The aftermath of a brand transgression: the role of brand forgiveness and brand evangelism

Purpose This study aims to examine how brand transgression (BT) affects brand relationship quality (BRQ). Brand forgiveness (BF) and brand evangelism (BE) are tested as mediators between BT and BRQ. This study advances knowledge in consumer behavior by showing how consumers offer to deal with their relationships with brands through BE and BF. This provides relevant information to managers to seek strategies to obtain forgiveness from consumers in case the unfortunate happens. Not only must they seek to obtain forgiveness but also seek ways to ensure BE of their brands. These act as buffers for the brands in case a transgression happens. Design/methodology/approach Using a survey approach, this study tests whether forgiveness mediated the relationship between BT and BRQ. Also, whether BE mediated the relationship between BT and BRQ was examined. The test was conducted using PROCESS bootstrapping method (Model 4 of Hayes [2018]). Findings Consistent with the predictions, this study finds that, following a BT, consumers engage in BE and BF to maintain the relationship they have already established with their brands. Originality/value This study extends the existing literature by showing that after a BT, response from consumers may take different forms. The consumer’s response or the relationship with the brand may be affected by whether the consumer forgives the brand or evangelizes about the brand. Based on the cognitive dissonance theory, the results of this study imply that, forgiveness and BE act as important mechanisms in understanding consumer-brand relationships after brands act unacceptably. Further, this study contributes to the social media brand management literature by investigating a real-world BT case of social media.

Examining the Relationship between Consumer Brand Relationships and Brand Evangelism

It is a well-known fact now that consumers falsify profound and meaningful relationships with particular brands and that such consumer brand relationships are expected to impact brand-related behavior of consumers. The study investigates the influence of three consumer-brand relational constructs - brand trust, brand affect and brand identification – and their effects on brand evangelism behavior, which was operationalized in the form of two supportive behaviors namely; purchase intentions and positive referrals. After assessing common method bias as well as reliability and validity estimates, structural equation modelling was employed with 458 sample data to test the study model fit and hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that the consumer-brand relationship influences brand evangelism. All consumer-brand relational constructs (i.e., brand trust, brand affect and brand identification) influence brand evangelism positively in terms of purchase intention and brand referral. The study highlights the importance of brand evangelism in the marketing literature by establishing its causal relationships with the key brand attributes of brand affect, brand trust and brand evangelism. Implications of the results are deliberated with future scope for research.

How to convert Millennial consumers to brand evangelists through social media micro-influencers

Undoubtedly, in the modern age of digitalization, Millennials, who are considered digital natives, have become a massive target market for salespersons. Changes in the way Millennials think accompanied by an explosion of social media have led to an increased focus on social media influencer marketing in the company sector. To help establish a new marketing paradigm that accounts for these changes, this research aims to conceptualize and investigate the process of building consumer-brand relationships with Millennial consumers through social media micro-influencers. Findings based on structural equation modeling revealed that four core characteristics of social media micro-influencers (i.e., authenticity, the meaning of the influencer, specific content, and secret sharing) were a significant antecedent of brand engagement and brand love, which, in turn, mediated the pathway from social media micro-influencer characteristics to brand evangelism. Understanding what social media micro-influencers mean to Millennials offers the promise of improving brand evangelism through more precise market analysis and market strategy. In the discussion, the paper introduces a three-stage building method towards brand evangelism through social media micro-influencer, including: (1) the stage of selecting influencers; (2) the stage of constructing intense emotional responses to the brand (brand engagement and brand love); and ultimately (3) the stage of becoming a brand evangelist. Lastly, limitations and future directions were discussed.

E-retailer cognitive and emotional relationship quality: their experiential antecedents and differential impact on brand evangelism

PurposeLimited knowledge exists on the difference in the antecedents and outcomes of relationship quality's cognitive and emotional aspects for e-retailers. This research tests how utilitarian and hedonic shopping values differentially affect “cognitive and emotional” relationship quality components and how the latter differentially affects word-of-mouth and brand evangelism.Design/methodology/approachOnline survey data were collected from 450 Jordanian online shoppers. Structural equation modeling (AMOS 24.0) was employed to analyze the data.FindingsFirst, e-retailer's informativeness and transaction convenience (i.e. utilitarian values), drive more strongly cognitive than emotional relationship quality, whereas e-retailer's escapism and social presence (i.e. hedonic values) drive more strongly emotional than cognitive relationship quality. Second, emotional relationship quality has a strong significant effect on brand evangelism, whereas cognitive relationship quality's effect is insignificant. Third, there are no statistically significant differences concerning the effect of cognitive and emotional relationship quality on word-of-mouth.Originality/valueThe findings of our research are expected to enhance our understanding of e-retailer relationship quality, its emergence and consequences. They would also provide e-retailers with guidance on how to execute growth strategies by focusing on specific types of brand relationship quality, on the other hand.

Investigating brand community engagement and evangelistic tendencies on social media

Purpose This study aims to explore the antecedents and outcomes of brand community engagement (BCE) in the context of social media-based brand communities (SMBCs). Moreover, the mediating role of brand evangelism between BCE and brand defence and between BCE and brand resilience is examined. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected using a questionnaire-based survey from 201 active members of various SMBCs. Partial least square based structural equation modelling is used to test the proposed conceptual model. Findings The results suggest that brand identification and brand prominence are the antecedents of BCE. BCE positively influence brand evangelism and brand defence. Furthermore, the finding suggests that brand evangelism mediates the relationship between BCE and brand defence and also between BCE and brand resilience. Research limitations/implications The sample for this study involves respondents active on different SMBCs, which may constrain uniformity in respondents’ experiences. Practical implications The insights provided by this study are useful in enhancing BCE with the SMBCs. The study highlights the role of brand evangelism in actively endorsing and defending the brands. The brand manager can promote brand evangelistic behaviour through meaningful engagement with SMBCs. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature of brand community engagement by focussing on its antecedents and outcomes in SMBCs. Further, this study adds to the branding literature by connecting two crucial streams of brand research: BCE and brand evangelism. The study also explores the mediating role of brand evangelism. It enhances the understanding of consumer-brand relationships in the context of SMBCs.

Effects of Brand Trust, Brand Identification and Quality of Service on Brand Evangelism: A Study of Restaurants in Multan

The purpose of this study is to investigate how customer-band relationships and quality of service influences brand evangelism. And more importantly, this study examines the moderating effect of the brand love on brand trust, quality of service, brand identification and brand evangelism relations. Brand evangelism mends to customers’ advocacy behaviour and positive or negative word-of-mouth (for a particular brand) that influence the purchase decision. Based on the prior studies conducted on the brand relationships, an integrated conceptual framework on consumer-brand relationships, quality of service and brand evangelism is developed. The snowball sampling technique was employed in this study, and the sample drawn was consisted of 400 brand conscious customers of the different restaurants serving in Multan. The sample was focused on the salaried class, working at different organizations in Multan only. For more robust testing of the theory, brand love was included as a moderating variable. For testing of the moderation effect Process by Andrew F. Hayes was used with the assistance of SPSS version 23. Research findings revealed that the impacts of the brand trust, quality of service and brand identification on brand evangelism are significant. And brand love as a moderating variable moderate the relationships between brand trust, quality of service, brand identification and brand evangelism. The mindsets of the today customers are changing, and they are getting more brand conscious, they love to share their good and bad experience about the different brands that exist in the market. Today, it is very important for brand managers to know the feelings of the customers about their brands. This study suggests the brands to cultivate brand trust, quality in their services, brand identification and brand love in their service for longer standing in diversifying the market. Brand evangelism is not an old construct, especially, it is new for the graphical location where we are conducting this study, because there is no similar study available here. This study is only focused on the restaurants in Multan, other geographical locations or industries (e.g. beverage industry, cellular operators, electronics etc.) may be used to more clearly understand the brand evangelism construct. Also, comparative studies can be performed to compare the brand evangelism level in customers of a specific at different graphical location markets. This study takes brand customers as brand evangelists but persons from sales department workforce may also be considered as a brand evangelist, because evangelism may also reside there.

The Effect of Brand Trust and Brand Community Commitment on Online Brand Evangelism Behaviour

In line with social media development, the online brand community becomes an alternative media that could contribute to overall brand success or vice versa. Among others, the online brand community could significantly affect brand evangelism behaviors. This study attempts to extend the understanding on how members’ brand community commitment influences brand evangelism which is considered as an extra-role behavior from the members. The study among 167 members of the online brand communities revealed that brand evangelism is explained by the unidimensional construct. The result indicates that trust towards the online brand community and brand community commitment significantly affect brand evangelism. Implication and future research direction are also highlighted at the end of this article.

Friendship to Kinship

This chapter explains the effect of brand engagement on brand evangelism in an Indian context. It explores the motives that drive fans in brand engagement that leads to brand evangelism behavior. A nomological model is developed based on literature reviews and authors tested empirically using a survey design for two mobile phone brands. Results of the empirical study reinforces the role of brand engagement as a significant influencer of brand evangelism. Additionally, brand involvement, brand personality and self-brand connect are the constructs elucidating brand engagement, whereas brand interactivity has a direct effect on brand evangelism. Conceptual model tested among users of premium and value brand of mobile phones enlightens that customers of premium brand demonstrate stronger brand engagement and evangelism intent.