A Framework of Brand Contestation: Toward Brand Antifragility

Daniel Dietrich, Cristel Antonia Russell

Journal of Consumer Research · 2021 · Volume 48 · Issue 4

Abstract

The consumer literature on branding to date coalesces around the notion that brands are constantly contested. Brand contestation arises where the actions of consumer brand actors meet, and sometimes confront, those of the brands’ legal owners. This article integrates the extant branding research, a qualitative prestudy, and two complementary empirical studies to advance a theoretical process model of brand contestation. First, an in-depth analysis of thirty historical cases reveals its dynamics and how both the magnitude of contestation and the momentum of mobilization affect brand contestations’ scope and evolution. Second, interviews with upper-level marketing and branding executives add an emerging perspective that brand managers can use the energy generated by consumers’ contestation to develop antifragility—a brand’s ability to grow and thrive as a result of contestation.

Keywords

brand contestation, process model, case analysis, expert study, antifragility, brands, branding, brand management

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