Understanding Consumer Responses to Perceived Brand Inconsistency: A Case Study of A LITTLE’s Value-Oriented Charity Communication

Sammanfattning

As brands increasingly engage with social issues through communication, how consumers respond to perceived inconsistency in brand value expressions has become an important area of inquiry in strategic communication research. Existing studies have largely focused on the effects of brand activism and femvertising on attitudes and purchase intentions, with limited attention to how consumers negotiate understandings of authenticity, motives, and consistency within specific controversy contexts. Taking the charitable controversy surrounding Chinese tea beverage brand A LITTLE as its case, this study examines how consumers engage in sensemaking, motivational attribution, and relational reconfiguration when value-oriented communication on women's issues is perceived as inconsistent. A qualitative case study design was adopted, drawing on comment data from Weibo and Xiaohongshu and semi-structured interviews, analysed through thematic analysis. The findings show that consumer responses are driven by cumulative value expectations and social interaction rather than reactions to a single event. Institutional responses that fail to address these expectations may paradoxically intensify suspicions of strategic value expression. Consumer reactions extend beyond consumption resistance to include withdrawal of philanthropic meaning, sustained monitoring, and participation in collective meaning-making on social media. Three theoretical contributions emerge. Consumer sensemaking is shown to be retrospective and socialised in character. Brand consistency is reconceptualised to encompass value-level coherence beyond procedural compliance. Brand authenticity is demonstrated to be a collectively constructed social judgement rather than a unilateral brand claim.