Brand Avoidance in Local Businesses: The Interplay between Symbolic Incongruence and Negative Emotions

This paper discusses a research gap that is related to the influence of symbolic incongruence on brand avoidance in cases of businesses that associate with Korean Flower Men. Previously, research has studied the influence of “dislike emotion” to brand avoidance, yet a limited effort has been dedicated to exploring the phenomenon in the context of symbolic incongruence. This is particularly true with regards to the impact of Korean culture on local businesses. This research aims to deliver decision making insights for businesses that wish to leverage the influence of Korean culture within their marketing tactics by applying the Social Identity Theory, Cognitive Dissonance Theory, and Psychological Reactance Theory. Online surveys were used to gather 226 valid responses which were analysed using the PLS – SEM statistical tool to study the relationships between brand – specific symbolic incongruence and negative emotions. The results show that all negative emotion dimensions, excluding anger, significantly mediated the relationship between symbolic incongruence and brand avoidance with a mediation value of 0.620. The limitations of this study is due to the constraints of non – probability sampling methods. Future research would benefit from studying this phenomenon cross – culturally. Furthermore, this research contributes to the current literature by studying brand avoidance in the more modern context of the Korean Wave. Practically, this study shows that it is crucial for local businesses to ensure that their target market is symbolically aligned with Korean Flower Men traits, prior to any advances towards collaborations with Korean male artists.