ARE BRAND PARODIES HARMFUL FOR THE BRAND RELATIONSHIP?

ARE BRAND PARODIES HARMFUL FOR THE

BRAND RELATIONSHIP?

Géraldine MichelProfessor – Sorbonne Business School– France

Ouidade SabriAssociate Professor - Sorbonne Business School– France

Pierre-Yves LagroueAssociate Professor , Sorbonne Business School– France

Consumer Brand Relationship Colloquium – March 2011

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1. Why is it so important to study parody effects?

Michel, Sabri, Lagroue CBR 2011

Parody : phenomen increasing

Parody is a creative art that transforms a serious copyrighted

work by using irony, humor or satire (Bush, Bush & Boller,

1994; Johnson 1 Spilger 2000)

Brand parodies can be either positive or negative


… At the same time

Maintaining or creating a good reputation for companies is a main challenge and in all sectors.

So the analysis of negative parody effects is especially important.

What changes in the brand perception ? What changes in the brand relationship ?


Little previous research

Little literature about parody

Little conceptualization to analyze parody effects (Johnson and Spilger 2000; Bush, Bush, and Boller, 1994; Zinkhan,1994).

Few empirical results (Jean 2011; Ahluwalia, Burnkrant and Unhava, 2000).


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2. What are the research objectives ?


Research purposes

Analyse the impact of negative brand parody on brand

Analyse ad attention and brand recall Impact on brand relationship Impact on word-of-mouth


The hypothesis ofnegative brand parody impact on brand

Brand commitment

Behavior toward Brand

Logo attitude

Attention

Brand Recall

Brand relationship

Brand Affect

Brand trust

Brand word-of-mouth

Brand Reputation

H1 +

H2 =

H4 +

H3c -

H3b -

H3a -

H5 -

Negative logo parody versus real

logo


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3. Which methodology did we use ?


EXPERIMENT METHODOLOGY

Specific focus on negative parody of 2 brands : Evian (bottled mineral water) and Fnac (Cultural and technological product retailer)

4 groups (experimental and control groups * 2 brands)

Online questionnaire, exposure to the logo on blog page

Sample 172 respondents 53% men Age average : 31 years old


Experimental groups / Control groups

Sink, natural tap water

Money, profit maker

Evian, natural spring water

Fnac, idea shaker


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4. What are the survey results ?


Do you recognize what you see ?

In the experimental group 31% saw « evian » even though we showed « evier » logo.

In the experimental group 48% saw « fnac.com » even though we showed « fric.com » logo.

EVIAN FNAC


Gestalt theory

ANOVA to compare experimental and control group

Real logo

Parodied logo

F P

Attention 3.36 3.73 3.25 .06

% Recall .83 .69 .10

Brand trust 3.80 3.76 .089 .76

Brand reputation 3.97 3.91 1.79 .67

Brand Affect 3.87 3.93 .153 .69

Word-of- Mouth 3.48 3.27 1.38 .22


ANCOVA to test the commitment moderating role

Commitment * casF P

Brand trust 1.05 .40

Brand reputation .95 .47

Brand Affect 1.48 .18

Word-of- Mouth .77 .61

Brand commitment doesn’t moderate the logo parody effects


ANOVA to compare the logo characteristic

Real logo

Parodied Logo

F P

Credibility 3.18 2.90 3.50 .00

Humor 2.39 3.65 44.58 .00

Parodied logo is perceived as less credible and more humorous than real logo


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5. Conclusion


Conclusion

Theoretical contributions No effect of negative logo parody on brand

relationship

Reasons why The parody claims are perceived to be less credible

than real brand claims but the credible content is important in convincing.

The brand awareness dismisses the impact of negative claims, now in this research Evian and Fnac Brands have a high awareness.Michel, Sabri, Lagroue CBR 2011

Conclusion

Managerial contributions Negative logo parody has no impact to the original

brand if not founded on specific issues(s) related to the brand

Logo parody could increase the brand visiblity even the parody could be perceived negative (ex: Logorama)


Limitations and further research Survey on negative parody advertising (brand parody more explicite)

Survey on past or present brand issues (brand which showed some issues on the past)

Before and after brand parody exposure (with control group)


Thank you

Global results

Behavior towards Brand

Cognitive impact

Attention

Brand Recall

Brand relationship

Brand Affect

Brand trust

Brand word-of-mouth

Brand Reputation

H1 +

H2 =

H4

H3c

H3b

H3aNegative logo

parody / real brand logo

Brand commitment

H5


Outline

1. Why is it so important to study parody effects ?

2. What are the research objectives ?

3. Which methodology did we use ?

4. What are the study results ?


Marketing

ARE BRAND PARODIES HARMFUL FOR THE BRAND RELATIONSHIP?