IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/mcmcmc/vhtml10.3280-mc2017-001008.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumers? responses to ethical brand crises on social media platforms

Author

Listed:
  • Stefano Pace
  • Matteo Corciolani
  • Giacomo Gistri

Abstract

Ethical brand crises are a breach in the core values held by a brand and a violation of the relationship between the brand and its stakeholders, and social networks provide consumers with a platform upon which they can discuss these crises and their meanings in detail. Through a qualitative content analysis and an interpretive approach, here we investigate the reaction of the social media audience to an apology released by a company after an ethical brand crisis. The emerging findings suggest that consumers engage in consumer identity work according to different strategies: they sublimate or minimize the crisis (defence of the brand) or focus on the ideological structure of marketing (criticism). In both cases, consumers offer the company an opportunity to assess and improve the ethical dimension of their marketing practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Pace & Matteo Corciolani & Giacomo Gistri, 2017. "Consumers? responses to ethical brand crises on social media platforms," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(1), pages 141-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:mcmcmc:v:html10.3280/mc2017-001008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=58866&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ashlee Humphreys & Craig J. Thompson, 2014. "Branding Disaster: Reestablishing Trust through the Ideological Containment of Systemic Risk Anxieties," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(4), pages 877-910.
    2. James H. McAlexander & Beth Leavenworth Dufault & Diane M. Martin & John W. Schouten, 2014. "The Marketization of Religion: Field, Capital, and Consumer Identity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 858-875.
    3. Spiggle, Susan, 1994. "Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 491-503, December.
    4. Ashlee Humphreys & Craig J. Thompson, 2014. "Branding Disaster: Reestablishing Trust through the Ideological Containment of Systemic Risk Anxieties," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(4), pages 877-910.
    5. Robert V. Kozinets, 2008. "Technology/Ideology: How Ideological Fields Influence Consumers' Technology Narratives," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(6), pages 865-881, October.
    6. Amit Bhattacharjee & Jonathan Z. Berman & Americus Reed II, 2013. "Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: How Moral Decoupling Enables Consumers to Admire and Admonish," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1167-1184.
    7. Kaibin Xu & Wenqing Li, 2013. "An Ethical Stakeholder Approach to Crisis Communication: A Case Study of Foxconn’s 2010 Employee Suicide Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 371-386, October.
    8. Daiane Scaraboto & Eileen Fischer, 2013. "Frustrated Fatshionistas: An Institutional Theory Perspective on Consumer Quests for Greater Choice in Mainstream Markets," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1234-1257.
    9. Simona Romani & Silvia Grappi & Richard Bagozzi, 2013. "Explaining Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role of Gratitude and Altruistic Values," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 193-206, May.
    10. Joon Sung Lee & Dae Hee Kwak, 2016. "Consumers’ Responses to Public Figures’ Transgression: Moral Reasoning Strategies and Implications for Endorsed Brands," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 101-113, August.
    11. Özlem Sandikci & Güliz Ger, 2010. "Veiling in Style: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 15-36, June.
    12. Vallaster, Christine & von Wallpach, Sylvia, 2013. "An online discursive inquiry into the social dynamics of multi-stakeholder brand meaning co-creation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1505-1515.
    13. Eric J. Arnould & Craig J. Thompson, 2005. "Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 31(4), pages 868-882, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong, Soonkwan & Vicdan, Handan, 2016. "Re-imagining the utopian: Transformation of a sustainable lifestyle in ecovillages," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 120-136.
    2. Sandikci, Ozlem & Jafari, Aliakbar & Fischer, Eileen, 2024. "Claiming market ownership: Territorial activism in stigmatized markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    3. Tierney, Kieran D. & Oswald Karpen, Ingo & Westberg, Kate, 2022. "Brand meaning and institutional work: The light and dark sides of service employee practices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 244-256.
    4. Wiart, Lucie & Özçağlar-Toulouse, Nil & Shaw, Deirdre, 2022. "Maintaining market legitimacy: A discursive-hegemonic perspective on meat," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 391-402.
    5. Daniela Andreini & Diego Rinallo & Giuseppe Pedeliento & Mara Bergamaschi, 2017. "Brands and Religion in the Secularized Marketplace and Workplace: Insights from the Case of an Italian Hospital Renamed After a Roman Catholic Pope," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 529-550, March.
    6. Matthew Hawkins, 2019. "The effect of activity identity fusion on negative consumer behavior," Post-Print hal-02014635, HAL.
    7. Jones, Scott & Cronin, James & Piacentini, Maria G., 2022. "Celebrity brand break-up: Fan experiences of para-loveshock," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 720-731.
    8. Hope Jensen Schau & Melissa Archpru Akaka, 2021. "From customer journeys to consumption journeys: a consumer culture approach to investigating value creation in practice-embedded consumption," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 9-22, June.
    9. Castilhos, Rodrigo B. & Fonseca, Marcelo J., 2016. "Pursuing upward transformation: The construction of a progressing self among dominated consumers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 6-17.
    10. Mangiò, Federico & Mismetti, Marco & Lissana, Elena & Andreini, Daniela, 2023. "That's the Press, Baby! How journalists co-create family business brands meanings: A mixed method analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    11. Zanette, Maria Carolina & Brito, Eliane Pereira Zamith & Fontenelle, Isleide Arruda & de Camargo Heck, Marina, 2021. "Eating one’s own otherness: When producers commercialize their ethnicities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 134-144.
    12. Melissa Archpru Akaka & Hope Jensen Schau & Stephen L Vargo, 2022. "Practice Diffusion [Value Creation in Consumption Journeys: Recursive Reflexivity and Practice Continuity]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 48(6), pages 939-969.
    13. Cherrier, Hélène & Türe, Meltem, 2022. "Blame work and the scapegoating mechanism in market status-quo," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1207-1217.
    14. Lydia Ottlewski, 2021. "Building and Strengthening Community at the Margins of Society through Social Enterprise," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-15, October.
    15. Jenna Drenten & Robert L Harrison & Nicholas J Pendarvis, 2023. "More Gamer, Less Girl: Gendered Boundaries, Tokenism, and the Cultural Persistence of Masculine Dominance," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 50(1), pages 2-24.
    16. Slater, Stephanie & Demangeot, Catherine, 2021. "Marketer acculturation to diversity needs: The case of modest fashion across two multicultural contexts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 702-715.
    17. Seo, Yuri, 2016. "Professionalized consumption and identity transformations in the field of eSports," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 264-272.
    18. Higgins, Leighanne & Hamilton, Kathy, 2016. "Mini-miracles: Transformations of self from consumption of the Lourdes pilgrimage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 25-32.
    19. Ndichu, Edna G. & Rittenburg, Terri L., 2021. "Consumers’ navigation of risk perceptions in the adoption of stigmatized products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 340-353.
    20. Stephanie Slater & Catherine Demangeot, 2021. "Marketer acculturation to diversity needs: The case of modest fashion across two multicultural contexts," Post-Print hal-03600360, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fan:mcmcmc:v:html10.3280/mc2017-001008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=210 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.