01964nas a2200181   4500008004100000245011700041210006900158260000900227300001100236490000700247520130900254653001401563653000801577100002101585700001801606700002101624856013701645       2013                        eng d00aWhen Humanizing Brands Goes Wrong: The Detrimental Role of Brand Anthropomorphization Amidst Product Wrongdoings0 aWhen Humanizing Brands Goes Wrong The Detrimental Role of Brand   c2013  a81-1000 v773 aThe brand relationship literature shows that the humanizing of brands and products generates more favorable consumer attitudes and thus enhances brand performance. However, the authors propose negative downstream consequences of brand humanization—that is, the anthropomorphization of a brand can negatively affect consumers’ brand evaluations when the brand faces negative publicity caused by product wrongdoings. They find that consumers who believe in personality stability (i.e., entity theorists) view anthropomorphized brands that undergo negative publicity less favorably than non-anthropomorphized brands. In contrast, consumers who advocate personality malleability (i.e., incremental theorists) are less likely to devalue an anthropomorphized brand from a single instance of negative publicity. Finally, the authors explore three firm response strategies (i.e., denial, apology, and compensation) that can affect the evaluations of anthropomorphized brands between consumers with different implicit theory perspectives. They find that entity theorists have more difficulty in combating the adverse effects of brand anthropomorphization than incremental theorists. Furthermore, they demonstrate that compensation (vs. denial or apology) is the only effective response among entity theorists.10aMarketing10aMBA1 aPuzakova, Marina1 aKwak, Hyokjin1 aRocereto, Joseph  u/biblio/when-humanizing-brands-goes-wrong-detrimental-role-brand-anthropomorphization-amidst-product