The Effect of Confirmatory Credibility on Brand Loyalty and Brand Love in Multimedia Platforms, Investigating the Role of Virtual Brand Community Engagement, Brand Identity and Brand Attitude

Objective
If consumers have had an unfavorable brand experience, forgiveness has the ability to reduce, neutralize, or even replace the tension associated with negative emotions with positive emotions. Emotional and close relationships with the brand, such as love for the brand, can be effective in promoting brand forgiveness (Fcherin & Sampedro, 2019). Additionally, brand identity insulates consumers from the negative consequences of purchase regret by strengthening their remorse regulation and reducing behavioral discomfort. Furthermore, brand identity is an antecedent of brand love (Davvetas & Diamantopoulos, 201). Consumer brand identity can lead to customer interaction with the brand in virtual spaces by creating a of the development of customer-brand relationships. In fact, a psychological state emerges in the consumer that enables them to understand and feel the brand and value associated with a brand name (Zarrin Khat & Mirzaei, 2023). Using celebrity endorsers is one of most popular strategies employed by advertisers. Famous individuals can lend credibility to the brand in advertising, making competing brands stand out and helping the brand become recognizable to consumers. Brand forgiveness by consumers an important strategy for companies to improve and recover from service failures. In this context, the participation of the brand community in the virtual environment during a brand crisis has attracted the attention of companies and marketing researchers due to innovative technologies (Nikhashemi et al., 2023). The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of endorser credibility on virtual brand community, consumer brand identification, brand love, and brand forgiveness, with the moderating role of attitude towards the brand.
Research Methodology
The present study is descriptive-survey research in terms of applied purpose and correlational in nature. The statistical population of this research consists of all Mac brand consumers in the virtual space, whose number is unknown and unlimited; based on Morgan table, a sample size of 384 was determined. The sampling method used in this research was non-probability sampling. The data collection tool was the questionnaire by Nikhashemi et al. (2023), consisting of 46 items. This study was compiled in three parts: introduction, demographic questions, and questions for measuring the main research variables. To measure brand forgiveness, there were 5 items; for virtual brand engagement, 3 items; for consumer brand identification, 6 items; for attitude towards the brand, 4 items; for trustworthiness, 4 items; for attractiveness, 4 items; for expertise, 4 items; and for brand love, 16 items. A five-point Likert scale was used to assess the variables. Given the standard nature of the questionnaire and the fact that its validity had already been established, it can be said that it has the necessary validity. However, to further determine the validity of the research questionnaire, the method of formal content validity was employed again. For this purpose, the questionnaire was provided to experts, professors, and specialists in the field of research, and they were asked to share their suggestions for corrections. After collecting comments and applying them, the final questionnaire was developed. The average variance extracted (AVE) was utilized to assess the validity of the questionnaire items. To measure the reliability of the research questionnaire, the common method of reliability assessment, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, was used. This coefficient was higher than 0.7 for all variables and equal to 0.927 for the entire questionnaire, indicating a good coefficient and showing the reliability of the research tool is at a desirable level. Additionally, the composite reliability coefficient (CR) was used to assess the reliability of the questionnaire and was found to be acceptable. SPSS software was employed to analyze the data in the descriptive statistics section, while Smart PLS 3 software was used in the inferential statistics section.
Findings
In this study, the dimensions of endorser (expertise, attractiveness, trustworthiness) were considered as independent variables, the brand forgiveness variable as a dependent variable, and attitude towards the brand as a moderating variable. Brand love, virtual brand engagement, and consumer brand identification were mediator variables. Nineteen hypotheses were explained in this research, and data collected from all Mac brand consumers in the virtual space were used to analyze. The results showed that the trustworthiness and attractiveness of the famous endorser, as well as brand identification, have a significant effect on virtual brand community engagement; however, this effect was not significant for the dimension of expertise. Additionally, the expertise of the famous endorser had a significant effect on brand identification, but this effect was not significant for the trustworthiness and attractiveness dimensions. Brand identification had a significant effect on brand love and brand forgiveness. Interaction with the virtual brand had a significant effect on brand love, but the effect of interaction with the virtual brand community on brand forgiveness was not significant It was also found that the effect of brand love on brand forgiveness is significant. Finally, the findings confirm the moderating role of brand attitude in the relationship between the trustworthiness and expertise of the famous endorser and brand identification concerning virtual brand community engagement, as well as the attractiveness of the famous endorser on brand identification.
Discussion & Conclusion
Considering that the conceptual model of the research is designed based on the model of Nikhashemi et al. (2023), the innovation of this research lies in testing this model in a new statistical population. In addition to theoretical contributions, the study provides practical insights for managers in the cosmetics industry regarding potential brand-harm crises. Practitioners need to pay attention to the important role of all dimensions of source credibility as an essential ingredient in achieving favorable outcomes (e.g., consumer brand identification and virtual brand community engagement), particularly during a brand-harm crisis. This study demonstrated that the dimensions of source credibility can not only be considered as antecedents of consumer brand identification and, to some extent, virtual brand community engagement, but they can also be regarded as rapid brand recovery strategy during times of crisis. For instance, source credibility, as a marketing communication strategy, can be used to signal brand and firm quality. In other words, signals conveyed and communicated via a credible source (e.g., trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness) differ from other marketing mix elements and impact consumer behavioral outcomes and judgments.