Efficacy of response strategies in brand spillover crises: The roles of perceived attribute similarity, blame attribution and attitude towards response messages

Abstract The study examined the role of people's perceptions of attribute similarity between two brands in determining and responding to spillover crises and compared the efficacy of three response strategies in mitigating spillover crises. An experiment was conducted using a 2 (attribute similarity: high, low) × 3 (crisis response strategy: bolstering, differentiation, strategic silence) factorial design. The results demonstrated that to protect their brand from negative spillover effects, rival brands with high similarity to the brand in crisis should choose either the bolstering or differentiation strategy rather than staying silent. For rival brands with low similarity, using the bolstering strategy is better than using the strategic silence or differentiation strategy to prevent a decline in brand attitude.