Survival of the fittest?
Effekten av en varumärkeskris på konkurrerande svaga och starka varumärken inom en produktkategori
Almost every day newspapers cover companies and brands in crisis. This should worry companies as negative publicity has been shown to have a great influence on consumer perceptions on brands. In addition, brand crises have been shown to be contagious, meaning that they also affect consumers? views on other similar brands. This study aims to investigate spill-over effects of one brand crisis to another within a product category. More specifically, we investigate how strong and weak brands in a product category are affected when a typical brand in the category goes through a crisis. With use of a fictitious crisis scenario, in the form of an article, we analyze the spill-over effect on a number of research variables. We also investigate whether or not the strong and weak brand should advertise during a time of crisis within the category. This is done by the use of fictitious print ads. The results show that a crisis spills over more easily to a weaker brand compared to a stronger. Furthermore, the study indicates that the perception of a brand is not altered by brands? advertisement, given that there is a brand in crisis within the category.