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Question

Under which of the following conditions, a brand is said to have a negative brand equity ?

This question was previously asked in
UGC NET 2025 Management Question Paper (07-Jan-2026) (Shift 1)
The correct answer is

Consumers react less favorably to the brand than to an unbranded version

 When consumers react less favourably to the branded product than to the identical unbranded one — option 2.

The definition being tested. Customer-based brand equity, as defined by Kevin Lane Keller, is the differential effect that knowledge of a brand has on a consumer’s response to its marketing. The comparison is always against the same product sold without the name :

Response to the branded version, compared with the unbrandedBrand equity
More favourablePositive — the name adds value; the firm can charge more, spend less on promotion, and extend into new categories
The sameZero — the name adds nothing
Less favourableNegative — the name actively subtracts value; buyers would prefer the product with no name at all

Why the other options are not it.

OptionWhat it actually describes
1. Consumers unaware of the brandNo brand awareness, and therefore zero equity — not negative. Awareness is the precondition of equity, and its absence leaves the brand neutral, not harmful
3. Unable to differentiate itselfA weak positioning, which limits equity but does not make it negative
4. Financial value falls below market priceA statement about brand valuation — a different, accounting-based conception of brand equity, and in any case not what negative equity means

How a brand comes to have negative equity. Through a safety scandal or product failure; sustained poor quality or service; association with unethical conduct; or a badly judged brand extension that damages the parent. The consequence is severe: the firm is paying to maintain a name that is costing it sales, and the usual responses are rebranding, a change of name after acquisition, or retiring the brand altogether.

Keller’s two sources of brand equity are worth remembering alongside this: brand awareness — recognition and recall — and brand image, the strength, favourability and uniqueness of the associations held in memory.

Hence, the answer is that consumers react less favorably to the brand than to an unbranded version.

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