Negative emotions toward a financial brand: the opposite impact on brand love

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the scandals and distrust over the past years in brand love regarding a classic and well-known financial brand. The authors consider the antecedents of brand love contemplating the role of negative emotions, engagement and authenticity. The authors study the brand of a Portuguese bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, which was associated with harmful management and had to be intervened with monetary aid from the government. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was used to collect data. The authors applied a confirmatory factor analysis and the hypotheses were tested by the structural equation modelling. Findings The results show that negative emotions toward the brand have a direct and indirect impact on brand engagement and the consumer-based brand authenticity, brand engagement and consumer-based brand authenticity positively impact brand love and negative emotions toward the brand positively and indirectly impact brand love. Research limitations/implications The results should be analyzed with appropriate caution, given the limitations of the sample. The authors used a sample of Portuguese consumers connected with a commercial bank brand. These limitations could be overcome in future research. Practical implications The findings are important for the definition of branding strategies in a competitive and vulnerable context. Originality/value The model presented in this paper aims at filing a gap in the literature. The negative emotions toward brands have been little studied as an antecedent. It is also the first time that the constructs of engagement and authenticity and their relational outcome in brand love are applied to a financial brand.