The document explores how unfair negative reviews can unexpectedly lead to positive outcomes for brands by eliciting consumer empathy. It suggests that managers can enhance consumer responses to such reviews through personalized replies and empathy-evoking marketing strategies. Key recommendations include embracing unfair reviews and actively engaging consumers to foster empathy.

1. When Unfair Negative
Reviews are Beneficial
Harness the power of empathy
From: Allard, Dunn, and White 2020

2. Negative Reviews Carry Weight
• Negative reviews are more influential than positive reviews
because they are perceived as more diagnostic.
• Negative reviews typically lead to negative outcomes for the
reviewed brands.
• But, not all negative reviews are the same…
From Allard, Dunn, and White 2020

3. From Allard, Dunn, and White 2020
“Unfair” Negative Reviews are reviews where the intensity of the
review is not deserved or justified given the actions of the firm,
location, or brand.

4. Unfair Negative Reviews Can Lead to Positive
Outcomes
Unfair Negative
Reviews
Empathy
Positive Outcomes
(e.g., purchase,
patronage)
From: Allard, Dunn, and White 2020

5. Increasing Empathy Improves Consumer Response
• If unfair negative reviews naturally elicit empathy, can empathy
be harnessed to increase consumer responses to reviews that
do not naturally evoke empathy?
• This paper suggests that managers can increase empathy by:
- Responding to reviews with Personalized Responses
- Building empathy-evoking marketing materials
From Allard, Dunn, and White 2020

6. Personalized Response
From Allard, Dunn, and White 2020
• Finding: Using a personalized response,
led to a lift in purchase intentions for fair
negative reviews and positive reviews.
• Takeaway: Personalized responses led to
increased empathetic responses from
reviews that do not naturally evoke
empathy – fair negative and positive –
which ultimately increased purchase
intentions.

7. Examples of Empathy-Evoking Marketing
Interventions
From Allard, Dunn, and White 2020
Los Angeles Apparels Lush Cosmetics McDonald’s USA

8. Take-Aways
1) Unfair Negative Reviews can be positive for firms!
2) Increased empathy underlies this positive effect.
3) Our recommendation: Embrace the unfair reviews, engage
with consumers in a way that increases empathy, and use
marketing materials to increase empathy among consumers.
From Allard, Dunn, and White 2020