Abstract

This study investigates whether brand betrayal, caused primarily by deceptive brand communication, incites brand hate among consumers. We performed PLS-based structural equation modeling, using SmartPLS on a dataset comprising 450 respondents selected through Mall Intercept sampling to corroborate the hypothesized relationships between the subject constructs. A significant mediating effect of perceived deception in the swelling of brand hate attributable to brand betrayal has been empirically substantiated. A moderation analysis reveals that the relationship between brand betrayal and perceived deception and the association between perceived deception and brand hate become more robust due to the crossover of negativity accumulated through past experiences. The paper offers rich contributions in enhancing our understanding of betrayal → deception, → hate serial links in the brand, and in the general context. This study's findings expand the exiguous theoretical and empirical evidence on brand hate and offer helpful advice to marketers on how to truncate brand hate to avoid its negative implications. It is a pioneering study investigating the antecedents and contextual contingencies of brand hate in a South Asian geographical context.