Collateral damage or effortless win? Spillover effects of competent and warm leader brands on copycats following product-harm crises

Despite the prevalence of brand imitation in the marketplace, little is known about how product-harm crises faced by different types of leader brands affect evaluations of their copycats. We conducted five experiments, revealing that a product-harm crisis involving a competent (or warm) leader brand decreases evaluations of feature (or theme) copycats while increasing evaluations of theme (or feature) copycats. Further analysis revealed a significant interaction: following a crisis of competent leader brand, theme copycats are evaluated more favourably than feature copycats; conversely, in the case of a warm leader brand’s crisis, feature copycats are evaluated more favourably than theme copycats. Moreover, this interaction is mediated by perceived risk and attenuated among consumers with independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal. These findings extend the literature on brand imitation and product-harm crises, offering important implications for branding strategy and crisis management.