Mac Donald's has been one of the most famous victim of negative rumors, with the "wormburgers' scare" (Newsweek, 1977). "Wormburgers" are hamburgers made with worms-based steak. In 1977, an astonishing rumor took birth in the United States, blaming the famous hamburger firm to cultivate fields of worms to make its products. As amazing as it might be, the rumor was trust and massively expanded, reaching a peak in the general "decredibilization" of all fast-foods channels. Mac Donald's has been constrained to make an audiovisual denial, explaining by the absurd that such a worms' culture would have been an economical disaster. And despite this scandal, the success of Mac Donald's seems to be everlasting. This example shows that it is possible to overcome the negative effects of rumors. It is all the more important for companies to find out those solutions as the time we live through is particularly sensitive to rumors development. Indeed, we have inherited the consequences of the Internet bubble burst and the post Enron period. In this transition stage, individuals suffer from a crisis of trust towards companies and brands. Media have also lost some credibility. So, which or who are the new trustful communicators? Individuals encourage mutual communication, instead of letting the intervention of media or other communication polluters: thus, power of word-of-mouth and preponderance of potential rumors are increasing.
[...] Then, we also think that it will enable us to keep the control of the spreading of the rumour and avoid the information to leak outside. Finally, it enables us to tell the truth to our participants at the end of the seminar. During the seminar, considered as an observation experiment, we want to use in the studied population in order to spread the rumour. Actually, this will allow us to have a complete control on the content of the rumour and also to influence its transmission. [...]
[...] The impact of negative rumours on consumers' behaviours Index Introduction 3 What is a rumour? 3 Definition 3 Main characteristics 4 How and why rumours start and develop? 4 Origin 5 Transmission & expansion 5 Previous examples 6 The impact of negative information on brands images and consumers perceptions 6 Literature review 7 The roles of moderators 8 The impact of firms' reaction on consumers' behaviours 8 Strengths: 9 Weaknesses: 9 Gaps: 11 Methodology 11 Internal validity 12 Sample 12 Experiment 12 Procedure 12 Pre-test 13 Manipulation Process 13 Manipulation check 13 Second-step experiment 13 Experiment 14 Procedure 14 Appendixes 15 References 17 Introduction Mac Donald's has been one of the most famous victim of negative rumours, with the “wormburgers' scare” (Newsweek, 1977). [...]
[...] Appendixes Table1, from Guérin & Miyazaki (2006) Table Survey: Top five major influences in consumer buying decisions (1995) Percent saying "major influence" in buying decisions: Quality of Product 96% How Company Handles Complaint 85% How Company Handles Crisis When At Fault 73% Government Challenge About Product Safety 60% Accusation of Illegal/Unethical Trading Practices 59% Table Survey: Actions taken against distrusted companies (Bartlett, 2007) References Ahluwalia R., H. R. Unnava & R. E. Burnkrant Moderating Role of Commitment on the Spillover Effect of Marketing Communications”. Journal of Marketing Research, 38: 458-470. Ahluwalia R Robert E. Burnkrant, & H. Rao Unnava “Consumer Response to Negative Publicity: The Moderating Role of Commitment”. Journal of Marketing Research. 37(2) : 203-214. [...]
[...] First, they seem to forget some ways of responding to negative publicity for companies, such as public denial or products' suppression . Then, they cannot compare the efficiency of various ways of tackling such issues, which would be very interesting to teach firms how to react to negative publicity. We will try in our study to deal with several kinds of corporate responses in order to be as comprehensive as possible and to be able to make recommendations for companies' responses. [...]
[...] (1985) ‘Rumors and Gossiping', in Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Vol pp. 223–37. London: Academic Press. Fishbein, M Investigation of the Relationships Between Beliefs about an Object and the Attitude toward the Object.” Human Relations, 16: 233-240. Fishbein, M. & B.H. Raven AB Scales: an operational definition of belief and attitude.” In Readings in Attitude Theory and Measurement, ed. Martin Fishbein, New York: John Wiley, 180-198. Fiske, Susan T “Attention and Weight in Person Perception: The Impact of Negative and Extreme Behaviour”. [...]
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