Anti-Branding on the Internet

Individual preparation assignment 3:

« Anti-branding on the internet » Sandeep Krishnamurthy & S. Umit Kucuk

This text deals with anti-brand web sites. These web sites are online spaces where we can find negative aspects of a specific targeted brand. Nowadays this type of websites are more and more present on the web. In the text the authors will study the brand value's impact on likelihood of the presence of anti-brand sites but also the nature of the language used by anti-brand sites.

Before looking at these studies we will see where this anti-brand feeling does come from. The anti-branding process has two causal antecedents: “consumer empowerment” as a precondition (Internet enables this phenomenon through greater access to legal information) and “consumer dissatisfaction” (greater dissatisfaction is greater likelihood of anti-branding is) as a trigger. There are three types of dissatisfaction : transactional (which represents dissatisfaction with a retailer on the level of service), market dissatisfaction (which represents dissatisfaction with business practices) and ideological dissatisfaction (which represents dissatisfaction with the economic system). These two factors are the reason of anti-brand sites presence.

1) The impact of anti-brand web sites on a brand value

In this study authors tried to define the impact of anti-branding web sites on a brand value. They have ventured two hypotheses : «The higher the brand value, the greater the likelihood of presence of anti-brand sites. » and «The presence of anti-brand sites is associated with negative changes in brand value. » Thanks to their researches on the web they have found that their results confirmed their hypotheses. The presence of anti-brand sites positively affects brand value and negatively affects change in brand value.
This study indicates that strong brands are more likely to be targeted for anti-brand sites.

2) The language used in anti-brand web sites

In this study authors tried to show the language used in anti-brand web sites and its effect on brand value. Thanks to their researches (they used using a text analyzer in anti brand web sites to classify content units) they presented that there is three communication patterns: market (using market-related expertise to criticize brands), ideological (focus on attacks that are personal or partisan in nature) or transactional (showcase transaction-related failures) speech. Market speech is more prevalent in comparison to the other two categories and is more linked with brand value. This study demonstrates the strategic behavior of these sites in the online marketplace.
Both studies show that strong brands are motre targetted by anti-brand web sites.

After reading this text, we can conclude that anti-brand web sites have a negative impact on brand value and particularly on strong brands. This phenomenon is possible because of the use of Internet which has created an empowered consumer.