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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 9, No. 8

Publication Date: August 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/abr.98.10664. Rehmat, S., & Wasim, M. (2021). Brand Betrayal: A Comprehensive Study to Examine the Indicators and Consequences of Brand

Betrayal Towards Consumer Behavior. Archives of Business Research, 9(8). 28-39.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Brand Betrayal: A Comprehensive Study to Examine the

Indicators and Consequences of Brand Betrayal Towards

Consumer Behavior

Sana Rehmat

Quaid-i-Azam School of Management Sciences

Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan

Manahil Wasim

Quaid-i-Azam School of Management Sciences

Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Brand betrayal is induced by the brand itself when it fails to fulfill its promised

moral obligations and involves the type of behavior that fractures the strong self–

brand connection with the consumers. Brand managers must come across several

negative types of consumer behaviors that depict their sense of dissatisfaction.

Additionally, the effort of a brand to reduce the effects of brand betrayal is reflected

by the sheer amount of customer apologies and compensation paid to the affected

consumers. Having a sound knowledge about the primary indicators of brand

betrayal encourages the brand managers to take necessary measures to deal with

the challenges of the negative consumer-brand relationship. The resultant revenge

behaviors depicted by the consumers include different types of activities such as

spreading negative word-of-mouth and avoiding the brand itself, customer

incivility, etc. The existing literature on the consequences of brand betrayal is

insufficient to build the novel theory around the construct and differentiate it from

brand dissatisfaction. The current research in brand dissatisfaction argues that it is

a more generalized construct than brand betrayal that becomes the immediate

cause of brand avoidance. The effect of these consequences needs to be addressed

by the marketing theorists and practitioners to strengthen the consumer-brand

relationship and manage the longer-lasting results of negative consumer behaviors.

Keywords: Brand Betrayal; Consumer-Brand Relationship; Consumer Reveange

INTRODUCTION

The marketing theorist and practitioners have observed a dramatic shift from the transactional

perspective to a relationship-based perspective in consumer-brand relationships (Fournier et

al., 2016). Consumers have subsequent different relationships with the brands, and the

associations might be negative or positive based on the brand's value offered to the consumers.

The consumers' relationships with the brands might sometimes result in extreme love or hate

for the brand and the indifferent view of the interacting brands (Fournier, 1998). The

proposition about consumers' actions towards building a brand relationship holds true when

the brands are considered active in developing relationships with consumers.

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Rehmat, S., & Wasim, M. (2021). Brand Betrayal: A Comprehensive Study to Examine the Indicators and Consequences of Brand Betrayal Towards

Consumer Behavior. Archives of Business Research, 9(8). 28-39.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.98.10664

According to Romani et al. (2012), insufficient research has been done in the last few decades,

providing insights into consumers' negative emotional state towards brands. In parallel to the

same argument, Fetscherin and Heinrich (2015) stated that further research should be

conducted on the consumer-brand relationship's 'dark side.' The highly negative consumers'

emotions significantly affect the brands' reputation as they encourage distinctive cognitive and

behavioral responses towards the brands (Delzen, M. 2017).

Meanwhile, the phenomenon of positive emotions consumers has gained an immense amount

of attention in the marketing literature. It includes all positive brand relationships such as

brands' likeness, brand passions, brand devotion, brand passion, and brand love (Zarantonello,

Romani, Grappi, and Fetscherin 2018). The negative side of the consumer-brand relationship is

getting increased spread and pertinent as the phenomenon is being substantially noticed by the

researchers (Fournier and Alvarez 2013). Marketing scholars have investigated several

negative consumer-brand relationships such as brand aversion, brand detachment, brand hate,

and brand betrayal (Parmentier and Fischer 2015; Wiggin and Yalch 2015; Finkel et al. 2002;

Zarantonello, Romani, Grappi, and Fetscherin 2018).

Although, the academicians and practitioners have immensely disregarded the consumers'

negative emotions towards the brand's personality and reputation, even though consumers

consider the brand itself when making their buying decision to consume products and services.

Consumers consider their emotions towards the brands before purchasing intentions (Romani,

Grappi, & Dalli, 2012). The disregarded negative brand relationships can prove to be

problematic for the companies in the organizational setting. To maintain healthy and long-term

relationships with customers, companies must focus on the dark side of the consumer-brand

relationship. As the hike of the internet has made it more accessible for the consumer to spread

their word of mouth on a larger scale and these negative feelings, when expressed on the online

platforms, can affect the brand's reputation (Hegner et al. 2017)

In the branding perspective, a brand betrayal exists when a brand violates the moral obligations

towards the consumers (honesty, integrity). The obligations which are promised by the brand

itself and are perceived to be fulfilled by the brand's performance. The said obligations are

considered crucial in maintaining consumer-brand relations and are inspected to be primitive

to the relationship. The violation of commitments promised by the brand results in pessimistic

consumers' emotions and is considered inconvenient by the consumers. The negative

consumers' emotions then take negative behavioral responses, and they try to seek revenge

against the responsible brand. The retaliation may take the form of avoidance of brand contact

in the future or negative word-of-mouth spread on virtual/traditional platforms (Reimann et

al., 2018).

Alongside, the marketing theorists have stated that the strategies related to brand revitalization

are fundamental to managing the rand relationship. In times of brand reversal, it is crucial.

(Keller, Parameswaran, & Jacob, 2011). It has been observed that brand managers try their best

to facilitate the consumers while facing brand betrayal. In most cases, they even do not have an

idea about brand betrayal and cannot do anything to seek consumers' forgiveness (MacInnis &

Folkes, 2017). Intending to mitigate the risk of brand betrayal, brand managers seek to satisfy

the expectations of their consumers (Grégoire & Fisher, 2008)

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Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 9, Issue 8, August-2021

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Consumers experience brand betrayal when they perceive that their preferred brand does not

satisfy their expectations and engage in negative practices such as fairness violations,

disloyalty, unethical behavior, and providing misleading information (Teck, 2018). Consumers

might indulge in revenge-seeking practices in-service failure and feel helpless to change the

encountered situation (Gelbrich, 2010; Tripp & Gregoire, 2011). The revenge behaviors are

induced by the differential consumer perceptions, intentions, and recognition of blame, and it

also depends on the type of publicity encountered by the brand itself. Consumers may indulge

themselves in more general kinds of revenge behaviors, such as reviews, comments, and

opinions related to products, services, and firms (Obeidat et al. 2017)

BRAND BETRAYAL

The sense of dissatisfaction the consumer feels after interacting with the brand is the root cause

of brand betrayal (Grégoire & Fisher, 2008); The dissatisfaction can result from a service

failure, fairness violations, disloyalty, unethical behavior, and misleading information provided

by the brand itself (Ishaq 2011). The resultant negative feeling towards the brand is called

brand betrayal (Teck, 2018). The sense of brand betrayal might be depicted by discontinuing

customers' interaction with the brand for future purchases. The service failure encourages

consumers to have prolonged disengagements with the brand and have an unpleasant

experience. The perceptions of loyal customers might also change rapidly because of service

failure because they are the ones who put their trust in the brand in the first place. The inability

of a brand to fulfill its moral obligations towards the consumers by engaging in immoral

practices (dishonesty, betrayal) (Tan, Salo, & Aspara, 2019a). Moreover, if the consumer-brand

relationship develops for a more extended period, consumers' perceptions towards the brand's

promise fulfillment get stronger. They respond quickly to the violation of all moral obligations

which were promised by the brad initially. With the increasing consumers' experience with

brand betrayal, the revenge motivation decreases (the brand avoidance increases) Gr'egoire et

al., 2009).

According to the current brand betrayal literature, it is segregated into two primary indicators:

failure severity and inferred negative motive (Grégoire & Fisher, 2008). Failure severity is

defined as the inability of a brand to fulfill its promise, lack of customer support, and unable to

meet customers' needs at the right time. (Finkel et al., 2002; Grégoire et al., 2009). In contrast,

the concept of inferred negative motive is referred to as the extent of consumers' negative

perceptions towards the brand. It accounts for the measurement of consumer's feelings of

getting exploited, communicated misleading/false information, and taken advantage of by the

brand itself (Elangovan & Shapiro, 1998; Grégoire & Fisher, 2008). Based on the results of brand

betrayal's research, the negative word-of-mouth resulted from failure severity and inferred

negative motive, and it is positively related to both indicators. Furthermore, the construct of

consumer forgiveness has a significant negative relationship with the failure severity and

inferred negative motive (Teck, 2018).

BRAND BETRAYAL VERSUS BRAND DISSATISFACTION

The construct of brand betrayal enables the researchers to strengthen their knowledge about

the other brand-related variables such as brand perceptions, emotions, and self. There is a thin

line between the phenomenon of brand betrayal and brand dissatisfaction as they are

correlated constructs. The amount of resultant intensity expressed by brand betrayal and brand

dissatisfaction is questionable.