Post-crises response strategies: a combined model to manage brand crises

Brand crises negatively affect customers’ perception of the brand’s ability to deliver expected functional or symbolic benefits. Post-crisis response strategies should be implemented to restore brand trust and diminish the effect of reputational threat, since these strategies act as critical determinants of the actual impact of the crisis on consumers’ evaluations and consequently on repurchase intentions. A categorization of the nature of the crisis, distinguishing between ‘performance-related’ and ‘values-related’ — based on a deep understanding of the affected benefits — may serve as a discriminator to select the appropriate response strategy. A contingency-based view suggests that the effectiveness of a crisis response depends on various contingent factors, which may mediate and moderate consumers’ post-crisis brand evaluations. Thus, moderators such as brand identification and positive brand reputation (e.g. for CSR activities) may be enhanced and exploited to reduce the level of accommodation of the strategy and to maximize efficiency. The present study aims to elaborate a combined model able to provide mechanisms to anticipate consumers’ reactions to a crisis and to propose different approaches for the brand to take in response.