Research On The Effect Of Morality-related Negative Publicity On Brand Equity

With the rapid development of science and technology,the arrival of the new media era,the speed of information dissemination has been greatly improved.Once enterprise appears morality-related negative publicity,its high speed and wide scope of transmission bring profound influence to brand equity.Such as Baidu "Wei Zexi" event,Shenzhou car "refused to black car" poster event,Apple sweatshop events and so on.Today's consumers concerned about business ethics increasingly,the tolerance of enterprise immoral behavior is getting smaller and smaller.However,previous studies on the effect of brand equity with negative publicity mainly concentrated in the product level instead of moral level.The arrival of the moral crisis will collapse the brand equity instantly which enterprises work hard for many years.Therefore,in the case of morality-related negative publicity appear frequently,it is increasingly important to study the effect of brand equity with morality-related negative publicity.Based on the above thinking,the literature research method,content analysis method and empirical analysis method are used to analyze the Baidu "Wei Zexi" event which on the Sina Weibo as the research sample,to study the effect of brand equity after the occurrence of morality-related negative publicity.The paper expounds the importance of the establishment of brand equity and the damage of brand equity with morality-related negative publicity,puts forward the research goal and research value of this study,briefly introduces the research framework and technical route of the paper.Through combing the domestic and foreign literature,the paper focuses on the study of enterprise ethics,brand equity,morality-related negative publicity and their relationship,and summarizes the brand equity models proposed by domestic and foreign scholars,analyzes the constituent dimensions of brand equity and the construction of brand equity.Based on the theoretical achievements of domestic and foreign scholars,constructs the brand equity model of this research.,and put forward the relevant hypothesis according to the model.In the course of the study,sample collection is carried out first,and then the analytical categories are constructed according to the research contents,and the reliability analysis of the samples is carried out.In the stage of result analysis,ROST CM6 is used to analyze the characteristic of the sample,word frequency,semantic network and emotion.And then according to the word frequency analysis results for high-frequency vocabulary coding and classification,and based on the analysis of the type of detailed analysis,proving the hypothesis or not.Moreover,the paper verifies the above results with empirical analysis method.Finally,through the analysis of the research results,the paper provides the coping strategies after the occurrence of morality-related negative publicity.The results of this study are as follows:(1)After enterprise appears morality-related negative publicity,the perceived quality,brand association,brand loyalty will be damaged,leading to decline in brand equity.(2)There is a hierarchical relationship between brand equity,brand association has a positive impact on perceived quality,perceived quality has a positive impact on brand loyalty,and brand association has a positive impact on brand loyalty.The study found that brand equity began in consumer association and quality awareness,the formation of brand loyalty,and then access to brand equity.The innovation of this research is:(1)There are few relative studies on the morality-related negative publicity at home and abroad,most scholars have studied the product-related negative publicity,and the field of research on the effect of brand equity with morality-related negative publicity is relatively blank,but this study will fill the gaps in the field of research.(2)Most of the research on the effect of brand equity is based on empirical analysis,and the questionnaire is used to explore the argument,but few scholars used content analysis method.The paper uses a combination of content analysis and empirical analysis,it is possible to overcome the subjectivity of qualitative research and inaccuracies and other defects,the sample material to achieve a deeper,more accurate understanding.