Measuring Young Consumers’ Response to Brand Scandals: A Brand Love Perspective

AbstractIn the past few years, brand scandals have become increasingly common in the global marketplace, resulting in significantly declining consumer preferences and purchases for the brand implicated in a scandal. However, the nature of brand scandal and brand love has scarcely been explored. The present study experimentally investigates the effect of type of brand scandals on consumers’ attitude and purchase intentions towards a scandalous brand and examines the impact of brand love on consumer responses towards the scandalous brand. Results suggest that consumers having high brand love have positive attitude and purchase likelihood, while the nature of brand scandals and brand love does not influence consumers’ response for the scandalous brand. Furthermore, results of the study indicate that the two-way interaction effects with the types of brand scandals (intrinsic and extrinsic) and brand love (high/low) on consumer’s behavioural intentions are insignificant.