Consumer emotions and perceptions about value-related brand scandals: insights from a qualitative study

Brand scandals impact consumers perceptions and their brand attitude, and if mismanaged they led to brand crisis with severe consequences for the brand. However, some scandals are difficult to predict or prevent. Recently, a growing number of value-related scandals are on the news every day and involve many consumers in digital conversations, that could influence their emotional relationship with the brand. So, it is important to better understand their emotional reactions to the scandals, and their expectations on corporate actions (scandal management), that could have an influence on their behavioural outcomes, such as their willingness to forgive and repurchase intention. Our study aims at an in-depth analysis of sentiment and emotions of consumers of four well renowned luxury brand scandals, adopting a grounded theory approach and using the cases’ stimuli to evaluate their reactions and expectations of related corporate actions. Data analysis is conducted with text mining through Emoji characters “from emotions to emojis” for creating more appealing and easy to read visual research reporting. Preliminary findings revealed some negative feelings and attitudes towards the scandals, and a consumer dilemma on corporate actions, which is questioning scandal management’s credibility and effectiveness. Through this qualitative research, valuable insights are offered to companies to improve their strategies and better satisfy the consumers’ expectations.