Online brand transgressions
| Theme | Sub-theme | Representative quotation |
|---|---|---|
| Performance-related online brand transgressions | Customer service mishandling | “… like with many other online shops, they first go through the basic factors that a customer might have done wrong. And if you’re somewhat more knowledgeable and familiar with the issue, you immediately think, ‘Okay, now I have to answer all these standard questions, even though I’ve already explained the problem in half a page.’ Then you get a short response like, ‘Have you tried this or that?’ and you immediately feel like they haven’t read through what you wrote and are just sending a standard reply. It’s also a waste of time, especially when you factor in the time zone differences, with the time it takes for a ticket or email to be answered, and more time goes by.” (Nick) |
| Return and refund issues | “With the return – well, with returns in general, that’s often where things fall apart for me when shopping online, to be honest. I saw that there were some complications with the return process, and I wanted to avoid that, so I ended up not completing the purchase.” (Hanna) | |
| Personalisation failures | “Okay, so I really order regularly. Normally, the sizes they suggest for me fit quite well. … Then the pants finally arrived, after being lost in transit for a while, and they didn’t fit at all, which was super frustrating because I needed those pants urgently for a work event trip. I had been waiting for them, and the fact that they didn’t fit at all was really annoying.” (Julia) | |
| Bad navigation and usability | “Every time I go on that online shop – say I’m looking for a black coat or a specific item – the filters don’t work well. The site first shows me 100,000 private labels or brands they most cooperate with, displaying all the bestsellers, before I even get to see what I’m actually searching for.” (Annalena) | |
| Technical difficulties | “In general, the interface of this app is not very user-friendly, in my opinion. It often happens that when you click on something, it jumps back, or you get the message ‘An error has occurred’, or the screen freezes. You know that the issue isn’t with your internet connection.” (Josephine) | |
| Logistics and delivery issues | “Even in the shopping cart, it wasn’t clear. After the order, you always receive a confirmation email, but even there, nothing was mentioned. Throughout the entire ordering process, we didn’t know when this pacifier was going to arrive, so we just had to hope it would come in time. That was especially frustrating because we really needed it to arrive punctually.” (Louisa) | |
| Marketing communication overload | “In the weeks following my subscription, I noticed that the number of newsletters increased significantly. I was getting about 5–7 newsletters per week, which was too much for me personally. Especially since the content wasn’t personalised; I had just subscribed, and BRAND didn’t collect any data on my actual interests.” (Clara) | |
| Price changes | “In general, the manufacturing costs for this product have increased significantly, and the margin is no longer manageable. They would have to take the product out of the range. So, basically, they would cancel the order unless I accepted the price increase, which I found really unfair.” (Lorena) | |
| Value-related online brand transgressions | Concerns about (sustainable) business practices | “This often happens on TikTok, where individuals just share their experiences. There were lots of comments where users expressed concerns, questioning how this brand grew so big, even though our generation is trying to become greener and more sustainable, avoiding fast fashion. People were wondering why anyone would shop there. The customer who posted the video criticised the excessive plastic packaging, and many people commented, ‘Why do you order from them if it bothers you so much?’ It made me reflect, because it’s not just BRAND; many brands still use a lot of plastic, yet people keep ordering from them.” (Clara) |
| Inauthentic influencer cooperation | “I was listening to a podcast … and then an ad came on for BRAND. The way the ad was done didn’t fit at all – neither with the podcast’s topic, nor with the guest or the interview. … It didn’t fit together, and I ended up stopping the podcast. The fact that I remember it so clearly shows how negatively I perceived it.” (Josephine) | |
| Discriminating social media advertising content | “When I read the caption for the ad about the kitchen machine, it provided more information, including that it was called the ‘MUM5.’ I found it a bit sexist that they named the kitchen machine ‘Mum’ or used that as an abbreviation.” (Sofia) | |
| Manipulation tactics | “Yes, I was looking for a product. I believe it was shampoo, and I was checking various customer reviews because there were different types of shampoos for different hair types. I wanted to know what others were saying and if one was really worth it for my hair, or if I should go for another option. While reading the reviews, I felt that none of them seemed truly genuine. They all sounded like they were written by an agency or by people who maybe received something in exchange. They were always very positive and not very detailed, quite superficial, for example.” (Annalena) | |
| Dark patterns in cancellation process | “I just wanted to click the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email, and that would have been the end of it. But they apparently have different kinds of newsletters, so I ended up only unsubscribing from one. It just didn’t work. I think over a span of two months, every two weeks I would try to unsubscribe again.” (Jannette) | |
| Deceptive digital promotion and targeting | “But the more I read the fine print, which I had to find all the way at the bottom of the page, I realised that the offer didn’t even apply to me because offer A was only for new customers. I thought, ‘Why are they even sending this to me?’ since I’m not a new customer.” (Felix) | |
| Personal data exploitation | “And perhaps also disappointed, because if I’m sharing personal data with a brand, I don’t want it to be exploited just to send me daily messages that I’m not interested in.” (Clara) | |
| Image-related online brand transgressions | Negative unintentional brand associations through influencer | “I don’t think the brand intentionally positioned itself there. This often happens in the fashion scene, where brands are adopted without having direct control or influence, and they sort of just go along with it. In this specific case, the influencer wasn’t even unlikable, but I just didn’t associate their clothing style with the lifestyle of that scene. And that’s where the dissonance occurred for me.“ (Alex) |
| Negative unintentional brand associations through digital brand community | “This was on an Instagram page … So, you get to see posts and actions from all over Europe or the world from these [soccer] scenes. In this case – … You could clearly tell from their tattoos that they were part of the far-right, possibly even the extreme-right spectrum. … From that point on, the brand was completely tarnished for me because I don’t want to have anything to do with that political ideology. I definitely wouldn’t want it in my wardrobe because I don’t want to signal either that I don’t care or that I’m in solidarity with such a mindset.” (Alex) |
| Theme | Sub-theme | Representative quotation |
|---|---|---|
| Customer service mishandling | “… like with many other online shops, they first go through the basic factors that a customer might have done wrong. And if you’re somewhat more knowledgeable and familiar with the issue, you immediately think, ‘Okay, now I have to answer all these standard questions, even though I’ve already explained the problem in half a page.’ Then you get a short response like, ‘Have you tried this or that?’ and you immediately feel like they haven’t read through what you wrote and are just sending a standard reply. It’s also a waste of time, especially when you factor in the time zone differences, with the time it takes for a ticket or email to be answered, and more time goes by.” (Nick) | |
| Return and refund issues | “With the return – well, with returns in general, that’s often where things fall apart for me when shopping online, to be honest. I saw that there were some complications with the return process, and I wanted to avoid that, so I ended up not completing the purchase.” (Hanna) | |
| Personalisation failures | “Okay, so I really order regularly. Normally, the sizes they suggest for me fit quite well. … Then the pants finally arrived, after being lost in transit for a while, and they didn’t fit at all, which was super frustrating because I needed those pants urgently for a work event trip. I had been waiting for them, and the fact that they didn’t fit at all was really annoying.” (Julia) | |
| Bad navigation and usability | “Every time I go on that online shop – say I’m looking for a black coat or a specific item – the filters don’t work well. The site first shows me 100,000 private labels or brands they most cooperate with, displaying all the bestsellers, before I even get to see what I’m actually searching for.” (Annalena) | |
| Technical difficulties | “In general, the interface of this app is not very user-friendly, in my opinion. It often happens that when you click on something, it jumps back, or you get the message ‘An error has occurred’, or the screen freezes. You know that the issue isn’t with your internet connection.” (Josephine) | |
| Logistics and delivery issues | “Even in the shopping cart, it wasn’t clear. After the order, you always receive a confirmation email, but even there, nothing was mentioned. Throughout the entire ordering process, we didn’t know when this pacifier was going to arrive, so we just had to hope it would come in time. That was especially frustrating because we really needed it to arrive punctually.” (Louisa) | |
| Marketing communication overload | “In the weeks following my subscription, I noticed that the number of newsletters increased significantly. I was getting about 5–7 newsletters per week, which was too much for me personally. Especially since the content wasn’t personalised; I had just subscribed, and | |
| Price changes | “In general, the manufacturing costs for this product have increased significantly, and the margin is no longer manageable. They would have to take the product out of the range. So, basically, they would cancel the order unless I accepted the price increase, which I found really unfair.” (Lorena) | |
| Concerns about (sustainable) business practices | “This often happens on TikTok, where individuals just share their experiences. There were lots of comments where users expressed concerns, questioning how this brand grew so big, even though our generation is trying to become greener and more sustainable, avoiding fast fashion. People were wondering why anyone would shop there. The customer who posted the video criticised the excessive plastic packaging, and many people commented, ‘Why do you order from them if it bothers you so much?’ It made me reflect, because it’s not just BRAND; many brands still use a lot of plastic, yet people keep ordering from them.” (Clara) | |
| Inauthentic influencer cooperation | “I was listening to a podcast … and then an ad came on for | |
| Discriminating social media advertising content | “When I read the caption for the ad about the kitchen machine, it provided more information, including that it was called the ‘MUM5.’ I found it a bit sexist that they named the kitchen machine ‘Mum’ or used that as an abbreviation.” (Sofia) | |
| Manipulation tactics | “Yes, I was looking for a product. I believe it was shampoo, and I was checking various customer reviews because there were different types of shampoos for different hair types. I wanted to know what others were saying and if one was really worth it for my hair, or if I should go for another option. While reading the reviews, I felt that none of them seemed truly genuine. They all sounded like they were written by an agency or by people who maybe received something in exchange. They were always very positive and not very detailed, quite superficial, for example.” (Annalena) | |
| Dark patterns in cancellation process | “I just wanted to click the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email, and that would have been the end of it. But they apparently have different kinds of newsletters, so I ended up only unsubscribing from one. It just didn’t work. I think over a span of two months, every two weeks I would try to unsubscribe again.” (Jannette) | |
| Deceptive digital promotion and targeting | “But the more I read the fine print, which I had to find all the way at the bottom of the page, I realised that the offer didn’t even apply to me because offer A was only for new customers. I thought, ‘Why are they even sending this to me?’ since I’m not a new customer.” (Felix) | |
| Personal data exploitation | “And perhaps also disappointed, because if I’m sharing personal data with a brand, I don’t want it to be exploited just to send me daily messages that I’m not interested in.” (Clara) | |
| Negative unintentional brand associations through influencer | “I don’t think the brand intentionally positioned itself there. This often happens in the fashion scene, where brands are adopted without having direct control or influence, and they sort of just go along with it. In this specific case, the influencer wasn’t even unlikable, but I just didn’t associate their clothing style with the lifestyle of that scene. And that’s where the dissonance occurred for me.“ (Alex) | |
| Negative unintentional brand associations through digital brand community | “This was on an Instagram page … So, you get to see posts and actions from all over Europe or the world from these [soccer] scenes. In this case – … You could clearly tell from their tattoos that they were part of the far-right, possibly even the extreme-right spectrum. … From that point on, the brand was completely tarnished for me because I don’t want to have anything to do with that political ideology. I definitely wouldn’t want it in my wardrobe because I don’t want to signal either that I don’t care or that I’m in solidarity with such a mindset.” (Alex) |
Online brand transgression events were reported across various brands (service brands, product brands, retailers’ brands)
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