The interaction effect between brand identification and personal crisis relevance on consumers’ emotional reactions to a fashion brand crisis

ABSTRACT

An organizational crisis is an event perceived by managers and stakeholders as highly salient, unexpected, and potentially disruptive; it can also threaten an organization’s goals and have profound implications for its relationships with stakeholders. In this article, we consider an actual crisis that recently struck an important brand in the fashion sector – Moncler. The crisis endured by Moncler was complex, involving several aspects of its activity. Notably, our study was conducted at the beginning of November 2014, in the 2 weeks after the crisis event. In particular, to collect data on consumers’ reactions to Moncler crisis, we created a questionnaire and ran a web survey through Survey Monkey. Then, through a moderated mediation model, we show that the impact of brand identification on the attitude toward the company and purchase intention is significantly mediated by anger for high levels of personal crisis relevance (PCR) and by sympathy for average and low PCR levels. These results are in accordance with some research concerning the role of emotions, which can perform different functions; the function of emotions such as anger and sympathy is to support the individual’s commitment and relate to moral decisions and judgements.

对管理者和利益相关者来说,组织危机是非常显著也无法预期且具有潜在破坏力的事件；它也可能会对组织的目标造成威胁，并会对其与利益相关者的关系产生深远的影响。因此，学者们越来越有兴趣分析危机事件以及可以面对危机的策略。在这篇文章中，我们探讨一个最近受到实际危机打击的一个重要时装品牌——Moncler。

在这项研究中，我们探讨危机对利益相关者的情绪影响。事实上，利益相关者对危机的观感和反应，以及组织用何种方式影响这些观感，通常在文献中被认为具有关键的重要性。特别是，我们的目标是针对特定类别的利益相关者——最终客户，更深入地分析情绪在应对危机时的作用。事实证明，在危机时期，消极的客户反应对公司来说可能是最大威胁之一。

为了收集消费者对Moncler危机反应的数据，我们做了一份调查问卷，并透过Survey Monkey进行了网络调查。该研究在危机事件发生后的两周内于2014年11月初进行。Moncler遇到的危机相当复杂，涉及其活动的几个方面。重要的是，对Moncler的主要指控是对鹅的处理，这可以被归类为一种可预防的危机类型。此外，也被指控其产品价格在整个时尚产业中是不合理的，还有他们在经济低迷时期却将制造外包的做法。事实上,根据消费者的看法，企业应该在经济困难时期支持自己的国民经济，而不是外包生产。

通过调节中介模式，我们可以预测最终客户面对时尚品牌实际危机时,对于公司态度（ATC）和购买意向（PI）这两方面的反应。具体而言，我们证实控制品牌识别（BI）对ATC和PI的影响的主要因素是高度的个人危机相关（PCR）——愤怒和一般或低程度的PCR水平的同情感来做介导。

因此，我们依据PCR的观点,在时装品牌危机后发现了两种不同情绪模式的顾客反应。当客户认为是高度危机时，控制BI对ATC和PI之影响的情绪是愤怒。相反，当被认为是低危机时，控制BI对ATC和PI之影响的情绪是同情。

这些结果证实了本文中预期的理论。危机会根据PCR触发不同的情绪。这些结果与一些有关情绪作用的研究是一致的，它们可以有不同的功能；情绪如愤怒和同情的功能是支持个人的承诺，并与道德和判断有关。因此，情绪有助于带动BI与危机影响之间的关系。

KEYWORDS:

• Fashion brands
• personal crisis relevance
• brand identification
• sympathy
• anger

关键词:

• 时尚品牌
• 个人危机相关性
• 品牌识别
• 同情
• 愤怒

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) are harmful to the environment and human health.

2. Report is an Italian television program that has been conducting journalistic investigations since September 1997. Since the beginning, the program has had a good audience (2–3 million viewers), and its investigations are considered serious and believable.

3. In closing data for 31 October, the company’s stocks were worth €11.06 euros; by 3 November, they had fallen to €10.52.

4. In order to measure this construct, we adapted the scale used by Malär et al. (2011). Instead of measuring the consumers’ involvement in a product category, as the authors do, we used the scale to measure the consumers’ involvement in the crisis. We thus concluded that individuals that were highly involved in the crisis considered it to be personally relevant. Conversely, consumers that were less involved in the crisis considered it to be not personally relevant.