Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2021
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Media Studies
Advisor(s)
Joon Soo Lim
Keywords
brand personality, crisis response, stealing thunder
Subject Categories
Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the impact of brand personality on participants’ brand perceptions and crisis response evaluation. To be more specific, the study aimed to examine how stealing thunder (i.e., brands disclosing the crisis and response before revealed by the third-party) as a proactive response strategy could impact brands with different personalities in crisis. Employing a 2 (brand personality: sincere vs. exciting) × 2 (crisis response type: proactive vs. reactive) experimental design, the study found the main effect of brand personality on participants’ perceived credibility, brand attitude, and purchase intention, such that sincere brands were perceived more credible and obtained more favorable brand attitude and higher purchase intention in crisis. However, the interaction between brand personality and type of response strategy (proactive vs. reactive) had a different impact on participants’ crisis management evaluation, i.e., perceived crisis, blame attribution locus, negative emotions, and negative word-of-mouth. These findings contributed to the extant brand personality literature and provided a potential boundary of the stealing thunder strategy.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Xu, Dongqing, "Different Brands Stealing Thunder: How Brand Personality Impacts Crisis Response Strategy Choice" (2021). Theses - ALL. 506.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/506
