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Attitude Basis, Certainty, and Challenge Alignment: A Case of Negative Brand Publicity

Baylor University

Richard G. Netemeyer

University of Virginia

Abhijit Biswas

Wayne State University

By integrating research from attitude challenge matching and consumer alignment and judgment revision, the authors explore how firms can position brands to insulate them from negative publicity and how consumers evaluate brands in reaction to such publicity. They introduce an important moderator of brand evaluation revision, prior brand attitude certainty, and propose that when negative publicity matches or "align". with the basis of a brand attitude, certainty in that attitude interacts with the attitude, determining the affect of the negative publicity on brand evaluations. The results of two experiments suggest that prior brand attitudes held with high certainty tend to "insulat". brands, even when negative publicity matches or aligns with the bases of brand attitudes, whereas brand attitudes held with low certainty may exacerbate the effects of negative event publicity. The results also show that multiplex positioning (positioning a brand with both performance and values-based attributes) may insulate brands more effectively from negative publicity.

Key Words: attitudes • brand equity • negative publicity • brand positioning • attitude certainty • challenge alignment

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