inducing marketing cues) supporting the self-protection based account are identified. Taken together, this dissertation emphasizes that consumer relationships with brands do not operate in a vacuum. Documenting predictable shifts in preferences for competitors as a consequence of hatred for a brand underscores the importance of extending frameworks of consumer-brand connections to incorporate negative connections and account for effects beyond a focal brand. The findings of this dissertation also suggest that hatred – at least in a consumption context – tends to prompt individuals to be primarily concerned about protecting the self rather than annihilating the hated object (i.e., brand). When consumers experience hatred, self-protection concerns appear to be pivotal in shaping their preferences for subsequent consumption unless alternative motives might interfere and produce different preferences.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/69541
note: HOW BRAND HATRED SHAPES CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS AND PREFERENCES by JOHANNES BOEGERSHAUSEN B.Sc., Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2009 M.Sc. (cum laude), Maastricht University, 2011 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Business Administration) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2019 © Johannes Boegershausen, 2019 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: How Brand Hatred Shapes Consumer Perceptions and Preferences submitted by Johannes Boegershausen in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration Examining Committee: JoAndrea Hoegg, Marketing and Behavioural Science Co-supervisor Darren W. Dahl, Marketing and Behavioural Science Co-supervisor Katherine White, Marketing and Behavioural Science Supervisory Committee Member Andrew Barron, Psychology University Examiner John C Ries, Strategy and Business Economics University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Steven Heine, Psychology Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Consumers frequently experience negative feelings toward brands; yet existing research has predominantly focused on positive engagements with brands. The current dissertation examines one of the most extreme negative feelings—hatred—and explores how hatred for one brand affects competing brands. Many managers seem to believe that consumers’ hatred for a close competitor would not be harmful or might even be beneficial for their brand. Nine studies using qualitative, experimental, and field data demonstrate that in contrast to managers’ beliefs, hatred for a brand leads consumers to eschew close competitors from the same subcategory. Importantly, such preference shifts do not emerge when consumers are ind…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2019-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0378066
language: eng
degree discipline: Business Administration - Marketing
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69541