The impact of brand authenticity on brand attachment, brand loyalty, willingness to pay more, and forgiveness - For Chinese consumers of Korean cosmetic brands

Hui Sun; You-Yu Dai; Su-Sung Jeon; Rok Lee; Hongyun Wang; Xing Shi; Long Sun; Yan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36030

The impact of brand authenticity on brand attachment, brand loyalty, willingness to pay more, and forgiveness - For Chinese consumers of Korean cosmetic brands

Heliyon. 2024 Aug 9;10(16):e36030. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36030. eCollection 2024 Aug 30.

Authors

Hui Sun^{1

2}, You-Yu Dai^{1

3

4}, Su-Sung Jeon⁵, Rok Lee⁶, Hongyun Wang¹, Xing Shi¹, Long Sun¹, Yan Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Shandong Jiaotong University, China.
² Nankai University, China.
³ Krirk University, Thailand.
⁴ Dhurakij Pundit University, Thailand.
⁵ Gyeongsang National University, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Dong-A University, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Despite the corona-virus pandemic, Korean cosmetics maintain brand attachment in the Chinese market. This study identifies critical influencing and outcome factors of brand attachment within this consumer phenomenon. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between Chinese consumers' perceived brand authenticity and brand attachment, brand loyalty, willingness to pay a premium, and forgiveness. To this end, it uses AMOS 21.0 to analyze data collected through a questionnaire, testing the research model. The study reveals several key findings. Firstly, it assesses brand authenticity based on the following five sub-factors: consistency, naturalness, originality, advertisement truthfulness, and reliability. According to the assessment results, originality shows the most significant impact, followed by reliability, consistency, and naturalness. Furthermore, brand attachment significantly enhances brand loyalty, willingness to pay a premium, and forgiveness toward the brand. Higher levels of brand attachment lead to increased brand loyalty. In addition, greater brand attachment correlates with consumers' increased willingness to pay more for products and greater forgiveness towards the brand.

Keywords: Brand attachment; Brand authenticity; Brand loyalty; Forgiveness; Willingness to pay more.