Polarizing Brand Communication and Customer Response

Abstract

Brands are becoming more humanized and releasing statements or taking controversial actions. Since this is a new phenomenon, there is little information about how consumers respond to these brand actions. It has yet to be determined if these actions are good for a brand or detrimental. Primary research was conducted through a two-part experiment distributed on Qualtrics. Three main statistical analysis tests were conducted on IBM's SPSS to draw conclusions-- paired sample t-tests, correlations, and two-way ANOVAs. Polarizing statements from brands were found to have a negative impact on consumer affinity for a brand. Consumers would generally prefer brands to not make statements on socially charged issues.