“Animal Welfare” Practices along the Food Chain: How Does Negative and Positive Information Affect Consumers?

Managing a global brand means developing its equity but also protecting it from global challenges (Shocker et al., 1994) and from the risk of negative shocks that may affect a brand (Okada and Rubstein, 1998), a multi-national company (Klein and Dawar, 2004) or a whole industry (Roehm and Tybout, 2006). Negative information shocks may arise because of sudden product-harm crises or scandals (Klein and Dawar, 2004; Roehm and Tybout, 2006), such as food-borne disease outbreaks or environmental violation practices. In these situations, providing positive brand information can mitigate the effect of negative information shocks on consumers’ brand evaluations and buying intentions (Smith and Vogt, 1995; Okada and Rubstein, 1998; Klein and Dawar, 2004; Roehm and Tybout, 2006).