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1. Introduction
The branding literature includes extensive research showing the importance of building and maintaining positive brand relationships (Fetscherin and Heinrich, 2015). A little over a decade ago, the flow of research shifted to include negative brand relationships. The most notable constructs that have been studied include, for example, brand dislike (Dalli et al., 2006; Romani et al., 2009), brand disgust (Alba and Lutz, 2013) or brand hate (Kucuk, 2008; Bryson et al., 2013; Zarantonello et al., 2016; Hegner et al., 2017). Consumer responses to negative brand relationships vary, and different individuals often react to the same stimulus in different ways. The literature has found that consumers have different coping strategies such as “take a flight” by avoiding, “fighting” by attacking or re-engaging (Grégoire and Fisher, 2006; Zourrig et al., 2009; Grégoire et al., 2010; Johnson et al., 2010) with brands. Three main conclusions can be drawn from our literature review.
First, without exception, all companies are subject to product or service failures or to negative publicity. The question is not if, but when these brand crises or brand transgressions will happen (Ran et al., 2016). Second, negative brand relationships can affect consumer satisfaction, trust and loyalty (Xie and Peng, 2009). The outcomes of negative brand relationships “can cause a brand to lose numerous existing customers and can alienate innumerable potential customers, which can result in millions of dollars of damage to a brand” (Kähr et al., 2016, p. 25). Third, while the outcomes of negative brand relationships have received some attention in the literature, it is surprising to realize that the literature is silent on the underlying emotional responses allowing companies to either restore broken relationships or change negative brand relationships to positive ones. A central mechanism in such a process is that of forgiveness. In this line, Fernández-Capo et al. (2017, p. 247) state that forgiveness is “one of the most important processes in restoring relationships”. The study of forgiveness was historically confined to theology and philosophy, only later finding a place in the psychology literature. However, its entry into the marketing literature occurred only recently (Zourrig et al., 2009). In psychology, it has clearly been shown that forgiveness has the...