Negative Emotions toward a Celebrity Brand A study on reasons, behavioral outcomes, and neutralization actions

MASTER THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration

NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15 Credits

PROGRAM OF STUDY: International Marketing

AUTHORS: Corinna Dahmen and Madeleine Prüfer

JÖNKÖPING May 2020

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Master Thesis in Business Administration

Title: Negative Emotions toward a Celebrity Brand – A study on reasons, behavioral out-comes, and neutralization actions

Authors: C. M. Dahmen and M. I. Prüfer

Tutor: Darko Pantelic

Date: 2020-05-18

Key terms: Celebrity Brand, Consumer-Brand-Relationships, Negative Emotions, Behavioral Outcomes, Neutralization Actions, Social Media

Abstract

Background: Social media changed the way of communication between brands and consumers and further enables people to become famous and create their own celebrity brand. Hence, celebrity brands are a new phenomenon, rarely studied by past research but becoming more important in the context of consumer-brand-rela-tionships. Those relationships are similar to interpersonal ones, which are also highly affected by emotions. Negative emotions are perceived to have a higher impact on the relationship and are reflected in consumer behavior, for example, in avoiding the brand.

Purpose: Besides the behavioral outcomes of negative emotions toward celebrity brands, the study strives to examine the reasons for negative emotions. Additionally, the purpose of the study is to investigate possible neutralization actions that celebrity brands can undertake to alleviate the negative emotions of consumers.

Method: The study followed an exploratory research design. The qualitative data collec-tion was done by conducting semi-structured interviews. Participants were se-lected based on the criterion of having negative emotions toward a celebrity brand and using social media. In total, 16 interviews were conducted.

Conclusion: Negative emotions were either elicited by characteristics or behaviors of the ce-lebrity. Whereas characteristics, e.g. attractiveness, are difficult to influence for celebrities, unfavorable behaviors, e.g. greed and violence, that trigger negative consumer emotions are preventable by the celebrities. The consumers start avoid-ing, unfollowing, and spreading negative word-of-mouth about the celebrity if they feel negatively toward the brand. To neutralize negative emotions, the ce-lebrity brands are recommended to engage in building authenticity, trust, ac-ceptance, attachment, and adding value to society. However, due to the consum-ers unfollowing the celebrity, the biggest challenge for celebrity brands is to ad-dress neutralization actions in a noticeable way for consumers.

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Acknowledgments

A special thanks goes to our supervisor Darko Pantelic for his valuable guidance and provision

of critical feedback throughout this thesis. Even in the challenging times of the Corona Virus,

he has always put in all efforts to support us and make the best out of the situation.

We would also like to thank our seminar partners Jean Ragg and Philipp Sieben for a continu-

ous exchange on our master theses and for giving us valuable points of consideration.

Lastly, we would like to express our appreciation toward the participants of our interviews who

not only took the time but also openly shared their negative emotions and opinions toward

celebrities with us.

Thank you very much.

Corinna Dahmen and Madeleine Prüfer

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Table of Contents

Figures ................................................................................................................................. VI

Tables .................................................................................................................................. VI

Appendices .......................................................................................................................... VI

Thesaurus ........................................................................................................................... VII

1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Purpose of Research ................................................................................................... 2

1.2 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 3

1.3 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 4

1.4 Limitations and Delimitations........................................................................................ 4

1.5 Contribution ................................................................................................................. 5

2. Theoretical Frame ............................................................................................................. 6

2.1 Consumer-Brand-Relationships ................................................................................... 6

2.2 Aspects of Celebrity Brands ......................................................................................... 9

2.2.1 Definition of Celebrities .......................................................................................... 9

2.2.2 Definition of Celebrity Brands ................................................................................ 9

2.2.3 How Celebrities constitute as a Brand ..................................................................12

2.2.4 Social Media and Celebrity Brands .......................................................................13

2.3 Brand Strengthening as Neutralization Actions ...........................................................14

2.3.1 Need for Neutralization Actions ............................................................................14

2.3.2 Brand Strengthening Factors ................................................................................16

2.4 Deduction of the Research Questions .........................................................................18

3. Methodology .....................................................................................................................21

3.1 Research Philosophy ..................................................................................................21

3.2 Research Approach ....................................................................................................22

3.3 Research Design ........................................................................................................23

3.4 Research Method ........................................................................................................24

3.5 Data Collection ...........................................................................................................25

3.6 Sampling .....................................................................................................................27

3.7 Research Ethics ..........................................................................................................28

3.8 Research Quality ........................................................................................................28

3.9 Data Analysis ..............................................................................................................30

4. Findings and Discussion ...................................................................................................33

4.1 Participant Overview ...................................................................................................33

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4.2 Following Celebrities on Social Media .........................................................................34

4.3 Negative Emotions toward Celebrities .........................................................................35

4.3.1 Personal Characteristics as Reasons for Negative Emotions................................36

4.3.2 Behavioral Reasons for Negative Emotions ..........................................................37

4.3.3 Description of Negative Emotions .........................................................................40

4.4 Behavioral Outcomes ..................................................................................................41

4.4.1 Content Consumption of the Celebrities ...............................................................41

4.4.2 Behavioral Outcomes from Negative Emotions toward the Celebrity ....................43

4.5 Motivational Drivers of the Behavioral Outcomes ........................................................47

4.6 Neutralization Actions .................................................................................................49

5. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................55

5.1 Response to the Research Questions .........................................................................55

5.2 Managerial Implications ..............................................................................................57

5.3 Limitations and Delimitations.......................................................................................59

5.4 Future Research .........................................................................................................61

References ...........................................................................................................................63

Appendices ..........................................................................................................................72

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Figures

Figure 1. Model Brand Relationship Quality (BRQ) ................................................................ 6 Figure 2. Overview of Research Purpose .............................................................................23 Figure 3. Personal Characteristics as Reasons for Negative Emotions ................................37 Figure 4. Behavioral Reasons for Negative Emotions ...........................................................39 Figure 5. Identified Categories for Neutralization Actions .....................................................53

Tables

Table 1. Overview of celebrity brand characteristics defined by researchers ........................11 Table 2. Participant Overview ...............................................................................................34

Appendices

Appendix 1. Interview Guide .................................................................................................72 Appendix 2. Categories for Data Analysis .............................................................................73 Appendix 3. Cohen's Kappa .................................................................................................73

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Thesaurus

Authenticity: In the case of celebrity brands authenticity describes “the perception that a ce-

lebrity behaves according to his or her true self” (Moulard et al., 2015, p. 175).

Attachment: “The intensity of a person’s target-specific emotional bond with a human brand”

(Thomson, 2006).

Brand: A brand is “what a company sells, what a company does, and what a company is”

(Davis, 2000, p. 4).

Brand Avoidance: Is a concept introduced by Lee, Motion, et al. (2009). Brand avoidance is

defined as the “phenomenon whereby consumers deliberately choose to keep away from or

reject a brand” (Lee, Conroy, et al., 2009, p. 422).

Brand Hate: Brand hate as a concept describes the emotional extent to which a brand is hated.

Fetscherin (2019) and Zarantonello et al. (2016) quantitatively investigated the emotional com-

ponents of brand hate, e.g. contempt, fear, disgust, and anger. According to Fetscherin (2019),

five types of brand hate exist: cool, simmering, burning, boiling, and hot hate. These types

differently affect behavioral outcomes, e.g. burning hate results in public complaining and

brand revenge (Fetscherin, 2019).

Celebrity: A human being who is considered famous within his or her community and therefore

possesses a certain public perception and recognition as well as influence on his or her target

audience.

Celebrity Brand: A well-known individual who uses his or her fame for marketing and com-

munication efforts in order to build brand properties connected to his or her person (Lunardo et

al., 2015; Moulard et al., 2015; Seno & Lukas, 2007; Thomson, 2006).

PATH: Davis (2000) identified four characteristics which constitute a strong corporate brand.

These four characteristics are promise, acceptance, trust, and hope – short PATH.

Triangular Theory of Hate: Sternberg`s (2003) theory states that “hate has multiple compo-

nents that can manifest themselves in different ways on different occasions” (p. 306). Thus,

hate is a construct based on different emotions, which are disgust, contempt, and anger

(Fetscherin, 2019).

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1. Introduction

Consumer-brand-relationships have been extensively studied throughout the last decades. How-

ever, with the help of modern media, the communication between brands and their consumers

and therefore also the intensity of the relationships between them, has changed significantly

(Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). Information about brands are available everywhere. Especially

social media has enabled companies and consumers to constantly stay in touch. This direct

dialogue has led to brands becoming more approachable, even humanized (Kowalczyk &

Pounders, 2016). At the same time, social media has helped many individuals to gain public

attention and hence obtain a certain level of fame (Johns & English, 2016; Keel & Nataraajan,

2012). For this reason, the classical definition of a celebrity has changed (Keel & Nataraajan,

2012). In this research, the term celebrity includes all human beings who are considered famous

within their community and therefore possess a certain public perception and recognition as

well as influence on their target audience.

Brands are profiting from the fame and influence of the celebrities for marketing communica-

tion purposes by using them to endorse the brand’s products and services. However, recent

marketing research has extended the perspective of celebrity endorsement to a form of brand

alliance, regarding celebrities as brands themselves (Johns & English, 2016). As celebrities own

brand characteristics and strive to build consumer relationships, every celebrity consequently

constitutes as a celebrity brand (Centeno & Wang, 2017; Davis, 2000; Thomson, 2006). A ce-

lebrity brand therefore describes a celebrity who uses his or her fame for marketing and com-

munication efforts in order to build brand properties connected to his or her person (Lunardo,

Gergaud & Livat, 2015; Moulard, Garrity & Rice, 2015; Seno & Lukas, 2007; Thomson, 2006).

Thus, celebrities face the same opportunities and challenges as corporate brands. However, ex-

tensive research on celebrity brands is lacking greatly as existing articles discussing celebrities

as brands are often themed around celebrity endorsement rather than focusing on celebrity

brands as an own construct (Halonen-Knight & Hurmerinta, 2010; Seno & Lukas, 2007). Es-

pecially studies on celebrity brands regarding consumer-brand-relationships are missing as past

research in this field is conducted based on corporate brands.

Moreover, the majority of literature about consumer-brand-relationships focuses on the positive

aspects, e.g. brand loyalty or brand love (Bagozzi, Gopinath & Nyer, 1999; Bloemer & Kasper,

1995; Laros & Steenkamp, 2005). The negative forms such as brand avoidance or brand hate,

have received less attention although psychological (Hilbig, 2009) as well as neuroscientific

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studies (Zeki & Romaya, 2008) have shown that negative emotions possess a higher influence

on behavior than positive ones. Investigations on negative emotions of consumers toward a

celebrity have, similar to the concept of celebrity brands, mostly been conducted in the context

of celebrity endorsement. Therefore, the authors identified a research gap in understanding the

reasons and behavioral effects of negative emotions of consumers toward a celebrity brand.

1.1 Purpose of Research

Using celebrities to promote a product is a common and still widely used marketing strategy

(Um, 2013). Celebrity endorsement has the positive effect of creating brand awareness, estab-

lishing positive attitudes toward a brand through celebrity identification and of course, financial

impacts by increased sales and profits (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995; Aureliano-Silva, Lopes,

Freire & Da Silva, 2015; Bergkvist & Zhou, 2016; Erdogan, 1999; Miciak & Shanklin, 1994;

Thomson, 2006; Wei & Lu, 2013). The success of celebrity endorsement lies within the strong

bonds consumers form with celebrities such as fandom (Leets, De Becker & Giles, 1995), ce-

lebrity worship (Dietz et al., 1991), and idolatry (Houran, Navik & Zerrusen, 2005). These

bonds are mainly based on attachment (Thomson, 2006), which is defined as “the intensity of

a person’s target-specific emotional bond with a human brand” (Thomson, 2006, p. 105). The

main underlying influential factor here are emotions. The same applies to the brand context.

Consumer behavior is irrational when it derives from emotional bonding to a brand, e.g. through

loyalty (Oliver, 1999). With a strong relationship and emotional bond with a brand, love and

hate become closer to each other (Kucuk, 2008). Oftentimes, the most loved brands are also the

most hated ones as Kucuk (2008) calls this phenomenon “negative double jeopardy”. This can

be observed among celebrity brands as well, for example, the Kardashians who are polarizing

people by their actions and appearance (Harris, 2016).

Negative emotions such as hate, dislike or anger, toward a brand can manifest in behavioral

actions which are unbeneficial for the brand. Such negative consumer behaviors include the

deliberate rejection or avoidance of the concerned brand, or even further, public demonstration

of the brand rejection (Bryson, Atwal & Hultén, 2013), e.g. public complaining (Fetscherin,

2019). These behavioral outcomes might be triggered by negative experiences with the brand,

service failure or moral clashes (Lee, Conroy & Motion, 2009; Zhou & Whitla, 2013). As dis-

cussed above, consumer-brand-relationships are generally researched for traditional corporate

brands. Hence, it is unknown if the reasons and behavioral outcomes of negative emotions of

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consumers toward a celebrity brand are the same or similar to the ones already identified by

past studies. Some causes such as celebrity scandals, might be evident. Others, however, are

less apparent and thus celebrities might be unaware of them.

1.2 Research Questions

The research strives to extend past studies on consumer-brand-relationships to celebrity brands

with a focus on negative forms. The goal of the study is to provide celebrities with valuable

insights into the reasons for negative emotions developed toward their brand, in which behav-

iors these emotions manifest, and which actions celebrities can undertake to counterfeit those

emotions. Therefore, the present study is divided into three research questions.

RQ1. What are the reasons for negative emotions toward celebrity brands?

Relationships between celebrities and consumers are implicitly led by emotions. A high level

of attachment can lead to idolatry and even celebrity worshipping (Dietz et al., 1991; Houran

et al., 2005). However, the factors strengthening the attachment can, at the same time, be rea-

sons for developing negative emotions toward the celebrity if they are not satisfied. Thus, miss-

ing identification with the celebrity or perceived lack of expertise might be possible explana-

tions as well as other causing factors identified in the brand avoidance context (Lee, Motion &

Conroy, 2009). Some events or behaviors of celebrities are rather obvious to elicit negative

emotions, whereas others are more disguised. The study therefore aims to shed light on these

causes and hence create a better understanding of reasons for negative consumer emotions.

RQ2. What behavioral outcomes derive from negative emotions toward celebrity brands?

The behavioral outcomes of negative emotions toward corporate brands are known; for in-

stance, public complaining, engaging in anti-branding websites, and brand switching

(Fetscherin, 2019). However, it is not clear if those behavioral outcomes also derive from neg-

ative emotions toward celebrity brands. As in the context of celebrity endorsement, negative

publicity affected consumers to perceive the brand less favorable, which impacts their purchase

decision (Ahluwalia, Burnkrant & Unnava, 2000; Edwards & La Ferle, 2009; Louie, Kulik &

Jacobson, 2001). Thus, similar reactions such as avoiding everything connected to the celebrity

are presumable for celebrity brands as well. Though other behavioral outcomes, especially in

the context of social media might be explored.

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RQ3. What can the celebrity brand do to neutralize the negative emotions toward its brand?

A strong relationship between consumers and celebrities is established, for example, by a high

level of attachment (Thomson, 2006). Further, trust, hope, acceptance, and promise, strengthen

the power of a brand (Davis, 2000) as well as authenticity (Moulard et al., 2015). If these factors

are not satisfied, the brand is weakened. However, it is not known if strengthening these factors

conversely alleviates negative emotions. Further, it is presumable that additional actions exist

which the celebrity brand can undertake to neutralize negative emotions.

1.3 Methodology

One research aim is to explore how celebrities can neutralize negative emotions toward their

brand. Thus, interpretivism constitutes as research philosophy and an abductive research ap-

proach is used. Abduction refers to the inductive collection of data which will be connected to

theoretical assumptions (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2016).

The data was collected qualitatively through semi-structured interviews with participants who

were selected based on criterion sampling (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The participants were re-

quired to have some sort of negative relationship with a celebrity and were recruited by analyz-

ing negative statements online about a celebrity. Further, snowball sampling was used to reach

a larger sample.

Upfront, two test interviews were conducted to avoid possible interview bias and to review the

interview guide in terms of missing or misleading questions. Finally, data was gathered on 15

celebrity brands, including singers, reality stars, a comedian, a moderator, an author, and ath-

letes through a total of 16 conducted interviews.

1.4 Limitations and Delimitations

The limitations and delimitations of this study should be considered. Whereas past research

investigated consumer-brand-relationships regarding corporate brands, only little research was

done on celebrity brands. Hence, past research findings regarding corporate brands were de-

duced in the context of celebrity brands and further discussed. Moreover, the research is delim-

ited to negative emotions toward celebrity brands and positive emotions are not considered.

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By selecting the participants based on negative statements toward a celebrity on social media,

the sample was limited to social media users and consequently a certain age range (15-30 years

old) which represents the biggest group of social media users (Statista, 2015). Although the

interviewer conducted the interviews mainly in their native language German, translation of the

findings was done into English and hence finer nuances might have got lost while translating.

Further, no restrictions were done to the type of celebrity or its occupation which makes find-

ings less specifically applicable to a certain group of celebrity brands but allows to get deeper

insights into negative emotions and neutralization actions.

Future research should try to determine the extent and relations of the findings of this study to

draw more generalizable conclusions which consequently benefit more celebrity brands.

1.5 Contribution

Celebrities face the same risks and challenges as corporate brands such as damage to their rep-

utation or a decrease in sales. As the consumers are at the center of every brand (Davis, 2000),

it is especially interesting for celebrity brands to find out what drives consumers to develop

negative emotions toward them. Although the identified characteristic reasons are difficult to

control by celebrities, they can influence the behavioral reasons such as inauthenticity or im-

moral behavior. Therefore, the present study supplies celebrities with valuable insights on neg-

ative consumer emotions. However, the findings do not only provide an understanding of the

negative emotions and the reasons for them, but also investigate the corresponding behavioral

outcomes, e.g. avoidance or unfollowing. Moreover, concrete neutralization actions are estab-

lished which present a guideline for celebrity brands to help to alleviate negative consumer

emotions as well as to prevent their development in the first place. In this way, possible damages

to the celebrity brand can be reduced.

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2. Theoretical Frame

This chapter provides an introduction into consumer-brand-relationships and the factors influ-

encing their quality. One of these factors is emotion. As emotions can be positive and negative,

there exist positive and negative types of consumer-brand-relationships. However, the focus of

this research is on negative emotions and the new phenomenon of celebrity brands which has

gained importance due to social media. To investigate the reasons for negative emotions in

consumer relationships with celebrity brands and their behavioral outcomes, celebrities and ce-

lebrity brands are defined as well as the role of social media is presented. Finally, the need for

neutralization actions and factors strengthening a brand are described.

2.1 Consumer-Brand-Relationships

Just like a relationship between humans, a person can develop a relationship with a brand. In

the following, consumer-brand-relationships will be examined, presenting their parallels to hu-

man bonds. Therefore, factors influencing the quality of brand relationships as well as their

underlying driving forces – cognition, behavior, and emotion – will be discussed. As emotions

play a key role in consumer-brand-relationships, the focus will be on research done in this field,

resulting in a discussion about the positive and negative types of consumer-brand-relationships.

The metaphor of human relationships was used to transfer knowledge about human relation-

ships to consumer-brand- relationships (Breivik & Thorbjørnsen, 2008). Thus, qualities existing

in a human relationship are assumed to exist in consumer-brand-relationships (Breivik & Thor-

bjørnsen, 2008; Fournier, 1998). According to Fournier (1998), several factors (see Figure 1)

influence the relationship quality.

Figure 1. Model Brand Relationship Quality (BRQ) [According to Fournier, 1998]

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Whereas some factors are cognitively driven, e.g. intimacy and brand partner quality, others are

based on behavioral relations, e.g. commitment and interdependence (Fournier, 1998). Lastly,

emotional aspects exist which are represented in the BRQ Model by love/passion and self-con-

nection (Fournier, 1998). These emotional factors were studied by several researchers, for in-

stance, Fetscherin (2019), Fournier (1998), Zarantonello, Romani, Grappi and Bagozzi (2016),

and Carroll and Ahuvia (2006).

Positive emotions range from sympathy, desire, hope, and fascination to relief or satisfaction

(Desmet, 2012). Generally, positive emotions lead to higher purchasing intentions, repurchases,

and attachment (Desmet, 2012). Especially, attachment is a fundamental factor of consumer-

brand-relationships. “Consumer’s emotional attachments to a brand might predict their com-

mitment to the brand … and their willingness to make financial sacrifices in order to obtain it”

(Thomson, Macinnis & Whan Park, 2005, p. 77). Thus, emotional attachment plays a significant

role in the context of branding and maintaining loyal customers as well as avoiding brand

switching (Grisaffe & Nguyen, 2011). For marketers, positive emotions are desirable as brands

profit from the above-mentioned outcomes, namely: higher purchases, attachment, and loyalty.

Focusing on positive consumer-brand-relationships, theories of brand love (Carroll & Ahu-

via, 2006), brand commitment (Warrington & Shim, 2000), brand loyalty, and brand passion

(Albert, Merunka & Valette-Florence, 2013) have been developed. They strive to extend the

research on satisfaction and involvement, which is predominantly based on cognitive infor-

mation processing (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006; Warrington & Shim, 2000). According to Fournier

(1998), brand loyalty theories intend to examine how to strengthen consumer-brand-relation-

ships to efficiently maintain them and are focused on the behavioral outcome of repurchases

(Warrington & Shim, 2000). Brand commitment and brand passion include loyalty as well, but

rather focus on the attitudinal perspective of a consumer who will not change the brand just

because it is unavailable (Warrington & Shim, 2000). Committed and passionate consumers

stay loyal, even though a brand might be sold-out for a moment (Warrington & Shim, 2000).

The concept of brand love (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006), moreover, extends the studies of brand

relationships, loyalty, and passion. It underlines the similarity between interpersonal and brand

love. Brand love arises to the extent that consumers are willing to admit “I love this brand”

(Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006).

However, not only positive emotions and brand attachment exist. Love, passion, trust, and other

positive emotions can also turn into negative ones. Generally, negative emotions seem to have

a higher influence on behavior than positive ones (Fournier & Alvarez, 2013; Hilbig, 2009;

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Zeki & Romaya, 2008). Therefore, negative emotions toward brands have gained the interest

of researchers recently.

Romani, Sadeh and Dalli (2009) find that dislike and anger are the main negative feelings to-

ward brands. They elicit from identification or experiential issues with the brand as the brand

is either seen as a physical object, e.g. a product or a symbolic cultural object, where the con-

sumer cannot identify with the brand values (Romani et al., 2009). However, not only direct

brand experiences can trigger negative emotions, but also brand-related stimuli. Brand-related

stimuli are used as an umbrella term for marketing communications led by the brand, external

communications, e.g. word-of-mouth and anti-branding websites, and certain elements, e.g.

places and people (Keller, 2003; Romani, Grappi & Dalli, 2012).

To which behavioral outcome those negative emotions can lead is illustrated by the concepts of

brand avoidance and brand hate (Fetscherin, 2019; Lee, Motion, et al., 2009). Brand avoidance

is defined as the “phenomenon whereby consumers deliberately choose to keep away from or

reject a brand” (Lee, Conroy, et al., 2009, p. 422). It can be distinguished into four types: expe-

riential, identity, moral, and deficit-value avoidance (Lee, Conroy, et al., 2009). Nevertheless,

consumers need to be able to purchase the brand, precisely, the brand must be available and

affordable. Otherwise, the concept of brand avoidance is not applicable (Lee, Motion, et al.,

2009). Brand hate describes the most negative emotion toward brands (Bryson et al., 2013).

According to Fitness and Fletcher (1993), hate emerges by the perception that the partner – the

brand – badly treated, humiliated or did not support the consumer. Brand hate can result in the

deliberate intention of rejecting or avoiding a brand, or even further, publicly demonstrate brand

rejection (Bryson et al., 2013). Recently, Fetscherin (2019) and Zarantonello et al. (2016) quan-

titatively investigated the emotional components of brand hate, e.g. contempt, fear, disgust, and

anger. Combining those emotions leads to five types of brand hate: cool, simmering, burning,

boiling, and hot hate (Fetscherin, 2019). These types differently affect behavioral outcomes,

e.g. burning hate results in public complaining and brand revenge (Fetscherin, 2019).

Negative emotions are harmful to brands. Therefore, considering how negative emotions arise,

which negative emotions are predominant in consumer-brand-relationships, and how they in-

fluence consumer behavior is important. At its best, negative emotions should never be trig-

gered by any brand-related stimuli.

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2.2 Aspects of Celebrity Brands

After describing how consumer-brand-relationships can take on positive or negative forms, the

next building block of the present research is going to be introduced. Past research on consumer-

brand-relationships has been conducted using corporate brands such as Coca-Cola or Apple.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore, which factors can be identified in the context of rela-

tionships between consumers and celebrity brands. Therefore, the terms celebrity and celebrity

brand will be defined in the following chapter. Moreover, the characteristics of corporate

brands, how they apply to celebrity brands, and how celebrity brands are different from celeb-

rity endorsement is going to be outlined. Finally, social media as a main communication chan-

nel between celebrities and their consumers will be described.

2.2.1 Definition of Celebrities

“In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes”; this quote by Andy Warhol

(1968) may have seemed unbelievable at the time but has become more and more true in the

modern times of the internet and social media. YouTube, Instagram, blogs, reality TV, casting

shows, and similar have helped ordinary people to become famous – at least for a short period

of time (Keel & Nataraajan, 2012). They are celebrated by the public and labeled as internet

stars resulting in the fact that the term celebrity has become quite ambiguous (Keel & Nataraa-

jan, 2012).

For Boorstin (1992) “well-knowness” is enough to qualify someone as a celebrity. Thus, people

from all walks of life are included, e.g. actors, athletes, politicians, chefs, royalty as well as the

above-stated online stars. However, Keel and Nataraajan (2012) argue that the latter are only

considered as a celebrity by their fans and not by someone outside that community. The same

applies to animated characters such as Shrek or Mickey Mouse which children may consider as

celebrities, too (Keel & Nataraajan, 2012; Pringle, 2004). For this reason, creating a definition

of the term celebrity is rather difficult. Hunter (2009) kept Boorstin’s well-knowness charac-

teristic and extended it in his definition of a celebrity, which is “an individual who is well known

to the public for their well-knowness and has an impact on public consciousness” (Hunter, 2009,

p. 22). Similar to this, is the definition of Freire, Quevedo-Silva, Senise and Scrivano (2018)

who identify a celebrity as “a person who is recognized by the public and considered to be a

role model for society, due to his or her professional competence or beauty” (Freire et al., 2018,

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p. 291). Therefore, a celebrity must be famous in the public eye and have some sort of influence

on or importance to society.

However, as discussed before, fame is interpreted subjectively. Furthermore, the marketing

context of this study needs to be considered as well. For these reasons, the definition of Pringle

(2004) is found to be fitting. It states that a celebrity is “anyone who is familiar enough to the

people a brand wishes to communicate with to add values to that communication by association

with their image and reputation” (Pringle, 2004, p. XXIV). The emphasis here is on being “fa-

miliar enough” to your target audience. Concluding from these definitions, for the present pur-

poses a celebrity is defined as a human being who is considered famous within his or her

community and therefore possesses a certain public perception and recognition as well as in-

fluence on his or her target audience.

2.2.2 Definition of Celebrity Brands

Several researchers have investigated celebrities as a brand (Centeno & Wang, 2017; Johns &

English, 2016; Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016; Moulard et al., 2015). As discussed before, many

people are nowadays considered as celebrities and therefore establishing a brand, helps to dif-

ferentiate oneself and stand out from the crowd as well as being recognized immediately (Lu-

nardo et al., 2015). Interestingly, there exists no unified name for this phenomenon, but several

different ones have been used – namely human brand, person brand, and celebrity brand. Table

1 gives an overview of some articles discussing celebrities as brands, which term is used in the

article and which characteristics are stated for defining the term.

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Table 1. Overview of celebrity brand characteristics defined by researchers

Article Term used Defining characteristics Thomson (2006) Human brand − Well-known

− Involved in marketing communication efforts

Lunardo et al. (2015) Human brand, person brand

− Known by the public − Competing to differentiate themselves

from competitors − Subject of marketing, interpersonal or

inter-organizational communications Centeno & Wang (2017)

Human brand − Performed activities of celebrities are following marketing and branding pur-poses

− Life choices and values are publicly known

Johns & English (2016) Celebrity brand − Celebrities build a brand through iden-tity discourses

− Fabricate an authentic and credible persona

− Develop relationships with consumers which can impact purchase decisions

Moulard et al. (2015) Human brand, celebrity brand

− Celebrities have a high influence on public

− Own self-branded business ventures which generate high profits

− Consumers’ attitudes toward them need to be managed

Kowalczyk & Pounders (2016)

Human brand − Celebrities engage online with con-sumers, manage the associations drawn to them, and control their per-sona

During the research, it was discovered that the term human brand is also used in the context of

brand anthropomorphism, referring to a corporate brand with humanlike characteristics

(Malone & Fiske, 2013; Portal, Abratt & Bendixen, 2018). Therefore, the authors have decided

to follow the study of Johns and English (2016) and use the term celebrity brand in the present

thesis. After reviewing the articles and deciding on a term, the following definition for celeb-

rity brand was established: a well-known individual who uses his or her fame for marketing

and communication efforts in order to build brand properties connected to his or her person

(Lunardo et al., 2015; Moulard et al., 2015; Seno & Lukas, 2007; Thomson, 2006).

12

2.2.3 How Celebrities constitute as a Brand

To further understand how celebrities can constitute as a brand, the characteristics of corporate

brands are going to be discussed and applied to celebrities. Moreover, the distinction between

a celebrity brand and celebrity endorsement is going to be made clear.

The power of a brand cannot be underestimated. For some of the most valuable global compa-

nies, more than half of their corporate value derives from their brand (Chong, 2007). Generally,

a brand is “what a company sells, what a company does, and what a company is” (Davis,

2000, p. 4). Establishing a strong brand brings many important benefits. Usually, the customer

forms a relationship with the brand rather than with the products or services of the company

(Davis, 2000). It is important that the coffee is from Starbucks although it might taste the same

as the coffee in any other coffee shop. Branding influences customer choice and helps a firm to

differentiate itself from its competitors and maximize its financial returns (Chong, 2007; Davis,

2000). A company that has succeeded in establishing a strong brand is immediately recognized

worldwide and has managed to create a unique positioning in the minds of the consumers (Da-

vis, 2000; Harmer, 2004). The world’s leading corporate brands each have specific associations

drawn to them, e.g. Coca-Cola stands for happiness and individual performance is connected to

Nike (Davis, 2000). Besides customers, a strong brand also attracts other stakeholders such as

employees, business partners, and investors (Chong, 2007).

Similar to corporate brands, a celebrity benefits from brand building as well. Although a celeb-

rity brand is represented by a human, it is a manufactured construct and needs to be carefully

managed (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016; Lunardo et al., 2015). Celebrities even employ a

brand manager or publicist for this task (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016), especially if their fan

base is too large to be managed by themselves. Brand features or properties such as reputation,

credibility, and image apply for celebrities as well (Seno & Lukas, 2007; Thomson, 2006).

These brand properties are created by manufacturing a persona (Johns & English, 2016).

Hence, the established persona of the celebrity represents their brand or to repeat the above-

mentioned definition of a brand, it is what the celebrity sells, what the celebrity does, and

what the celebrity is. Just like for corporate brands, a strong brand helps celebrities to create

a unique positioning which differentiates them from other celebrities. For example, Kylie Jen-

ner has successfully positioned herself as a beauty guru. All activities performed by her – re-

gardless of in public or private – are following marketing and branding purposes (Centeno &

Wang, 2017).

13

A celebrity brand therefore comprises more than just celebrity endorsement. Celebrity endorse-

ment describes a marketing communication technique in which a celebrity advertises a product

or service in order to add value to the good and its brand (Amos, Holmes & Strutton, 2008).

This is done, by transferring positive attributes associated with the celebrity, e.g. likeability or

trustworthiness, to the company, brand or good (Amos et al., 2008; Erdogan, 1999). The goal

is, to create awareness, liking, and the desire to purchase the endorsed product or service within

consumers (Knoll & Matthes, 2017). In this way, corporate brands can make use of celebrities

by hiring them to endorse their products and services. Of course, celebrities can also endorse

their own products, nevertheless, endorsement is restricted to advertisement. Therefore, celeb-

rity endorsement differentiates from a celebrity brand as it only includes what a celebrity

sells and not also what the celebrity does and is.

2.2.4 Social Media and Celebrity Brands

Particularly in the modern times of extensive media obtrusiveness, information about celebrities

are available everywhere (Zhou & Whitla, 2013). However, before social media existed, con-

sumers only received information about celebrities via traditional media such as magazines or

television, which made them passive audience members (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016).

Through social media platforms, e.g. Instagram or Twitter, this indirect, one-way communica-

tion has changed into a direct, two-way one (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). In this way, brands

are humanized, and celebrities become more approachable (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016).

Moreover, on social media celebrities can take ownership of their image by posting information

about themselves on their social media pages at any time. Further, consumers can then leave

“likes” or comments on these posts or even send them a private message making them feel close

and connected to the celebrity (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). Sometimes, celebrities even

respond to their fans online, promoting consumer engagement and emotional attachment. In

this way, they can control and further develop their brand.

Nevertheless, social media also comes with a risk and great responsibility for the celebrities.

Consumers are not only interested in career-related information, but also personal stories which

create authenticity (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). Keeping fans updated and trying to engage

with them can be quite time consuming, especially when the celebrity has a large fan base.

However, using a ghostwriter for the handling of the celebrity’s social media channels might

lead to severe damages to the celebrity’s perceived sincerity (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016).

14

Consumer disengagement and the spread of negative word-of-mouth (WOM) might be the re-

sult (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). Further backlashes might occur when the celebrity is post-

ing a controversial statement or is involving in a sensitive topic (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016).

For this reason, celebrities must be aware that they are not only judged for their work, but also

many other things and that social media can be a powerful tool for brand building, but can also

create great damage to it (Izadi, 2017).

To summarize, the traditional concepts of celebrity and celebrity endorsement have been ex-

panded to celebrity brands. By establishing brand properties such as a certain image or reputa-

tion, celebrities are striving for uniqueness and popularity. Social media further helps them to

create a personal dialogue with their consumers, but also bears risks for encountering resent-

ment.

2.3 Brand Strengthening as Neutralization Actions

So far, a clear understanding of consumer-brand-relationships and celebrity brands has been

established. As mentioned before, social media and in general, the behavior and perception of

a celebrity can greatly harm but also support his/her brand-building activities. One aim of the

present research is to develop neutralization actions which positively impact these emotions

and behaviors. For this purpose, the following chapter elaborates on negative emotions which

consumers can have toward a celebrity brand. In order to cope with these negative emotions

and their possible negative impacts on the celebrity, factors for brand strengthening and their

implementation as neutralization actions will be discussed.

2.3.1 Need for Neutralization Actions

As previously mentioned, consumer-brand-relationships exist in negative forms. Whereas re-

searchers studied negative emotions toward corporate brands (Bryson et al., 2013; Fetscherin,

2019; Kucuk, 2019; Lee, Motion, et al., 2009; Zarantonello et al., 2016), research on negative

emotions toward celebrity brands lacks. To argue for a need for neutralization actions for ce-

lebrity brands, findings of celebrity endorsement studies as well as negative emotions toward

corporate brands and the behavioral outcomes of these emotions are further explained within

this chapter.

15

Celebrity endorsement has the positive effect of creating brand awareness, establishing positive

attitudes toward a brand through celebrity identification and of course, financial impacts by

increased sales and profits (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995; Aureliano-Silva et al., 2015; Bergkvist

& Zhou, 2016; Erdogan, 1999; Miciak & Shanklin, 1994; Thomson, 2006; Wei & Lu, 2013).

However, it has been examined that marketers put their brand at risk when using celebrity en-

dorsers (Um, 2013). Several examples of negative publicity for a brand and company by celeb-

rities’ transgressions exist (Louie et al., 2001; Moulard et al., 2015). Some researchers found

that factors such as culture, gender, and identification with the celebrity influence consumer’s

brand perceptions after receiving negative information about the celebrity (Ahluwalia et al.,

2000; Edwards & La Ferle, 2009; Um & Lee, 2015). Moreover, the moral reputation of celeb-

rities has a substantial influence on their endorsements, especially in terms of likability and

trustworthiness (Zhou & Whitla, 2013). The identification and moral factors match with the

concept of brand avoidance, especially identification and moral brand avoidance (Lee, Conroy,

et al., 2009). Further, Louie et al. (2001) found negative publicity of a brand endorser to cause

negative financial impacts for a company by using stock returns as a financial performance

indicator. However, also more characteristic attributes of the celebrity can influence the affec-

tion for celebrities, namely attractiveness, expertise, and credibility (Freire et al., 2018; Um,

2013). A celebrity’s physical appearance represents the factor attractiveness, whereas expertise

is expressed through the celebrity’s knowledge on a certain topic that the celebrity deals with

(Um, 2013). Credibility refers to the trustworthiness and hence honesty of the celebrity toward

his/her audience (Um, 2013).

In the case of celebrity brands, the celebrity itself is one entity with the brand (Freire et al.,

2018). Based on the literature of celebrity endorsement (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Edwards & La

Ferle, 2009; Louie et al., 2001), it is presumable that negative emotions toward the celebrity are

consequently reflected on the celebrity brand. Hence, theories of negative interpersonal rela-

tionships can be considered to further elaborate emotions toward brands and consumer reactions

based on those emotions. Specifically, Sternberg’s (2003) triangular theory of hate is commonly

used as an underlying theoretical model for concepts of negative consumer-brand-relationships.

It states that “hate has multiple components that can manifest themselves in different ways on

different occasions” (Sternberg, 2003, p. 306). Thus, hate is not one single emotion but a con-

struct comprising three different emotions which are disgust, contempt, and anger (Fetscherin,

2019).

16

Bougie, Pieters and Zeelenberg (2003) examined the reactions of angry people who think of

violence and unfairness. Further, they consider complaining and behaving nasty as well as ag-

gressively as reactions of angry people (Bougie et al., 2003; Johnson, Matear & Thomson, 2011;

Romani, Grappi & Bagozzi, 2013). Anger is triggered by an unfair event and if high relevancy

for the person is given (Bougie et al., 2003; Johnson et al., 2011; Nyer, 1997).

Contempt is a frequently occurring emotion in psychological far distant relationships toward

brands which are defined by the perceived self-irrelevance of brand associations (Park,

Eisingerich & Park, 2013). It leads to punishing the brand by avoiding it (Romani et al., 2013).

Compared to anger, it might be the higher punishment for the brand as angry customers still

interact with the brand instead of avoiding it completely (Romani et al., 2013).

One of the most basic human emotion is disgust (Dens, De Pelsmacker & Janssens, 2008;

Romani et al., 2012). It is even used in advertisements to reach awareness, which is especially

effective for new brands (Dens et al., 2008). However, it leads to a negative attitude toward the

brand (Dens et al., 2008).

The findings of celebrity endorsement studies, that moral reputation and identification issues

can lead to negative perceptions of the celebrity, are presumably also valid for celebrity brands.

Further, the above-mentioned emotions might be outcomes of the reasons for negative percep-

tions. These emotions then lead to avoiding and complaining behavior (Bougie et al., 2013;

Romani et al., 2013) which is not desirable for celebrity brands. Thus, it is particularly interest-

ing how these emotions can be neutralized by establishing a strong celebrity brand in order to

minimize the spread of negative WOM and consumers avoiding the celebrity brand.

2.3.2 Brand Strengthening Factors

Companies’ most important asset are their brands (Davis, 2000). By maximizing the power of

its brand, a firm maximizes its consumer-brand-relationships which drive the growth and finan-

cial returns of the company (Davis, 2000). Hence, a strong brand is key for establishing positive

relationships such as brand loyalty or brand love. Thus, factors which strengthen a brand should

consequently have a positive impact on negative consumer-brand-relationships as well. There-

fore, brand strengthening factors are taken from the corporate brand context and are applied to

celebrity brands in order to help celebrities in creating a successful brand as well as serving as

the basis for neutralization actions.

17

Davis (2000) identified four characteristics which form a strong corporate brand. These four

characteristics are promise, acceptance, trust, and hope – short PATH. They are intangible,

oftentimes emotional assets, which are at the core of what makes a brand successful. In order

to illustrate this, Davis (2000) used Mercedes as an example. Consumers are not only purchas-

ing a car from Mercedes but also the promise of a well-engineered and high-level comfort au-

tomobile, which makes them part of the Mercedes community as well as signaling prestige and

prosperity to their surroundings. Furthermore, consumers trust that a Mercedes car is durable

and reliable as well as hope that it is stable in price leading to a low depreciation. In this way,

the brand Mercedes stands for a lot more than just cars. PATH helps them to not only differen-

tiate themselves from their competitors but to be perceived as more valuable in the minds of

the consumers (Davis, 2000).

PATH is especially relevant for celebrity brands as they rely even more on intangible and emo-

tional assets. Their public perception and reputation are crucial for them in terms of likeability

and trustworthiness and therefore success (Zhou & Whitla, 2013). As the consumer-brand-re-

lationship between the consumer and the celebrity is comparable with an interpersonal relation-

ship, it can be referred to as research on how to build promise, acceptance, trust, or hope inter-

personally. Trust, for example, was found to be established by being open, share influence,

delegate, and manage mutual expectations within an interpersonal relationship (Deering & Mur-

phy, 1998; Six, 2005). Further, positive signals have to be sent frequently to manifest trust (Six,

2005). The four criteria of PATH are, moreover, related to each other as, for example, ac-

ceptance is primarily expressed through affection, which comprises sending messages, e.g. of

love or kindness (Floyd, 2016; Rohner & Lansford, 2017). Hence, trust and acceptance are built

in similar ways. Furthermore, PATH can help celebrities to build brand equity. Brand equity in

this context refers to “biased consumer actions” (Faircloth, Capella & Alford, 2001, p. 62)

caused by positive associations connected to the brand (Seno & Lukas, 2007), e.g. choosing

one brand over another. Hence, brand equity leads to brand preference and thus higher financial

returns. For these reasons, the authors identified the four criteria of PATH to be relevant brand

strengthening factors for celebrity brands.

Furthermore, the two criteria attachment and authenticity were identified in past research on

celebrity brands to be crucial for their success (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016; Moulard et al.,

2015; Thomson, 2006). According to Fournier (1998), attachment and love build the basis of a

strong consumer-brand-relationship. Attachment in the context of celebrity brands is defined

as “the intensity of a person’s target-specific emotional bond with a human brand” (Thomson,

18

2006, p. 105). A strong attachment to a celebrity brand leads to an increase in consumers’ sat-

isfaction, trust, and commitment toward the celebrity brand (Thomson, 2006). It is built by

focusing on people’s basic psychological needs, which are autonomy, relatedness, and compe-

tence. They differentiate themselves from other needs by their endurance (Deci & Ryan, 2000;

Thomson, 2006). Hence, as in the concept of building trust, consistency and repetition are key

for celebrity brands and their interaction with consumers (Beech, Chadwick & Tapp, 2000;

Berman & Sperling, 1994).

Furthermore, authenticity in the case of celebrity brands describes “the perception that a ce-

lebrity behaves according to his or her true self” (Moulard et al., 2015, p. 175). Rarity and

stability are two factors influencing people’s perception of behaving according to the self (Mou-

lard et al., 2015). Rarity in this context, refers to holding unique characteristics compared to

other celebrities, whereas stability means being steadfast in one’s actions and words (Moulard

et al., 2015). Authenticity has a positive influence on consumers’ attitudes toward the celebrity,

which leads to favorable behavioral outcomes, e.g. decision making or positive WOM (Moulard

et al., 2015; Moulard, Rice, Garrity & Mangus, 2014).

For these reasons, the six brand strengthening factors promise, acceptance, trust, hope, attach-

ment, and authenticity were identified as possible theoretical basis to develop neutralization

actions for celebrity brands which face negative consumer emotions toward them. As a strong

brand is not only a success factor for corporate but also celebrity brands, establishing and main-

taining these brand strengthening factors is of high relevance for them. It is implied that through

them, a negative perception of the celebrity and thus undesirable behavioral outcomes of con-

sumers are minimized.

2.4 Deduction of the Research Questions

Consumer-brand-relationships are at the core of marketing. Several different types of these re-

lationships have been identified and examined by researchers in the last decades (Albert et al.,

2013; Kucuk, 2019; Lee, Conroy, et al., 2009; Warrington & Shim, 2000). The quality of con-

sumer-brand-relationships can either be cognitive, behavioral, or emotional driven (Fournier,

1998). These researches were done by finding parallels between interpersonal bonds and bonds

between a human and a brand (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006; Zarantonello et al., 2016). Hence, as in

human relationships, positive and negative types of consumer-brand-relationships exist. Emo-

tions play a key role in these, ranging from brand love to brand hate. In these studies, researchers

19

have matched human emotions to brands. However, as these studies are coming from a social

study background, the concept of consumer-brand-relationships should fit even better to celeb-

rity brands, where the brand is represented by a human being and not a corporation. Further-

more, in modern times of extensive media coverage, the communication and therefore also the

intensity of the relationship between consumers and brands have changed (Kowalczyk &

Pounders, 2016). Especially celebrities have benefited from social media to market themselves

as their own brand (Johns & English, 2016; Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). However, social

media does not only bring opportunities for building a strong fan or consumer base but also a

great risk of facing negative backlash.

To summarize, the starting point of this study are consumer-brand-relationships which combine

social studies and marketing research. As they derive from human relationships, a good fit for

celebrity brands is presumed. Through modern media, celebrities are the target of a lot of neg-

ative emotions and feedback. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the nega-

tive emotions and behaviors occurring in consumer-brand-relationships regarding celebrity

brands and how celebrities should react to these.

For these reasons, the first research question What are the reasons for negative emotions toward

celebrity brands? was deducted in order to find out what elicits negative emotions. Past research

touched on the reasons for negative emotions toward corporate brands. For instance, the concept

of brand avoidance includes several forms of avoidance such as experience avoidance, whereby

“experience” indicates the reason for avoidance (Lee, Conroy, et al., 2009). Further, past re-

search investigated attractiveness, credibility, and expertise, as reasons for an attitude change

toward celebrities (Freire et al., 2018; Um, 2013). Additionally, which negative emotions to-

ward celebrity brands are triggered by those reasons is examined. For example, in the concept

of brand hate, anger, disgust, and contempt were identified as the three predominant emotions

(Fetscherin, 2019).

These negative emotions toward corporate brands further can cause negative behavioral out-

comes such as private or public complaining (Fetscherin, 2019). The same can be observed in

the concept of brand avoidance, in which consumers refuse to purchase products or services

from a brand due to negative experiences or opinions about the brand (Lee, Conroy, et al.,

2009). However, only behavioral outcomes of negative emotions toward corporate brands have

been investigated and the role of social media in terms of consuming celebrity brands is unclear.

Hence, the second research question What behavioral outcomes derive from negative emotions

20

toward celebrity brands? was created to identify unfavorable behaviors triggered by negative

emotions toward celebrity brands.

Lastly, the third research question What can the celebrity brand do to neutralize the negative

emotions toward its brand? was formulated in order to investigate how celebrities can posi-

tively impact the relationship with their consumers or fans. Past research identified the factors

promise, acceptance, trust, and hope as well as attachment and authenticity to build a strong

consumer-brand-relationship (Davis, 2000; Moulard et al., 2015; Thomson, 2006). Though it is

not evident if these factors conversely also function as neutralization actions for celebrity

brands and which other actions can alleviate negative emotions toward them.

21

3. Methodology

To answer the three research questions of this thesis, an exploratory research design is used.

Further, a qualitative method in the form of interviews was chosen to get deeper insights into

participants’ reasons for negative emotions toward celebrities and how they might be alleviated

by a behavioral change of the celebrity. The following chapter further describes the data col-

lection process to understand how the research questions will be answered.

3.1 Research Philosophy

The philosophical approach is used to understand why research is conducted and refers to be-

liefs about knowledge generation (Saunders et al., 2016). The assumptions made about the na-

ture of realities during this research, support the understanding of the used research methodol-

ogy, and the findings presented later in this thesis (Crotty, 1998; Saunders et al., 2016).

Major existing philosophies are positivism, critical realism, interpretivism, postmodernism, and

pragmatism (Easterby-Smith, 2018; Saunders et al., 2016). In order to know, which philosophy

to select, it is important to understand how the world is assumed to be. There are three common

notions on assumptions of the world among researchers: ontology, epistemology, and axiology

(Easterby-Smith, 2018). Ontology refers to the nature of reality and can be distinguished further

into objectivism and subjectivism (Saunders et al., 2016). Epistemology describes what counts

as acceptable knowledge in the frame of research (Collis & Hussey, 2014). Objective data might

be one epistemological branch but studying attitudes and feelings might be another (Collis &

Hussey, 2014). Lastly, axiology deals with the researcher’s values and their role during the

research (Collis & Hussey, 2014).

Distinction between the research philosophies can be done based on these assumption con-

structs. The stream of positivism includes an objective view of reality (ontology) and the re-

searcher acts independently from the study without taking his values into consideration (axiol-

ogy; Saunders et al., 2016). Thus, data is collected on large samples to find causalities and to

draw generalizations (epistemology; Saunders et al., 2016). Contrary, a subjective view on the

reality which is socially constructed is given in the ontological perspective of interpretivism

(Saunders et al., 2016). Thus, the researcher and his/her values are part of the research due to

the view of the world as a social construct and subjective meanings are studied (Saunders et al.,

2016).

22

As this research aims to explore how celebrities can neutralize negative emotions toward their

brand, interpretivism is the selected research philosophy. Research is done among people who

have negative emotions toward celebrity brands. Hence, people are the research focus rather

than objects and an understanding of the differences of socially acting humans will be gained.

Gaining insights into people’s view of the world, meanings, and interpretations is the occurring

challenge in interpretivism (Saunders et al., 2016).

As the nature of reality is viewed as a social construct in the case of this research, subjectivism

consequently follows as an ontological perspective (Saunders et al., 2016). This research tries

to understand the subjective perspective of consumers who have negative emotions toward a

celebrity brand. Emotions are implicitly very subjective. Thus, understanding what elicits the

negative emotions, what emotions does the person have, and what might help to neutralize those

emotions can only be examined by making sense of the person’s subjective thinking.

3.2 Research Approach

Indicating the appropriate research approach for the undertaken study, enables the researchers

to structure their research method accordingly to the research questions and to clarify how con-

clusions will be drawn (Easterby-Smith, 2018). Three research approach streams exist: deduc-

tive, inductive, and abductive (Saunders et al., 2016). Deductive is most likely related to the

research philosophy of positivism (Saunders et al., 2016). In deduction, theory and research are

highly connected to each other as through hypotheses, which are built out of existing theories,

a theoretical model will be falsified, verified, or enhanced (Bryman & Bell, 2015; Robson &

McCartan, 2016). Conversely, induction indicates that a theory is formed based on collected

and analyzed data (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010; Saunders et al., 2016). Thus, induction strives

to find common patterns in the collected data to draw theoretical conclusions.

Abduction generally is a combination of induction and deduction (Suddaby, 2006). Like an

inductive approach, abductive research starts with an observation and collection of data to find

common patterns (Saunders et al., 2016). Thus, “abduction assigns primacy to the empirical

world, but in the service of theorizing” (Van Maanen, Sorensen & Mitchell, 2007, p. 1149). As

this study aims to inductively explore how celebrities can neutralize negative emotions toward

their brands and uses theoretical concepts of negative emotions toward brands to cluster the

research findings, abduction is the research approach of this study.

23

Consequently, abduction is followed by a deductive testing of the theoretical conclusions drawn

from the abductive approach (Kovács & Spens, 2005; Van Maanen et al., 2007). However, this

study focuses on the abductive part only, whereas the testing might be done by future research.

3.3 Research Design

The research design is the general plan of which method and data collection tool will be used

to answer the research question (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010). To define an appropriate method,

the research stream – exploratory, descriptive, or causal – should be set before (Zikmund, Ba-

bin, Carr & Griffin, 2010).

Exploratory studies strive to find insights on the studied problem by asking open questions

(Saunders et al., 2016). It does not aim to find conclusive results, but rather to get appropriate

knowledge about an understudied phenomenon (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010; Zikmund et al.,

2010). Further, explanatory research allows flexibility and data collection can be spontaneously

adjusted if appropriate (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010). Descriptive research implicitly focuses on

describing objects and/or environments by clarifying the research problem first and then fol-

lowing a structural approach of conducting the study (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010; Saunders et

al., 2016; Zikmund et al., 2010). Causal research is applied when studying relationships be-

tween variables (Saunders et al., 2016).

The appropriate research design for this study is exploratory. The study strives to gain insights

into the phenomenon of celebrity brands (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Overview of Research Purpose

24

Thus, three open research questions were formulated to find insights into the three research

areas (see Figure 2). The research questions focus on the following research streams:

1. Reasons for negative emotions toward celebrity brands

2. Behavioral changes driven by negative emotions

3. Neutralization actions that the celebrity can undertake

To answer the research questions, it is important to understand the perspective of consumers

who experience negative emotions toward a celebrity. Further, emotions are oppositional to

rationality. For one person, moral reasons might be a driver for negative emotions, whereas, for

others, identification issues might cause negative emotions. A structural approach with pre-

defined answer options might not be appropriate to get insights. Instead, the exploratory re-

search design allows the authors to react to the study’s participants. Flexibility is needed during

the data collection to adjust questions and to ask for further explanation in order to better un-

derstand the three research aspects (see Figure 2).

3.4 Research Method

Following the identified research philosophy of interpretivism, the research approach of abduc-

tion, and the exploratory research design, a qualitative research method is used to answer this

study’s research questions. Qualitative research methods enable researchers to study social phe-

nomena (Myers, 2020). Thus, its focus is on understanding the participants’ views on the prob-

lem rather than testing assumptions (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010). Collected data will be con-

ceptualized and interpreted to find commonalities (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010).

To answer the research questions of this study, participants were identified to give the research-

ers insights on their perspective on the negative emotions toward celebrity brands. Thus, data

was collected through semi-structured interviews in this study. Generally, interviews can be

done in groups or individually (Myers, 2020). As this research does not focus on any specific

celebrity brand, individual interviews applied better to collect appropriate data from a partici-

pant’s point of view.

Semi-structured interviews allow the researcher to react flexibly during the interview (Myers,

2020). Questions can be added, left out or the order of questions can be changed while inter-

viewing the participant. This flexibility is not given in structured interviews (Bryman & Bell,

2015). Still, semi-structured as well as structured interviews have pre-prepared questions and

25

hence guidance through the topic (Easterby-Smith, 2018). Concluding, individual semi-struc-

tured interviews were the research method in this study.

3.5 Data Collection

In this research, primary and secondary data was collected. An extensive literature review was

conducted in order to establish the theoretical framework of the study as well as for the formu-

lation of the research problem and purpose. Based on the information collected via secondary

sources, semi-structured interviews, as mentioned before, were chosen to constitute as a tool

for the primary data collection of this research. Therefore, a research instrument in the form of

an interview guide (cf. Appendix 1) was designed to provide guidance and structure as well as

to ensure that each participant was asked the same questions. The guide is divided into five

different sections:

Personal Respondents’ Information

The first section deals with some personal data about the participant such as age and occupation.

These questions were included to see the diversity of participants and to understand their current

stage in life.

Introduction to Social Media Habits and Celebrity Content Consumption

With the semi-structured interviews, the researchers strived to get insights into the participants’

perspective without asking every single question, but rather letting the participant share his/her

perspective. Hence, to encourage the participants to talk openly, some questions about their

social media behavior were asked. Further, the research deals with negative emotions toward

celebrity brands and due to social media, becoming a celebrity brand is presumably easier

(Johns & English, 2016). The participants were asked to share their experiences with celebrities

on social media, whether they follow celebrities and for which reasons, in order to get a better

understanding of their consumption of celebrity-related content.

Reasons for Negative Emotions toward a Celebrity Brand

Consumer-brand-relationships are influenced by negative emotions (Fetscherin, 2019; Zaran-

tonello et al., 2016). The authors assumed that the findings from corporate consumer-brand-

relationships also apply to the relationships between celebrity brands and consumers. Past re-

26

search showed that several reasons lead to negative emotions. For instance, moral clashes, iden-

tification issues, or missing credibility (Lee, Motion, et al., 2009; Um, 2013) or trigger events

such as celebrity scandals (Freire et al., 2018). The first research question acts on the reasons

for negative emotions. Thus, in the third part of the interviews, the negative emotions of the

participant toward the celebrity brand were deeper investigated. Open-ended questions were

used to encourage a broad description of the participant’s perspective without restricting it to a

specific direction.

Behavioral Outcomes of Negative Emotions toward Celebrities

Lee, Motion, et al. (2009) found that negative emotions due to different reasons such as moral

ones, lead to brand avoidance. Fetscherin (2019) linked in his study the level of hate to different

behavioral outcomes, e.g. public complaining, visiting anti-branding websites, and willingness

to make financial sacrifices. To investigate which behavioral outcomes derive from the negative

emotions toward celebrities, the second research question was built. To answer this question,

the fourth section of the interview guide is concerned with the behavioral outcomes following

the negative emotions. Furthermore, participants were asked if these activities provide any feel-

ing of satisfaction or release for them as well as if they think that they have any impact on the

celebrity. This was asked to get deeper insights into the consumer’s motivation behind his/her

behavior.

Possible Neutralization Actions of Negative Emotions

The last section of the interview guide specifically targeted the third research question of this

study by asking for specific actions the celebrity could undertake, to change the interviewee’s

view of him/her to a less negative one. Situational settings, which would also encourage such a

shift, were asked to describe as well. Out of these findings, recommendations can be defined

for the celebrity to alleviate negative emotions.

Before starting with the actual primary data collection, two test interviews were conducted on

March 27, 2020. The purpose of a pilot test is to avoid misunderstandings of the participants

regarding the research problem and interview questions (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010). In this

way, valuable feedback was collected which helped to adjust the interview guide, eliminating

all ambiguities. For instance, a question was added to highlight the attributes of the celebrity

instead of only getting insights on their behavior. Further, the pre-test uncovered, that partici-

pants less likely describe their negative emotions without the interviewee asking specifically

for it.

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The authors further used the test sessions to synchronize the interview process as the actual

interviews were held separately and not with both authors present. Finally, 16 interviews were

conducted between the 27th of March and the 6th of April 2020. Due to almost all participants

living outside of Sweden, the interviews were held via telephone or Skype and recorded for

analysis purposes.

3.6 Sampling

For the sample selection of this research, purposive sampling was used which is a form of non-

probability sampling (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The aim of purposive sampling is to select par-

ticipants based on their fit to the research question instead of sampling randomly (Bryman &

Bell, 2015). The purpose of the present study is to investigate the negative emotions of con-

sumers toward a celebrity brand and establishing possible actions or situations which can neu-

tralize these emotions. Hence, the participants were required to have some sort of negative re-

lationship with a celebrity which served as a selection criterion. For this reason, criterion sam-

pling (Bryman & Bell, 2015) was used in order to ensure the existence of such negative emo-

tions. Due to the high relevance of social media in establishing a celebrity brand, the partici-

pants were also required to use social media. Other than that, no restrictions concerning, e.g.

age or gender, were made.

In order to find fitting participants, the authors searched on social media, namely Facebook,

Instagram, YouTube, and blogs, for user comments which contained a negative statement about

a celebrity. Celebrities were chosen on the authors best knowledge of celebrities and articles

that deal with celebrity rankings, for instance, the Top 100 influencers in 2019. If the authors

classified the comment as relevant, the user was contacted to further check if he/she qualified

and was also willing to participate in the study. Due to this selection process, it was not possible

to gain insights into completely randomly selected celebrities as the authors had to specifically

search for comments on the social media pages of celebrities. Thus, additionally, snowball

sampling was used. Snowball sampling indicates that participants were obtained from infor-

mation received by the first selected participants (Zikmund et al., 2010). This enabled the au-

thors to find participants with negative emotions toward several celebrity types. In the end, data

was gathered on 15 celebrity brands, including singers, reality stars, a comedian, a moderator,

an author, bloggers, and athletes.

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3.7 Research Ethics

It is important to address the ethical considerations of this research, especially as it involved

trust-based interactions with human beings (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). The authors followed

the ethical research principles in order to protect the interviewees. The participation in the study

happened on a voluntary basis with full information about the research purpose and process

provided beforehand. Furthermore, no sensitive questions were asked which could have caused

mental stress or an invasion of participants’ privacy (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010). Before start-

ing the interview, each participant was asked for their agreement on recording the interview.

Moreover, he/she was informed about the anonymous and confidential use of the data only for

this thesis. Lastly, the participants were able to exit the study at any given point of time as well

as to refuse to answer a question.

3.8 Research Quality

As alternatives to validity and reliability which are used in quantitative studies, Lincoln and

Guba (1985) established the criteria of trustworthiness and authenticity for evaluating the re-

search quality of qualitative studies.

Authenticity

The authenticity of a qualitative study is given when the strategies used are “appropriate for the

‘true’ reporting of participants’ ideas, when the study is fair, and when it helps participants and

similar groups to understand their world and improve it” (Daymon & Holloway, 2011, p. 84).

In other words, several realities must be shown in a complete, true, and fair way which can be

achieved, e.g. by adequate sampling and a thorough presentation of participants’ perspectives

(Connelly, 2016). For this reason, the interviewees were chosen based on publicly sharing their

negative emotions toward a celebrity. During the interviews, they were then able to explain

their views and feelings in a very detailed way which the authors tried to portray as well as

possible.

Trustworthiness

The trustworthiness of research is defined as “the degree of confidence in data, interpretation,

and methods used to ensure the quality of a study” (Connelly, 2016, p. 435). For its evaluation,

four criteria are used: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Bryman &

Bell, 2015; Daymon & Holloway, 2011).

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Credibility displays the most important of these four criteria and presents, according to Lincoln

and Guba (1985), the aim of qualitative research. A study is considered credible if it was con-

ducted using adequate procedures that are in accordance with good research practice (Bryman

& Bell, 2015; Connelly, 2016). In the present case, semi-structured interviews were employed

which constitute as a standard method for qualitative data collection (Bryman & Bell, 2015).

Furthermore, credibility shows the truth of the data meaning how well the views of the partici-

pants were presented and interpreted by the researcher (Cope, 2014). In order to ensure a full

understanding, the authors acquired an extensive theoretical knowledge of the topic. Moreover,

additional questions were asked if ambiguities occurred during the interviews. Lastly, peer re-

view was used to eliminate any biased or unclear data interpretation.

Due to the very small sample sizes, qualitative studies are never generalizable. However, their

findings still might be transferable to other settings, situations, or groups (Cope, 2014; Daymon

& Holloway, 2011). Therefore, transferability is given if people who did not participate in the

study are able to connect the research results to their own experiences (Cope, 2014). As the