Developing a Framework of Causes and Consequences of Hatred for Iranian Product Brands

• Main Authors: Ali Shoja, Faraz Sadegh Vaziri, Elham Ebrahimi
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Tehran 2020-04-01
• Series: ‫مدیریت بازرگانی
• Subjects: brand hatred; mixed marketing deception; negative word of mouth; thematic analysis
• Online Access: https://jibm.ut.ac.ir/article_75936_9dbb0712fa7e905dd2b182502fd8e67d.pdf

<strong>Objective</strong> <br />It is important to understand why consumers do not like some brands or even cultivate a sense of hatred for them, because consumers usually tend to evaluate negative information about brands than positive information. The phenomenon of hatred of the brand is still in its infancy, and this research, given its exploratory nature, will help conceptualize this phenomenon and will take a step forward in promoting the theory of brand hatred. This research develops a model of brand hatred including its causes and consequences in the context of Iran. In general, this study seeks two main goals: 1) discovering the causes of brand hatred among Iranian consumers and 2) discovering the consequences of brand hatred in them. This issue significantly helps Iranian producers to pave the way for branding by being aware of these causes and consequences. <br />  <br /><strong>Methodology</strong> <br />The present study is a qualitative research and is grounded in terms of purpose. It is also exploratory-inductive in terms of data collection. The target population of this study includes consumers of Iranian products in Tehran and the data were collected through face-to-face interviews or interactions with the researchers and through self-expression in response to a general question about whether or not to have strong negative feelings about a particular brand or brands. Sampling is carried out through non-probabilistic judgmental and snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data in this study. Qualitative data analysis was performed using theme analysis. After observing the interviews and entering them into the software and reviewing the notes, the key points were codified. It should be noted that all the steps of qualitative data analysis were performed using NVivo10 software. <br />  <br /><strong>Findings</strong> <br />Eventually, two main themes were discovered. The first category includes the main themes that affect brand hatred i.e. the negative factors that cause brand hatred among the consumer or the lack of positive factors that lead to the development of brand hatred. The main themes discovered in this category were "mixed marketing deception", "mixed marketing failure" and "social irresponsibility". The second category was the main themes affected by brand hatred; that is, actions or intentions to negative actions after creating sense of brand hatred among the consumers. The answer to the question that what would the consumers who hate the brand do about their hatred. The main themes discovered in this category were "negative word of mouth advertising", "supporting the competitors" and "breaking the relationship with the brand". <br /><strong> </strong> <br /><strong>Conclusion</strong> <br />Based on the results of the present study, costumers who hate Iranian product brands do not develop cases such as "brand revenge", "complaint", "threat" and "damage" - which have been discovered in western researches and are considered as the consequences of brand hatred. The present study discovered some behaviors including negative word of mouth advertising, supporting a competitor, and breaking relationships with a brand.