How Perceived Luxury Shields Brands from Cancellation Movements

Brand cancellation movements have become a controversial topic in the realm of consumer behaviour, owing to their potential to swiftly damage a brand’s image and ruin its reputation. Drawing on the appraisal theory, a comprehensive conceptual framework was developed to examine the extent to which the perceived luxury of a brand can safeguard it from cancellation movements. To address the underlying research hypotheses and questions, this research relies on logical positivism (i.e., quantitative methods), depending on three experiments, and three surveys to thoroughly investigate this emerging research phenomenon.

Regarding the main effect, the results demonstrated a negative and statistically significant relationship between luxury brand transgression and consumers’ participation in brand cancellation movements. As the perceived level of luxury associated with a brand that commits a transgression increases, consumers’ tendency to participate in these movements decreases. In terms of the mediating effects, the results emphasized that anger and shame mediate the relationship between the perceived luxuriousness of a brand that commits a transgression and the dependent variable (i.e., consumers’ participation in brand cancellation movements).

Regarding the moderation effects, the findings indicated that consumers with higher levels of social power are more prone to participate in cancellation movements when brands are perceived as less luxurious, in contrast to those with lower social power. Further, the results showed that conservatives are less inclined to experience feelings of anger and shame due to a brand’s negative stance towards LGBT+ community compared to liberals. Unlike liberals,
conservatives are less likely to engage in anti-brand activities. The results also revealed that brand ownership can have a buffering effect, mitigating consumers’ negative feelings towards a brand’s misbehaviour. Lastly, the findings highlighted that brand familiarity, particularly with luxury brands, diminishes consumers’ tendencies to participate in cancellation movements when faced with misbehaviour by the luxury brand.