How do you protect a brand that is under challenge from negative consumer perceptions? Recent research shows that the answer, in short, is to pre-emptively ensure your brand is strong enough to withstand such a challenge.
Marketing researchers Michael Tuan Pham and AV Muthukrishnan conducted a study of more than 450 respondents to understand why some brands are more resistant than others to serious criticism and crisis.
They argue that in today’s environment, where customers are increasingly exposed to information that challenges the brand (eg, from competitors, word of mouth, chat rooms, consumer groups, not to mention nosy journalists and bloggers) it is more difficult to sustain favourable impressions of a brand. So, when a brand is challenged, what causes consumers to negatively revise their brand evaluations or not?
The research model postulates that judgment revision is a function of two factors.
The first is consumers’ ability to recall previously learned brand information when the brand is challenged. All being equal, the greater this ability, the less consumers will revise their evaluations because previous brand information will be used to refute the challenge.
The second factor is consumers’ ability to compare the information contained in the challenge with previously learned brand information. The greater this ability, the more likely it is that revision will take place. This is because consumers base their revisions on a psychological “brand-damage assessment” that involves a mental comparison of the challenging information with what consumers already know about the brand.
In my view, the public relations response to this research infers:
(1) Resources invested in building a good reputation and a strong brand are likely to provide a useful platform in a crisis (the “good company having a bad day” scenario).
(2) When a challenge to the brand occurs, in addition to fixing the problem that generated the challenge, it’s worthwhile reminding consumers of those attributes that influenced them to respect the brand in the first place.
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