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THE IMPACT OF NEGATIVE BRAND PUBLICITY ON HOTEL CONSUMERS IN CHINA
Negative publicity can be defined as negative information about a product, a service, a brand, an organization or an individual that is circulated through mass media such as print media and broadcast media (Dean, 2004; O'Guinn, Allen, & Semenik, 2011). Indeed, there has been a growing interest in the marketing literature concerning the effects of negative brand publicity on consumer perceptions and evaluations (Cleeren, van Heerde, & Dekimpe, 2013; Dills & Hernández Julián, 2012; Pullig, Netemeyer & Biswas, 2006; Thirumalai & Sinha, 2011). Negatively publicized instances such as defective products/services or unethical business practices are likely to impair a brand’s image and its equity. However, previous literature has mainly focused on the effect of performance-related negative publicity on consumer responses and there are limited studies about the effect of value- or ethics-related negative publicity. Owing to the inherent characteristics of inseparability and intangibility, hospitality managers need to pay particular attention to ethical issues and the detrimental impact of value-related negative publicity. This study aims to examine the impact of negative brand publicity on hotel consumers for two types of negative publicity (namely, performance-related and value-related). A content analysis and a consumer survey were conducted in China so as to investigate the hotel recovery strategy and consumer responses toward negative publicity. The content analysis was performed on two largest local daily newspapers in China. It showed that the occurrence of value-related negative publicity (e.g., not keeping promises, or dishonesty) was much greater than performance-related negative publicity (e.g., untidy room, or equipment malfunction) in China’s hotel industry. Compensations appeared to be the most common method for hotel responses toward the two types of negative publicity. The consumer survey showed that consumer responses such as hotel evaluations and patronage intentions were negatively affected by negative brand publicity. Female consumers were found to be more sensitive to unethical issues than male consumers. In other words, females were more negatively affected by value-related publicity than performance-related publicity. Managerial implications for hospitality managers are discussed.
