Are Consumers More Supportive of Stronger Brand?—The Influence of Balance Maintenance and Topdog Antipathy

Abstract

Abstract: Advertising competition between strong and weak brands is a very common phenomenon. Weak brands sometimes adopt underdog advertising positioning strategies. Current research on weak brands adopting underdog advertising positioning strategies in advertising competition situations is in blank, and such strategies’ effects and mechanisms are still unknown. This study focuses on the impact of advertising competition intensity on the underdog positioning advertising strategy of weak brands, and the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying the impact. The results of three experiments show that as the intensity of advertising competition increases, consumers’ purchase intention for weak brands that adopt the underdog advertising positioning strategy continues to increase. Consumers’ advertising empathy, balance maintenance and topdog antipathy, have a chain of mediating effects and consumer power distance beliefs have a moderating effect. This study reveals the mechanism of the underdog advertising positioning strategy adopted by weak brands in the advertising competition between strong and weak brands, including the mediating and moderating mechanisms of weak brands’ underdog advertising positioning strategy in the competitive situation, which has great theoretical and practical value.

Key words: underdog positioning advertising, balance maintenance, topdog antipathy, power belief distance

Jin Xiangdong, Fan Xiucheng, Song Wenhao, Liu Jianxin, Kong Fanchang, Wang Min, Yuan Jingbo. Are Consumers More Supportive of Stronger Brand?—The Influence of Balance Maintenance and Topdog Antipathy[J]. Management Review, 2024, 36(11): 144-155.

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