Too important to ignore: the role of social media influencers in values-related brand crises

Social media influencers (SMIs) are viewed as credible sources of information which strengthens their influential power, making SMIs ideal brand ambassadors. While SMIs are frequently used to promote brands, can they also be used to help brands in crises? Drawing on appraisal theory, this study examines the role of SMIs in values-related brand crises. In two experiments, three types of SMI actions are examined: blaming the brand for the crisis, defending the brand’s actions, and ignoring the crisis with other positive brand-related information to distract consumers. Results show that both SMI actions and moral outrage strongly affect consumers’ willingness to forgive the brand, but the relevance of SMI’s values has no significant effect. The findings contribute to SMI marketing and brand crisis literatures, as well as provide valuable insights to marketing practitioners regarding how to minimize the negative impacts of values-related crises using SMIs.