Exploring the dark side of marketing: essays on toxic customers, vengeful customer reviews, and the influencer-brand authenticity crisis

Abstract

The primary objective of this thesis is to enhance our understanding of the dark side of marketing, particularly focusing on brand transgressions and service failures. The first chapter within this thesis entails a systematic literature review of brand transgressions and service failures. Through a comprehensive examination of pertinent marketing literature, a conceptual framework is introduced to elucidate the reasons behind customers exhibiting toxic behaviors, either with the intent to harm or to help brands. Building upon this conceptual framework, the second chapter delves deeper into the analysis of toxic customer behavior towards brands, specifically investigating vengeful customer reviews intended to inflict harm upon the targeted firms. Through lab and field experiments and observational data analysis, the second chapter establishes the pivotal role of rumination in driving vengeful reviews and proposes that redirecting rumination can mitigate its influence on vengeful behavior, thus resulting in less vengeful written reviews. The third chapter of this thesis scrutinizes the dark side of marketing from the perspective of influencers. Consumers have become increasingly distrustful of influencers who often work with brands for monetary gains. Consumers’ criticism of influencers has given rise to the authenticity crisis, wherein influencers are believed to be inauthentic in their brand collaborations. This chapter of the thesis aims to define the concept of influencer authenticity and explores effective strategies for brands to engage with influencers in ways that foster the creation of authentic content that resonates with consumers. Through an examination of customer toxicity, vengeful customer reviews, and the brand transgressions in the form of an influencer authenticity crisis, this thesis endeavours to uncover the dark side of marketing, thereby facilitating a deeper comprehension of the associated challenges and potential remedies within these domains.