When Hostile Consumers Wreak Havoc on Your Brand: The Phenomenon of Consumer Brand Sabotage

TLDR

Recent years have seen a rise in hostile consumers who, empowered by technology, can inflict significant damage on brands with minimal effort. The authors define consumer brand sabotage (CBS) and aim to deepen theoretical understanding of this under‑researched phenomenon through analysis of mental escalation and a proposed research roadmap. They present a motive‑based framework that distinguishes CBS from other negative consumer behaviors, drawing on aggression and appraisal theories and qualitative interviews with actual saboteurs.

Abstract

In recent years, companies have been confronted with a new type of negative consumer behavior: consumers who have turned hostile and who are strongly determined to cause damage to the brand. Empowered by new technological possibilities, an individual consumer can now wreak havoc on a brand with relatively little effort. In reflection of this new phenomenon, the authors introduce the concept of consumer brand sabotage (CBS). On the basis of different underlying motives, a conceptual framework distinguishes CBS (a form of hostile aggression: harming the brand as dominant motive) from other forms of negative consumer behavior, such as customer retaliation and negative word of mouth (instrumental aggression: harming a brand is only a means to achieve other objectives, e.g., restoring equity). This framework adapts insights from aggression and appraisal theories as well as qualitative interviews with actual saboteurs to a consumer–brand relationship context in order to develop an improved theoretical understanding of the under-researched phenomenon of CBS. The authors analyze the mental escalation processes of individual consumers toward CBS and develop a road map for future research.