Advertising Strategies and Consumer Choices: The Impact of Boycotts

Abstract

This study is original as it is among the first to investigate boycott recovery strategies in a collectivist, non-Western context, extending global applicability of boycott theories. Consumer boycotts have become a popular sub-type of political and moral consumerism, but their causes and continuance differ greatly among and between individuals and contexts. This paper explores the influence of advertising techniques on the determination of post-boycott consumer behavior with particular emphasis on how the moderating factors of brand loyalty, subjective norms and attitudes towards boycotting influence consumer behavior. With the help of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), their survey became a quantitative analysis of 400 Pakistani consumers who had engaged in or were considering engaging in a brand boycott during 23-25. The descriptive analysis indicated that motivations of boycotts, on average, be it ethical, political, religious, and social, are weak. Nonetheless, inconsistency in outcomes suggests that these motivations are strong when applied to a particular group of consumers, which explains the seeming paradox between low means and their theoretical significance. The logistic regression model indicated that the model was significantly predictive in distinguishing boycott behavior, although convergence failure could not support the estimation of individual predictor effects. Interpretation was thus based on descriptive and bivariate patterns, which were continually found to confirm the hypothesized associations: brand loyalty moderated against boycott participation, subjective norms sustained boycotts, and pro-boycott attitudes were correlated with intentions that frequently resulted in action. The results highlight how advertising adjustments alone cannot be relevant to recover boycotts in highly engaged consumers without an accompanying plausible, and values-consistent corporate response. The research adds to the boycott literature in a non-Western and collectivist setting, emphasizes the importance of segment specific recovery strategies, and makes future studies addressing limitations associated with statistical models to facilitate causal inference.

Keywords: consumer boycott, brand loyalty, theory of reasoned action, advertising strategies, behavioral intention, corporate reputation repair, collectivist culture