The buzz . . .
Unhappy customers like to tell others how unhappy they are.
Not to worry. We expected participants to either change their minds about a brand or discard the information completely. But what the researchers didn't expect was that 16 percent of the survey students who received negative information about a brand not only ignored it, but rallied to the brand's defense. The more consumers hear about a brand, the more established that brand becomes in their minds. In marketing circles, this is known as brand identification.