Non-fulfillment of promotional deals: the impact of gender and company reputation on consumers' perceptions and attitudes

Sales promotional activities account for a significant portion of the integrated marketing communications budget of most companies, but there are times when promotional plans backfire, and promotions go unfulfilled. While much research has focused on the impact of sales promotional activities on consumers' responses and attitudes, not much has focused on non-fulfillment of promotional promises and the consequences. Utilizing research on gender and ethics, as well as the marketing literature on company reputation, we developed various hypotheses regarding the likely impact of gender and company reputation on consumers' attitudes toward, and perceptions of, companies involved in non-fulfillment of promotions. These were tested in an experimental study. Results indicate, overwhelmingly, that company reputation influences how consumers perceive brands and companies involved in non-fulfillment of promotional deals. Companies with positive reputations do not suffer as adversely as those with negative reputations. Gender has an impact on perceptions of the credibility of companies involved in non-fulfillment, but does not affect brand attitudes, patronage intentions or switching intentions. Interaction effects indicate that there are differences between men and women across company reputation conditions: among women, there were greater differential effects of company reputation on their attitudes, as compared to the case with men, where the differential effects were not as great.