Addressing negative product attribute reviews: The case of advertising product attributes and corporate social responsibility information

Abstract Negative product reviews are bad for businesses. They can adversely affect product sales, brand evaluations, and brand loyalty. To attend to negative reviews, one approach is through advertising products or company virtues. The current study examines the efficacy of different advertising approaches (core product attribute advertising vs. non‐core product attribute advertising vs. corporate social responsibility [ CSR] advertising) in helping dilute the negative effect of dissimilar negative product attribute reviews (negative core product attribute reviews vs. negative non‐core product attribute reviews). Through four experiments, we found that when the non‐core attribute of a product had negative reviews, a core attribute advertising approach weakened the effect of negative reviews. However, CSR advertising was less effective. Furthermore, when the core attributes of a product had negative reviews, a non‐core attribute advertising effort did not weaken, but actually augmented the impact of negative reviews. In addition, when the core attributes of a product received negative reviews, CSR advertising decreased the influence of negative reviews. Our findings provide theoretical and managerial implications for managing negative online reviews of product attributes.