Maneuvering Angry Consumers toward Brand Forgiveness and Repatronage: The Moderating Role of Personality and Recovery Strategies
https://doi.org/10.35536/ljb.2022.v10.i2.a1
Keywords:
Brand hate, forgiveness, personality, recovery strategies, repatronage intentionsAbstract
Brand hate occurs when consumers experience extreme negative emotions towards a particular brand and thus detach themselves from it. With this under consideration, the study investigates two types of recovery strategies. The first is an apology from the brand for not extending the experience it was expected to deliver, while the second is compensation. These recovery strategies can moderate the relationship between brand hate and forgiveness such that the use of recovery strategies generally encourages consumers to forgive the brand and ultimately make a repurchase. Additionally, the role of two consumer personality traits—agreeableness and conscientiousness—are examined to explore the type of recovery strategy that is best suited to consumers who are considering forgiving the brand. We sample a population of 237 working women and empirically test the model. Our findings show that the two
approaches—that is, (i) managing brand hate by offering an apology to the consumer, with a subsequently
high level of agreeableness, and (ii) offering compensation to consumers with a high level of conscientiousness—are significant in minimizing brand hate and making room for forgiveness on the consumer's end. The results also reveal that the interaction between personality type and recovery strategies significantly reduces the impact of hate and amplifies the level of forgiveness such that
consumers eventually intend to repurchase the brand they had previously hated.
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