The boomerang effect of brand personality congruency in a product-harm crisis

Abstract

This research examines how personality congruency between brands and consumers affect consumers’ attribution and brand evaluation in a product-harm crisis. Results show that the negative influence of a product-harm crisis on brand evaluation is stronger for consumers with high personality congruency than for consumers with low personality congruency. Consumers with high personality congruency feel more disappointment, which leads to attribution toward internal factors of the company, blame toward the brand, and consequently lower purchase intentions. This research suggests that brand personality congruency, although generally assumed to have positive effects on brand evaluation, can have negative effects in a product-harm crisis. JEL Classification: M31