Emotions that drive consumers away from brands: Measuring negative emotions toward brands and their behavioral effects

Consumers’ appraisals of brand-related stimuli originating from both marketer- and non-marketer-controlled sources of information may evoke negative emotional reactions toward certain brands. We derive a scale that includes six distinct brand-related negative emotions (anger, discontent, dislike, embarrassment, sadness, and worry). Studies 1 through 4 demonstrate that our scale achieves convergent and discriminant validity and provides superior insights and better predictions compared to extant emotion scales. Study 5 manipulates specific negative brand-related emotions and reveals that they predict particular behavioral outcomes (i.e., switching, complaining, and negative word of mouth).