Brand Hate

Consumer brand relationships constitute a major shift in marketing theory and practice from a
transactional to a relationship-based perspective (Aaker et al., 2004; Fournier, 1998; Fournier et
al., 2012). Consumers substantially differ in terms of their relationships with brands (Alvarez
and Fournier, 2016; Fournier, 1998). While some may feel love for their brands, others may be
indifferent towards brands, and others still might only have hatred for certain brands (Khan and
Lee, 2014). As Romani et al. (2012, p. 56) stated “brand research has provided scant information
on the negative emotional states that consumers experience in relation to brands”. More recently,
and in the same line of arguments, Fetscherin and Heinrich (2015, p. 387) state that “specifically
extreme negative emotions or the ‘dark-side’ of consumer brand relationships need further
investigations”.
The lack of studies into negative brand relationships is surprising specifically as research in
consumer behaviour (Lutz, 1975; Banister and Hogg, 2004), psychology (Briscoe et al., 1967;
Rosenbaum and Levin, 1969; Ito et al., 1998), and neuroscience (Fossati et al., 2003; Zeki and
Romaya, 2008) shows people remember negative events more than positive ones. In line with
this argument, Baumeister et al. (2001) assert that people are more likely to talk about a negative
experience or write negative reviews than they are likely to share an equally positive experience.
In consumer behaviour this is referred to as the ‘negativity bias’ (Kanouse and Hanson, 1972)
suggesting that “people tend to weigh negative information more heavily than positive
information” (Kanouse, 1984, p. 703).
From a managerial perspective, these negative brand relationships can be troublesome for
companies (Kucuk, 2008; Krishnamurthy and Kucuk, 2009; Fournier and Alvarez, 2013). This is
especially the case today as consumers can express their negative feelings instantly and globally
through the Internet and social media (Gregoire et al., 2009). This consumer empowerment is
exemplified by the increasing number of brand hate websites (Dessart et al., 2016;
Krishnamurthy and Kucuk, 2009; Kucuk, 2015). Kucuk (2008, p. 211) finds that “brand hate
sites directly and indirectly impact consumers’ perceptions of the targeted brand's identity and
image, and consumer purchase decisions”. This makes crisis management a vital component of
strategic branding (Hegner et al., 2014).
In the branding context, Zarantonello et al.’s (2016) recent study provides a rich review of hate
literature. They argue that hate is mostly characterized as a compound of primary, and sometimes
also including secondary, emotions. Their study focuses on various emotions (e.g., anger,
disgust, fear, disappointment, shame, dehumanization) triggering passive or active brand hate.
They specifically assess “what emotion do consumers feel when they experience brand hate” (p.
14).
The psychology and marketing literature identifies three possible determinants of hate. The first
one is the consumer’s dissatisfaction with the product or service performance (Bryson et al.,
2013) or negative past experience with the brand. Another is the possible incongruence
between the self-image and the brand image. The last relates to an organizational behaviour
which consumers might regard to be ideologically unacceptable due to legal, moral or social
corporate wrongdoing. As related to behavioral outcomes, leads to adversarial actions of
avoiding the brand or hateful consumer behaviors ranging Brand avoidance, negative WOM
and severe retaliation behaviour (Gregoire et al., 2009; Marticotte et al., 2016).