Bottled Up or Poured Out: How Product Name Emotions Affect Appeal and Authenticity in the Market for Craft Beer.

This article investigates how emotional content in product names influences consumer evaluations in oppositional craft markets, focusing on the U.S. craft beer industry from 1996 to 2012. It proposes that, contrary to mass markets, positively charged product names evoke negative consumer responses and lower perceived authenticity, while negatively charged names enhance appeal and authenticity perceptions due to alignment with the antimass production ideology central to craft markets. Using extensive online review data from BeerAdvocate.com, the study finds empirical support for these "reverse emotional contagion" effects, showing that emotional resonance with the audience’s oppositional identity shapes product appeal and authenticity judgments. The findings highlight the importance of cultural fit and authenticity in consumer evaluations within niche markets characterized by strong collective identities and suggest strategic implications for naming practices in such contexts.