Meeting 1: Opening lecture
Rising from the ashes: How brand and categories can overcome product-harm crises. Cleeren
et al. (2013)
Aim: Develop a contingency framework that bridges research on crisis characteristics and the post
crisis effectiveness of advertising and price. Moreover, it studies their main and interaction effect on
brand share and category purchases.
Whether the effectiveness of post crises
advertising and price adjustments is moderated
by the crisis characteristics (the amount of
negative publicity surrounding the crisis and
whether the affected brand had to acknowledge
blame.)
● Advertising X negative publicity -> H1 & H2:
The effectiveness of brand advertising and
category advertising are greater when there is
high level of negative publicity surrounding the
crisis
● Price X negative publicity -> H3 & H4:
Brand price sensitivity and category price
sensitivity are greater when there is a higher
level of negative publicity surrounding the crisis.
● Advertising X blame -> H5 & H6:
The effectiveness of brand advertising and
category advertising are lower when the affected
brand acknowledges blame than when they don’t
● Price X blame -> H7& H8:
Brand price sensitivity and category price
sensitivity are greater when the affected brand
Negative publicity: The extent
acknowledges blame than when they don’t
to which the media report on
the product-harm crisis (could
be harmful or beneficial)
Blame acknowledgement:
Whether the company
acknowledges responsibility for
the product-harm crisis
Results:
Crisis:
• By acknowledging blame, the other brands in the
category move out of harm’s way. (B=1.173,
p<0.01)
Interaction:
• H3 not supported -> Negative publicity has no
significant effect on the price sensitivity of brand
share.
• H8 not supported -> category price sensitive is not
influenced by blame acknowledgement.
Control:
• When product-harm crisis strikes there is a strong
decrease in brand share and category purchases for
brand-loyal consumer and high users. (B=-1.138 &
B=-0.728, p<0.01)
• With private labels the spill over to the category is
reduce (B=1.125, p<0.01)
• Brands suffer more when the category is more
concentrated. (B=-0.257, p<0.05)
• Category purchases decrease more in the
Netherlands. (B=-0.506, p<0.05)
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, Key takeaway: The effectiveness of advertising and price depends on publicity and blame!
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