The Effects of Brand Crisis on Consumer Negative Emotions: Focused on Crisis Causes and Brand Personality

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to verify the effects of brand crisis causes and brand personality types on negative emotions. This research investigates the different impacts of intentional and unintentional crisis causes on anger and disappointment. Furthermore, the differential impacts of sincere and exiting brands on anger and disappointment are analyzed. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study tests four hypotheses through experimental designs using different scenarios. In order to make a sincere brand personality an expression, ‘innocent and faithful’ is used in describing a company, and words such as challenging, liberal, and creative are used for making an existing brand personality. 249 participated, and 201 responses were analyzed, excluding unfaithful questionnaires. Findings – The results of the study show that an intentional cause brings about anger more strongly than disappointment. By contrast, an unintentional cause led to disappointment more than anger. A sincere brand’s crisis was associated more strongly with anger than disappointment, and an exciting brand’s crisis influenced disappointment more greatly than anger. Research Implications – In intentional brand crisis and sincere brand situations wherein anger was greater than disappointment, a prompt apology may be necessary before implementing specific compensation tactics. This is because it is crucial to rapidly mitigate the negative impact of intense anger. On the other hand, disappointment is a slower-moving emotion that arises from suboptimal performance. Therefore, compensatory tactics may be required to meet consumer expectations.