| The research shows that hometown brand brings higher quality attribute cognition to consumers,has huge brand equity value,and as a unique regional iconic product,hometown brand promotes the development of regional economy.The frequent negative information about home brands has affected the development of brands themselves,and caused spillover effect on other brands in the region,which has a negative impact on regional economic development.In addition,in the era of self-media,the widening of information dissemination channels and the acceleration of information dissemination speed make the interpretation of good things do not go out,bad things spread thousands of miles more incisively and vividly.The main content of this study is how the degree of home brand preference changes and how it works when there is negative information about home brand.Based on the background of hometown brand negative information,this paper reviews and summarizes the literature on the variables of negative information and hometown brand preference,and determines two dimensions of negative information: functional negative information and value negative information,and introduces perceived betrayal as a mediator variable and psychological distance as a moderator variable.This paper constructs a model to explore the influence mechanism of negative information on hometown brand preference.Questionnaires and situational experiments were used to collect data,and four 2 × 2 between-group experiments were designed to test the main effect,the mediating effect and the moderating effect.The results show that:(1)Different types of negative information affect consumers’ home brand preference.The impact of functional negative information on hometown brand preference is more significant.In addition,compared to the non-hometown group,the influence of negative information on hometown brand preference is lower in the hometown group.(2)Perceived betrayal mediates the relationship between negative information and hometown brand preference.(3)The moderating effect of two dimensions of psychological distance,temporal distance and spatial distance,on the mediated model is tested.The closer the psychological distance is,the stronger the consumer’s perceived betrayal is.Finally,according to the results of the study,the hometown brand to deal with negative information to provide countermeasures and suggestions for the hometown brand to deal with the brand crisis,expand the fellow-townsman consumer groups to provide reference and inspiration.First,no matter what type of negative information will have a negative impact on consumers’ home brand preferences,in production,legal production and operation,strictly in accordance with product quality standards for production and operation activities;At the same time,enterprises should take the initiative to assume certain social responsibility,improve the social value of the brand,and take measures to reduce the probability of negative information.Second,according to the regulatory role of psychological distance,for the fellow-townsman consumer groups with closer time distance and space distance,brands should take timely measures to reduce the regulatory role of time distance and space distance on perceived betrayal,so as to reduce the guidance of negative public opinion to consumers.Third,when the brand appears negative information,the enterprise should take different remedial measures according to the type of negative information,actively take responsibility,reduce the perceived betrayal of the fellow-townsman consumer groups,and strive to minimize the impact of negative information on the brand. |
