Responding to Competitor Praise: How Downgrading Praise Shapes Consumer Responses Across Cultures

ABSTRACT Research has shown that praising competitors on social media can benefit brands, yet how recipient brands should respond remains unclear. This uncertainty may limit opportunities to improve brand outcomes through these interactions. Drawing on a conversational norms perspective, this research examines whether downgrading competitor praise (minimizing praise to convey agreement and modesty norms) can enhance brand outcomes. A field observation of 105 brand‐to‐brand praise posts on X first reveals that most praise does not receive a response. Across three experiments involving 974 participants recruited from China and the United States (US), we compare downgrading praise with no response, a simple thank‐you, and upgrading praise. The results show that downgrading praise increases consumers' perceived social closeness to the brand, thereby enhancing brand outcomes. Importantly, this effect emerged in the Chinese sample but not in the US sample, indicating a cultural‐contextual boundary condition. These findings extend the literature on brand‐to‐brand dialogue and conversational norms. From a marketing perspective, these findings suggest that brands should strategically use downgrading of competitor praise to strengthen consumer–brand relationships, particularly in collectivist cultural contexts.