Love or Loathe: Investigating Brand Lover Responses to Controversial Advertising Campaigns

Lunds universitet/Företagsekonomiska institutionen 2024

In a designated market filled with many well-established organizations, there are difficulties in capturing the attention of the desired customer base. Consumers are exposed to many advertisements daily, which fail to grab their attention. Provocative or controversial advertising cuts through this clutter by delivering a message that undeniably stands out. This is usually done by breaking a set of societal norms. While this strategy delivers great results in grabbing people’s attention, it can also hurt a brand. Controversy can lead organizations to scandal, boycotts, reputation damage, and revenue loss. There is a fine line between provocation to being seen as progressive, and innovative, or outrageous. Many companies have loyal customers, with whom they engage in consumer-brand relationships. These are bonds in which both partners contribute to the relationship, gain benefits, and consumers develop feelings towards the brand. The problem that arises is whether this bond created over a long period of trust and satisfaction buffers or intensifies the consumers’ reaction to controversy in promotional campaigns used consistently. The study ventures into analyzing how emotional connections to a brand affect consumers’ attitudes and tries to uncover the reason for continued engagement with the company post-transgression. A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews is employed to examine how the feeling of brand love, a central element of consumer-company bonds influences people’s attitudes when brands misbehave. The study used the theories of consumer-brand relationship, and brand love, among others. The brand chosen for the analysis is Oatly, an oat milk producer that is considered a controversial company for its bold advertisements, and internal company structure. A total of eight Oatly brand lovers from five different countries, both female and male were interviewed. The interviewees watched three of the most provocative Oatly campaigns of all time and were

brand love; consumer-brand relationship; controversial advertising; Business and Economics; H1

Open access content. Open access content

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