Consumer-Brand Relationships and Negative Emotions

Consumer‐brand relationships encompass a spectrum of emotional bonds ranging from affinity and attachment to indifference and aversion. While much scholarship has addressed the positive facets of these relationships, emerging research has begun to map their darker contours, revealing how negative emotions such as anger, hate, shame and betrayal can corrode brand equity and provoke tangible consumer actions. Antecedents of these emotions include perceived product or service failures, ideological or symbolic misalignment, breaches of trust and greenwashing. Once ignited, such emotions often trigger avoidance, negative word‐of‐mouth, retaliation and even organised boycotts, with consequences for both market performance and consumer wellbeing. Interdisciplinary frameworks—from the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm to complexity theory—have been employed to elucidate the processes by which negative stimuli are appraised and translated into behavioural responses. Understanding these dynamics is of global significance: in a hyperconnected marketplace, missteps can amplify negative emotions and cascade rapidly across cultural contexts. Equally, insights into emotional triggers and moderating factors such as pre-existing brand love or identification offer practical levers for recovery strategies and reputation management, guiding brands towards more resilient, emotionally intelligent engagement with their audiences.

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Consumer-Brand Relationships and Negative Emotions publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in consumer-brand relationships and negative emotions across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Brand hate: An intense negative emotion characterised by loathing or animosity toward a brand.

Brand betrayal: The perception that a brand has violated consumer expectations or trust, leading to feelings of disloyalty and resentment.

Brand avoidance: Consumer behaviour aimed at minimising contact with a brand, including refusal to purchase or engage.

Boycott: A collective, organised withdrawal of support from a brand as a form of protest against its perceived misconduct.

Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework: A theoretical model describing how external stimuli (S) are internalised by an organism (O) to produce behavioural responses (R).

Complexity theory: An approach recognising that consumer responses emerge from non-linear, dynamic interactions among multiple factors rather than simple cause-and-effect relationships.

Consumer-brand identification: The degree to which consumers perceive a sense of oneness or self-relevance with a brand, influencing their emotional and behavioural reactions.

Brand shame: A self-conscious negative emotion arising when consumers feel their own identity is tarnished by a brand’s failure.

References

1. Consumer hate and boycott communications of socially irresponsible fashion brands: Applying complexity theory in psychology and marketing research. Psychology and Marketing (2023).
2. I love you, but you let me down! How hate and retaliation damage customer-brand relationship. Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2022).
3. Will Greenwashing Result in Brand Avoidance? A Moderated Mediation Model. Sustainability (2022).
4. I am ashamed of my brand-self! Consumer-brand identification as a moderator of emotional reactions following symbol-laden brand failures. Journal of Product & Brand Management (2023).