Facts to stop you fearing negative perceptions, brand rejection and negative WOM
Jenni Romaniuk
Research Professor at Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Author of Better Brand Health, Building Distinctive Brand Assets, How Brands Grow Part 2
Professor Jenni Romaniuk, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science
Marketing has always been a bit paranoid about anyone seeing or talking about the brand in a negative light. Indeed it makes sense, if someone holds negative perceptions about the brand, these perceptions must be deeply rooted in a negative experience, they could lead to future brand rejection and that person speaking negatively about the brand. After all, we have all heard the adage, when someone has a positive experience they tell 4 people, but if they have a negative experience they tell 10 people, or is it 14 people, or is it 50 people? And if we have all heard it, it must be true….
Unlike other brand health topics, the more I researched negative perceptions and brand rejection, the less worried I became. Some of reasons for this are:
- Negative perceptions are much, much, less common than positive perceptions. Category buyers are better at retaining information that lets them decide what to buy, rather than negative information about what not to buy. This finding makes sense if you think about retained memories as often being linked to perceived usefulness in the future.
- The people who are most likely to give negative perceptions are former brand users, but these negative thoughts largely develop after they have left the brand (so negative perceptions are less a driver of defection but can emerge as a post hoc rationalisation after the defection event).
- Those who have never used the brand are the least likely to give negative perceptions about a brand - thinking negatively of a brand is rarely a reason why someone with no experience with a brand doesn’t buy it. A much more common reason for lack of buying is a lack of mental availability. Negative perceptions are therefore not a common barrier to trial and customer acquisition.
- Brand rejection is low and varies little amongst brands, smaller brands do not have higher rejection rates unless there is something functionally odd about them. Again, lack of mental availability is a much bigger hurdle for small brands to overcome. They needn’t worry about changing people’s negative views.
These findings are also similar to that found in the area of Negative Word of Mouth by my colleague Professor Robert East. Negative WOM, when it is is given, is shared at the same rate as Positive WOM (so people don’t share negative WOM more than positive WOM), but Negative WOM is typically much less common because many fewer people give Negative WOM.
So let’s stop jumping at shadows and worrying about the negative. There are many more important marketing challenges to address than panicking over a few negative Neds and Nellies!
Some references for those interested in the empirical evidence:
EAST, R., HAMMOND, K. & WRIGHT, M. 2007. The relative incidence of positive and negative word of mouth: a multi-category study. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24, 175-184.
WINCHESTER, M., ROMANIUK, J. & BOGOMOLOVA, S. 2008. Positive and negative brand beliefs and brand defection/uptake. European Journal of Marketing, 42, 553-570.
WINCHESTER, M. & ROMANIUK, J. 2008. Negative brand beliefs and brand usage. International Journal of Market Research, 50, 355-375.
TRUONG, O., ROMANIUK, J. & NENYCZ-THIEL, M. 2011. The incidence of brand rejection in FMCG categories. ANZMAC. Perth.
FAULKNER, M., TRUONG, O. & ROMANIUK, J. 2015. Barriers to increasing donor support evidence on the incidence and nature of brand rejection. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44, 1007-1025.
If you are employed by company that is an Institute corporate sponsor, there is also an extensive report on the topic of brand rejection that covers 50+ data sets across 24 product categories in 23 countries that is available on the corporate sponsor website.
Romaniuk, J., M. Nenycz-Thiel and O. Troung (2012) Do consumers reject brands? Which, where and how often. Report #61 for Ehrenberg-Bass Institute Corporate Sponsors.
Entrepreneurial leader
5yThis is interesting but seems to be very FMCG focussed. Given many of Australia’s largest companies and therefore the larger marketing functions in Australia are not FMCG it’s probably worth calling that out as a limitation. For example anyone who’s done research with Telstra customers will tell you about the commonality of negative brand perception and anyone who has done research with banks will tell you about the commonality or negative category perception. I struggle with the practical application of this research. Yes it’s probably true there are bigger problems than negative word of mouth for marketers, but regardless no brand wants this so the implicit advice to ignore the problem is impractical. Practically for a marketer at Telstra, one of Australia’s largest marketers; what can they do to improve brand sentiment? If former users are driving negative sentiment, what actions can marketers do to prevent or address it? If not worrying about it is the best advice what is the cost of a single piece of negative brand sentiment so I can make a more informed decision on the cost/benefits of intervention?
Oprichter van Neerlandshoop
5yThanks for this. So not being mental available is much worse for a brand than having negative perceptions attached to the brand. Talking about brand rejection. What do you know about situations in which a consumer has 2 options to choose from (because those are the only ones fysical available): a brand with some negative connotation and another brand with no emotional hesitation whatsoever. Would the latter brand be more likely a winner in most of these situations?
Research Director
5yBram Jonkheer Ricardo Van Der Valk Caroline Nevens Blauw Research Wilco Wigboldus Charlotte Woertman Nardos Ghebre Ans Hoogendoorn Inge de Kruijf