Brand Avoidance : A study focusing on Marketing Communication within the Sportswear Industry in Sweden

Background Until today, branding in positive forms has been widely researched. It has been studied why consumers choose certain brands and how companies can increase brand loyalty. On the other hand, literature lacks studies on negative branding, which now becomes more interesting to gain more knowledge about. One knows that it is of equal importance to investigate why people would avoid a brand as what makes them purchase a brand. Hence, the topic of anti-consumption and in particular brand avoidance is something that demands more research. Purpose In 2016 Knittel, Beurer and Berndt conducted a research on brand avoidance on products and came to the conclusion that advertising is an additional factor affecting brand avoidance. However, brand avoidance has not yet been researched on a specific industry. Today’s sports industry spends a tremendous amount of money on advertising, thus it is of great interest to investigate how advertising can have a negative effect on the sports companies. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate and gain deeper understanding of what components of advertising affect brand avoidance within the sportswear industry. Method This thesis was best researched by an exploratory study using a qualitative and abductive approach. Interviews and focus groups have been used as data collection methods. The interviews were held with different companies within the sportswear industry and provided data to create focus groups from as well as first visions on crucial components within advertising. The focus groups provided further understanding on which components that could contribute to brand avoidance due to advertising from a consumer’s perspective. Conclusion Findings of this thesis show that several components of advertising can lead to brand avoidance within the sportswear industry. The authors conclude the thesis by presenting an extended and revised model of advertising components of brand avoidance, whereas the advertising category is renamed to marketing communication. In total, eight components were identified: content, collaborations, music, channel, trustworthiness, frequency, timing, and response. The revised framework provides new information within brand avoidance for both academics and marketing managers within the sportswear industry