Brand Warmth Drives Customer Safety Reports

A research team published in March 2024 in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science finds that consumers are more likely to report product-harm incidents to automakers they perceive as "warm." Analyzing more than 500,000 NHTSA vehicle reports from 2005–2021, they found a one-percentage-point warmth increase corresponded to nearly 100 extra reports and a 4% rise in feedback-oriented reports.