Branding in the age of social media firestorms: how to create brand value by fighting back online

ABSTRACT

Leading research on social media firestorms typically advises managers to quickly quell the backlash by appeasing brand critics. Drawing on crisis communications and branding research, we offer a radically different perspective and argue that brands can benefit from fighting back online. Through a netnography of a moral-based firestorm, we contribute to the marketing and crisis communications literatures by identifying the escalation strategy as a way to build brand value; explaining how brands can activate supporters; and providing guidance on how to assess these morally steeped events. We advance branding research by identifying how managers can provoke consumer-generated brand stories; and uncovering the hidden benefits of negative consumer voices. Finally, we outline a new perspective on how brands are dialogically constructed through a process we call ‘flyting’.

KEYWORDS:

• Online firestorms
• social media
• branding
• crisis management
• brand storytelling
• co-creating brand meanings
• controversy
• netnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joachim Scholz

Joachim Scholz is an assistant professor of marketing at Brock University. His research explores augmented reality marketing, social media controversies and branding in digitally-infused, hyper-connected and polarised societies.

Andrew N. Smith

Andrew N. Smith is an assistant professor of marketing at Suffolk University. His research explores digital and social media marketing, augmented reality, online word-of-mouth and market systems.