Leveraging virtual brand community engagement and consumer brand identification as a bounce-back brand recovery strategy: Role of brand endorsers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Brand community engagement in the virtual environment during a brand crisis has gained attention from firms and marketing scholars due to innovative technologies. However, there is a limited empirical insight into its antecedents and consequences. This study, grounded in signaling and social identity theories, introduces the relationship between endorser credibility, virtual brand community engagement, and consumer brand identification as a pro-active brand recovery strategy. It also examines the impact of virtual brand engagement and consumer brand identification on brand love and forgiveness. The data were collected from online automobile brand community members. The results show that celebrity endorsers' trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertise can be used as communication signals to expedite the process of consumer brand identification and virtual brand community engagement. Consumers who strongly identify with the brand and engage in its virtual community are more likely to develop an emotional bond with the brand and forgive it following a crisis. Interestingly, the study finds that the relationships between endorser credibility attractiveness and virtual consumer brand identification, endorser credibility trustworthiness and consumer brand identification, and consumer brand identification and virtual brand community are nonlinear.