When personalities collide: examining the impact of consumer and brand personalities’ interplay on brand hate development
| Date | 15 May 2024 |
| Pages | 460-476 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-01-2023-4307 |
| Published date | 15 May 2024 |
| Author | Abhishek Yadav |
When personalities collide: examining the
impact of consumer and brand personalities’
interplay on brand hate development
Abhishek Yadav
Department of Marketing and Strategy, Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, Rohtak, India
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to propose and test an appraisal theory-based framework that depicts the impact of negatively valenced brand
personality dimensions on brand hate development and the resultant outcomes of non-purchase intention andanti-brand actions. The study also
delineates the moderation effect of Big Five consumer personality traits on brand personality-brand hate relationship.
Design/methodology/approach –An international sample of 370 brand haters was collected and analysed with partial least square-based
structural equation modelling.
Findings –Both negatively valenced brand personality dimensions of responsibility and activity are significant predictors of brand hate in
consumers, and this brand hate leads to outcomes of anti-brand actions and non-purchase intention of consumers.Moderation analysis delineates
that the consumer personality trait of neuroticism significantly moderates the relationship between both brand personality dimensions and brand
hate. The study also established the importance of national culture in defining consumers’behavioural intentions.
Originality/value –This study provides a novel appraisal theory-based integrated framework to understand the relationship between cognition of
brand personality, brand hate emotional state and behavioural actions of consumers. To the best of the authors’knowledge, thi s study is the first to
consider the impact of these personality dimensions on brand hate development while assessing the interactioneffect of consumer and brand
personality dimensions on brand hate development.
Keywords Consumer personality, Brand personality, Brand hate, Non-purchase intention, Anti-brand actions
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Researchers have witnessed a significant behavioural shift
worldwide, with consumers’experiencing brand hate more
often than before (Da Silva, 2019). This is quite evident from
the recent cases of brand transgressions, such as diesel gate
fiasco of Volkswagen, which resulted in a 46% dip in the
brand’s value within the first two months since it came to light
(Colvin, 2020) and Dolce & Gabbana’s identity portrayal
through its marketing campaigns in China that resulted in
severe backlash on account of being perceived as insulting,
stereotypical and racist. Psychology literature also suggests a
relatively greater influenceof negative emotions on consumers’
behavioural intentions in comparison to positive emotions (Ito
et al.,1998;Rozin and Royzman, 2001). Despite these
evidences, compared to research on positive emotions such as
brand love and brand loyalty, research on negative emotions
such as anti-branding (e.g. Kucuk, 2008;Krishnamurthy and
Kucuk, 2009) and brand hate (e.g. Haase et al., 2022;Roy
et al.,2022;Yadav and Chakrabarti, 2022) is scarce.
Over the past couple of years,research on negative consumer
emotion of brand hate has gained significant traction in
academia (e.g. Dessart et al., 2020;Kucuk, 2019;Zhang and
Laroche, 2020) with brand hate researchers focusing on
identifying various brand hate stimuli and outcomes (Yadav
and Chakrabarti, 2022), withsome studies focusing on specific
brands. Literature highlightsthat most studies in the brand
hate domain have explored brand/company-related stimuli
such as corporate wrongdoings (Brandão et al., 2023;
Zarantonello et al., 2018), non-indulgence in corporate social
responsibility (CSR) activities (Bryson et al.,2021)and
consumer complain mismanagement (Kucuk, 2020).
However, despite the relevance of consumer-related stimuli
(Kucuk, 2018), studies exploringthe factors such as consumer
personality traits’impact on brand hate are limited (Kucuk,
2019). Perceived brand personality is another such consumer-
related factor that can provide valuable insights into the
developmentofbrand hate in consumers.
Brand personality is defined as “the set of human
characteristics associatedwith a brand”(Aaker, 1997, p. 347).
Similar to consumer brand relationship literature, researchers
have largely focused on the positive aspects of brand
personality, for example, personality traits of brand
pleasantness leading to brand love (Becheur et al., 2017)and
ruggedness leading to brand trust (Sung and Kim, 2010), but
research on negatively valenced personality dimensions is
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
33/4 (2024) 460–476
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-01-2023-4307]
Received 20 January 2023
Revised 9 August 2023
14 January 2024
10 March 2024
Accepted 13 March 2024
460
severely lacking. Some studiesdohighlight how negative brand
personality perceptionsresult in unfavourable outcomes for the
brand, such as lack of purchase intention (Freling and Forbes,
2005;Geuens et al., 2009), and the impact of different
personality traits like the “fallacious character of the brand”
(Bayarassou et al.,2020) and egoistical, boring, lacking logic
and socially irresponsible(Roy et al.,2022)on brand hate.
Literature also highlights how consumer hatred is
engendered by the evil personification of brands (Kucuk,
2020), and personality traits such as narcissism can
accentuate the development of hatred (Bayarassou et al.,
2020).Despitetheseimpactfulattempts,theroleofother
personality traits is still unexplored, and researchers are
also stressing on the urgent need to understand how
consumers’personality traits impact brand-directed
hateful feelings (Kucuk, 2019). Over the past couple of
years, researchers have advocated for the need to
understand the role of consumer personality in negative
consumer brand interactions (Bayarassou et al.,2020;
Kucuk, 2019).
Extant brand hate literatureencompasses multiple consumer
level (e.g. Banerjee and Goel, 2020;Islam et al., 2019), brand
level (e.g. Bayarassou et al., 2020;Kucuk, 2018)and
environmental (e.g. Bryson et al.,2021;Dessart and Cova,
2021;Wisker, 2021) antecedents of brand hate. However,
there have been persistent calls by researchers to identify other
factors that may lead to hatred in consumers and how these
consumers behaveagainst the focal brand (Zhang and Laroche,
2020). Specifically, literature has largely overlooked the
importance of brand personalityand the effect of its interaction
with consumer personality on brand hate development. To
address this gap, the study adopts Geuens et al. (2009)
proposed dimensions of the improved scale instead of Aaker’s
(1997) scale due to its higher affinity with the Big Five model
compared to the original dimensions (Alpatovaand Dall’Olmo
Riley, 2011) to assess the impactof perceived brand personality
on brand hate development while also exploringthe interaction
effects of consumerand brand personality.
Appraisal theories delineate the most exhaustive account of
how emotions are developed (Scherer, 2001), and also help in
exploring the whole process of stimuli-appraisal-emotion-
behaviour. Appraisal theories also take into account the
individual consumer-level differences that may vary the
emotion experienced even when the stimulus is the same
(Lazarus, 1991). The theory also gives emphasis on
the significance of individual personality in defining the nature
and intensity of emotions experienced(Lazarus, 1982). Hence,
the interaction between appraisals in the form of perceived
brand personality and individual differences in terms of
consumers’personality traits should define the nature and
intensity of negative emotions such as brand hate.Anappraisal
theory-based integrated model will allow us to assess the
moderation effects of consumer personality traits on the
relationship between appraisal of brand personality and brand
hate emotion.
Considering these gaps, the current study investigates the
impact of perceived brand personality on brand hate
development in consumers and how consumers’own
personality moderates this relationship. It also examines the
moderating role of national culture on the relationship
between brand hate and resultant behavioural intentions of
consumers. Understanding the antecedents of brand hate is
vital because researchers believe that a robust understanding
of brand hate predictors will eliminate the need for
managing its consequences (Kucuk, 2021). Similarly,
understanding the consequences of such hatred is also
important because brand hate can originate due to external
factors (e.g. consumer personality) also, which are not in the
control of brands (Yadav and Chakrabarti, 2022), and
effective brand recovery strategies can only be implemented
after understanding such outcomes.
Conceptual background
Brand hate
Hate is a complex emotion, and psychology researchershave
diverse opinions about it being a primary emotion (Arnold,
1960). Even though some researchers consider it a simple
emotion (e.g. Storm and Storm, 1987), most of them think
that hate is a compounded form of other primary or
secondary emotions. Hate is commonly considered as an
emotion and relatively stable experiential state, and for a
long time, researchers have considered it as “persistent and
enduring”(Litwinski, 1945, p. 87). It is a stable emotion
(Kernberg, 1992), and it can last for much longer (even for a
lifetime) even after the initial experience (Rempel and
Sutherland, 2016). Negative emotion literature also
suggests that such emotions can last for a long ti me if there is
perceived incongruency. Similar to interpersonal hate,
conceptualizations of brand hate varied significantly since
its inception, with researchers focusing on both the
relationship and emotional aspect of brand hate. Broadly,
the conceptualizations can be categorized into
unidimensional (single emotion) and multidimensional
(compound of other emotions) (Yadav and Chakrabarti,
2022).
Irrespective of conceptualization, the extant brand hate
literature has emphasized the emotional nature of brand hate
(e.g. Zarantonello et al.,2018), and a recent literature review
also suggested the same (Yadav and Chakrabarti,2022). Most
of the interpersonal hate literature also suggests that hate is a
constellation of other primary emotionssuch as anger, fear and
disgust (e.g. McDougall, 2015). Scholars have also drawn
similarities between interpersonal hate and brand hate
repeatedly (e.g. Zhang and Laroche, 2020) highlighting
similarities in the emotions developed in such relationships.
This highlights the importanceof understanding the underlying
emotions that lead to hatred in consumersto get a holistic
understanding of the brand hate emotion.This study considers
brand hate as a multidimensionalconstruct (Fetscherin, 2019),
proposed based on the triangular theory of hate (Sternberg,
2003) to encompass the underlying emotions of hatred in
consumers.
Appraisal theory and brand hate
Emotions are a function of people’s evaluationand appraisal of
different circumstancesand factors. For example, a consumer’s
frustration and being treated unfairly can define their anger
towards an entity (Frijda, 1993). Appraisal theories of
emotions are based on the works of Aristotle, Descartes and
When personalities collide
Abhishek Yadav
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 33 · Number 4 · 2024 · 460–476
461
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