Presenting a fuzzy cognitive map of brand trash-talking tactics and their consequences

Extended Abstract
Objectives: Usually, brands must have a mental association and a specific value for customers to remain loyal to them. The stronger the brand identity, the more famous it will be among customers, and subsequently, it is the brand reputation that can affect customer loyalty, trust, and support. Therefore, one of the ways that helps to establish the identity and specific value of the brand in the mind of the customer is trash-talking. Brand trash-talking means using creative and ironic methods in brand advertising and communication, which aims to create differentiation, attract attention, and establish a deeper connection with the audience. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of providing a fuzzy cognitive map of wordplay tactics and their consequences.
Methods: The present study is applied in terms of purpose and is classified as exploratory research in terms of data collection method. This research is mixed research and because it has an inductive approach in the qualitative part and a deductive approach in the quantitative part, it is classified as deductive-inductive research. The statistical population of the expert research consists of managers and sales and marketing employees of the brand, 15 of whom were selected using the purposive sampling method and based on the principle of theoretical saturation. The data collection tool in the qualitative part is an interview and in the quantitative part, a fuzzy cognitive map questionnaire. In the qualitative part, qualitative data that was collected using the opinions of 15 experts was selected using the Maxqda 2020 software and the content analysis method. Then, in the quantitative part, considering that the research method is a fuzzy cognitive map and the data collection tool is a questionnaire, the data was provided in the form of a paired comparison questionnaire, as in the previous example, and the obtained data were analyzed using the steps of the fuzzy cognitive map method and using Excel 2016 software and Gephi software version 0-10-1. To examine the validity and reliability of the data collection tool in the qualitative part, the content method and theoretical validity and intra-coder and inter-coder reliability were used.
Findings: In this study, the findings of the qualitative part include the identification of 10 tactics and 10 consequences of brand deafness, and the findings of the quantitative part are related to the ranking of these factors. According to the results of the study, the most important tactics of brand voiceover are using the voiceover technique with the testimonial method with a centrality index (12.075), directing thoughts through black and white visualization in advertising (11.79), using the image-building technique (11.73), selecting words and publishing them to influence the behavior of competing customers (11.45), stimulating and motivating customers to voiceover by improving the brand's discursive power (11.36), and using the brand tribalism technique (11.29). Also, improving the brand's social power with a central index (12.13), creating opportunities to experience the brand (11.808), creating a competitive atmosphere in the industry (11.37), developing negative feelings towards the brand (11.37), and increasing the value transferred from the competing brand to the brand with a centrality index (10.95) were identified as consequences of brand trash-talking.
Conclusion: This study focuses on the localization and deepening of brand trash-talking in the Iranian market, and provides a roadmap for future research as well as competitive strategies for brand managers.