KEY POINTS:
Everyone had some brands that they felt negatively about.
Most of us know why we like certain brands; now research has found out why we hate others.
Auckland University marketing lecturer Dr Mike Lee spent five years studying people's reasons for avoiding brands after realising most companies studied only people who liked them - a practice he likened to medical science studying only healthy people.
His doctoral thesis "Brands we love to hate: an exploration of brand avoidance" found four main explanations for avoiding brands (see inset).
Dr Lee said people's reasons could be divided into personal and "bigger picture" reasons.
Personal reasons were driven by selfish considerations, like a bad past experience, while bigger picture reasons were more altruistic.
"People might pay more to buy something from a dairy because of the perceived impact on the local economy."
But there was one thing everyone had in common. "Everyone had some brands that they felt negatively about."
Not all reasons for avoiding brands were logical. Dr Lee found some people avoided low-cost brands like No Frills and Home Brand because they looked "icky" - whether or not they thought there was any difference in quality.
"I had some interesting conversations with participants where they would say, 'I know it's not the quality but I just like the packaging to look nice'," he said.
"They think if people look through their pantry and see all this cheap stuff they might make an inference about the person."
Dr Lee said there were few surprises among the most hated brands. "A lot of them, as you would expect, were big multinational brands like McDonalds, Coke and some of the big petroleum companies."
But what did surprise him were some of the reasons.
They included poor product experiences, a perception the store environment was too family-oriented and a dislike of the "very sterile" environment - "a whole lot of reasons that don't tie into the multinational thing".
Ironically, Dr Lee found brands with a more varied image could be giving people more reasons to avoid them.
Dr Lee carried out in-depth interviews with 23 people for the study, pausing in his studies to set up academic network the International Centre for Anti-Consumption Research at the University of Auckland Business School.
He will graduate with a doctorate in marketing today.
SHADES OF AVOIDANCE
* Experiential avoidance: Avoiding a brand because of a bad experience, or where the product has not lived up to expectations.
* Identity avoidance: Avoiding a brand because the identity of the brand just doesn't appeal to the person. Dr Lee gives the example of someone who wouldn't be seen dead wearing Prada because they see it as "snobby".
* Moral avoidance: This is what most people think of when they think of brand avoidance. A person avoids a brand because it's seen as detrimental to society, the environment, or the local economy.
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Deficit-value avoidance: Avoiding a brand because the risk of buying the product is seen as too great for the price, for example, when the brand name is unfamiliar to the customer.
