Rohini Ahluwalia

Consumer Response to Negative Publicity: The Moderating Role of Commitment

Even though negative information about brands and companies is widely prevalent in the marketplace, except for case studies, there has been no systematic investigation of how consumers process negative information about the brands they like and use. In the three studies in this research, the authors attempt to bridge this gap. The findings of the first and second studies provide a theoretical framework for understanding how consumers process negative information in the marketplace. Commitment of the consumer toward the brand is identified as a moderator of negative information effects. In the third study, the authors use this theoretical framework to derive and test response strategies that companies can use to counter negative publicity for consumers who are high and low in commitment toward the brand.

How Prevalent Is the Negativity Effect in Consumer Environments

The negativity effect, or the greater weighing of negative as compared with equally extreme positive information in the formation of overall evaluations, is widely believed by media planners and appears to be a well-proven phenomenon in consumer psychology. Although this effect has been extensively documented under conditions of moderate to high processing involvement in the literature, its robustness in consumer environments may be overstated. Specifically, there are important differences between the experimental settings in which this effect has typically been obtained and marketplace conditions. For instance, subjects in past studies have typically evaluated unknown or hypothetical targets with the goal of forming an accurate impression. In the marketplace, consumers may be familiar with brands and likely to process brand-related information with a variety of other processing goals, such as impression and defense motivation. Using two experiments, this re-inquiry delineates conditions under which the negativity effect is likely to emerge and those under which it may be less likely to occur. Copyright 2002 by the University of Chicago.

When Brand Personality Matters: The Moderating Role of Attachment Styles

This research examines the moderating role of consumers attachment style in the impact of brand personality. Findings support our hypotheses regarding the manner in which brand personality and attachment style differences systematically influence brand outcomes, including brand attachment, purchase likelihood, and brand choice. Results show that anxiously attached individuals are more likely to be differentially influenced by brand personalities. Further, the results indicate that the level of avoidance predicts the types of brand personality that are most relevant to anxious individuals. Specifically, under conditions of high avoidance and high anxiety, individuals exhibit a preference for exciting brands; however, under conditions of low avoidance and high anxiety, individuals tend to prefer sincere brands. The differential preference for sincere (vs. exciting) brand personality emerges in public (vs. private) consumption settings and in settings where interpersonal relationship expectations are high, supporting a signaling role of brand personality in these contexts. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

The Effects of Extensions on the Family Brand Name: An Accessibility-Diagnosticity Perspective

Previous research has led to mixed findings regarding the effect of extensions on the family brand name. This research identifies “accessibility of extension information” as a factor that moderates the effects of the valence of extension information and extension category on brand evaluations. Under higher accessibility, negative information about the extension led to dilution and positive information led to enhancement of the family brand regardless of extension category. Under lower accessibility, extension information affected evaluations based on category diagnosticity. Negative information about a close (vs. far) extension led to dilution and positive information about a far (vs. close) extension led to enhancement.

The Moderating Role of Commitment on the Spillover Effect of Marketing Communications

Spillover refers to the extent to which a message influences beliefs related to attributes that are not contained in the message. The authors find that when consumers are not familiar with a brand, negative information spills over to attributes that are associated with the target attribute but not mentioned in the message. However, positive information does not. When consumers like the brand, a spillover occurs for the positive information as well. When consumers are committed to the brand, the spillover of negative information is minimized, but positive information spills over more freely to other associated but unmentioned attributes.

Examination of Psychological Processes Underlying Resistance to Persuasion

Three modes of resistance to persuasion (biased assimilation, relative weighting of attributes, and minimization of impact) were examined in the context of a longitudinal field study of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and a lab experiment in the consumer setting. Only two of these modes (biased assimilation and relative weighting) were found to be sensitive to the refutability of the persuasive communication; the effectiveness of the remaining one (minimization of impact) was not influenced by this factor. Specifically, committed individuals demonstrated biased assimilation in the face of easy to refute negative information, but this mode of resistance decreased in its effectiveness when the information became difficult to refute. The relative-weighting mode of resistance (decreasing the weight given to attributes influenced by the negative information and increasing the weight given to favorably evaluated attributes), in contrast, emerged only in the face of difficult to refute information, apparently when biased assimilation decreased in its effectiveness. The impact mode of resistance was fairly effective in the face of both easy and difficult to refute information. That is, committed respondents attempted to isolate the impact of the negative information to the target attribute, minimizing its spillover to the other attributes in the attitudinal representation in response to both easy and difficult to refute messages.

An Examination of Different Explanations for the Mere Exposure Effect

This article investigates two competing explanations of the mere exposure effect—the cognition-based perceptual fluency/misattribution theory (PF/M) and the affect-based hedonic fluency model (HFM)—under incidental exposure conditions. In two studies, the classical mere exposure effect is replicated in the context of banner advertising. The findings rule out the cognition-based PF/M and suggest that the spontaneous affective reaction resulting from perceptual fluency is a crucial link between fluency and evaluation. The studies provide strong evidence that the spontaneous affect influences evaluative judgments through a more complex process, likely by coloring the interpretation of the fluency experience and the nature of resulting metacognitions relating fluency to liking. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are mentioned.

How Far Can a Brand Stretch? Understanding the Role of Self-Construal

A brands stretchability is an important avenue for growth and new product introductions. This research examines the role of an individual-difference variable (self-construal) in enhancing a brands stretchability potential. It is postulated that an interdependent self-construal leads to a superior ability to uncover relationships among stimuli (e.g., an extension and its parent brand) and thus is likely to enhance the perceived fit of an extension and the likelihood of its acceptance. However, these beneficial effects are likely to emerge only under conditions in which the interdependent consumer is motivated to elaborate extensively on the extension information. Five experiments test the underlying mechanism, its implications for different levels of brand stretch (varying from close to far), and the marketing strategy implications of the proposed theoretical framework.

Answering Questions about Questions: A Persuasion Knowledge Perspective for Understanding the Effects of Rhetorical Questions

Past research is not clear on the process by which rhetorical questions influence persuasion (i.e., increased focus on message arguments vs. on the persuasion agent). Based on recent theories of persuasion knowledge and rhetorical figures in advertising, our model delineates conditions under which rhetoricals are likely to enhance argument elaboration (low salience of the rhetorical) and those under which they are likely to direct attention on the message source (high salience of the rhetorical format). Two experiments support the model and suggest that salience of rhetorical figures has the potential to influence not only the direction of message processing but also the effectiveness of various ad executions.

Language Choice in Advertising to Bilinguals: Asymmetric Effects for Multinationals versus Local Firms

We examine the role of language choice in advertising to bilinguals in global markets. Our results reveal the existence of asymmetric language effects for multinational corporations (MNCs) versus local firms when operating in a foreign domain, such that the choice of advertising language affects advertising effectiveness for MNCs but not local companies. Also, different language formats (e.g., the local language vs. English or a mix of the two languages) are shown to vary in their advertising effectiveness for different types of products (luxuries vs. necessities). Our results indicate that language choice for advertisements is an important decision for MNCs. Also, MNCs cannot mimic local companies in their choice of advertising language.