When emotional branding backfires

Every brand attempts to develop and circulate a positive emotional branding story, but sometimes it is at risk of cultural backlash.

Consumers’ backlash and criticism can destroy an otherwise successful brand.

Starbucks is a case in point, where an emerging doppelgänger brand image challenges the perceived authenticity of the brand in the popular culture.

Successful brand positioning and emotional branding strategies had made Starbucks an iconic coffee brand globally. The success of Starbucks can be attributed to a particular cultural expression called ‘sophistication’.

According to Douglas Holt, an expert on branding an innovation, “Starbucks’ success was in large part due to the coherent and compelling ‘accessible sophistication’ codes used for every consumer touchpoint: the use of whole-bean coffee as a visual retail prop, the Italianized barista language, the sanitised Bohemian-cafe ́ design codes, the appropriation of sustainable production politics for in-store signage, and so on.”

But Starbucks has been criticised for many things which people perceive it has done wrong, including killing the local competition (mom & pop coffee shops), falling short of environmental commitments — their paper cups are not recyclable and may lead to landfill, exploitation of labor — slavery-like conditions in Brazilian Starbuck plantations, and imposing American culture on local markets.

The way Starbucks was expanding, a media headline reported that a new Starbucks is going to open in the restroom of another Starbucks.

Also, anti-brand activists criticised Starbucks’s business practices with many culture Jam ploys. Anti-brand activist sites spread anti-Starbucks meanings, narratives, and memes.

So emotional branding, if not executed well, may backfire to a doppelgänger brand image.

Basically, consumers avoid brands that they don’t find living up to their brand promise or when their emotional branding does not resonate with their culture and popular belief.

Also, the consumer may attack brands that are big as they are more vulnerable to the doppelgänger brand image.

(An excerpt from ‘Troll Proof Branding in the Age of Doppelgangers’. Published by SAGE Publications India.)