The Moderating Effect of Brand Commitment on the Evaluation of Competitive Brands

In this research, we examine whether brand commitment has a negative effect on competitor brands. We find that committed consumers systematically underrate competitive brands. We find that the process by which this negative evaluation of the competitor brand occurs depends on the extent to which counterarguments are generated about the competitor brand message. Therefore, by using argument strength (Study 1), the number of arguments (Study 2), and a combination of both of these factors (Study 3), we propose and test two advertising techniques that may help the competitor brand overcome these negative evaluations.

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