Aim and Introduction: Brand failures such as product defects, service errors, unmet promises, and unethical organizational behavior can seriously damage customer trust and weaken long-term relationships with consumers. In today's competitive markets, organizations must not only correct their mistakes but also rebuild customers' confidence through effective recovery strategies. One of the most important concepts explaining this recovery process is brand forgiveness, which refers to customers' willingness to overlook a brand's mistakes, reduce negative emotions, and continue their relationship with the brand despite experiencing dissatisfaction. Brand forgiveness is influenced by multiple psychological, relational, and organizational factors rather than by a single event The automotive industry provides an appropriate setting for studying this concept because automobiles are high-involvement products that require considerable financial investment and directly affect consumer safety and daily life. Product failures or poor service can therefore have serious consequences for customer trust and brand reputation. Although previous studies have examined customer satisfaction, loyalty, and service recovery, relatively few have investigated the antecedents and consequences of brand forgiveness in an integrated framework. Accordingly, this study aimed to identify the factors influencing brand forgiveness and its consequences in the automotive industry and to prioritize these factors using the Fuzzy Delphi method.
Methodology: This research is applied in terms of purpose and employed a mixed-methods approach using an exploratory sequential design. In the first phase, a qualitative study was conducted to identify the antecedents and consequences of brand forgiveness. In the second phase, the identified components were validated and prioritized through the Fuzzy Delphi method The research population consisted of senior and middle managers in the automotive industry, branding and marketing experts, consultants, and university faculty members specializing in consumer behavior and branding. Using purposive sampling and the principle of theoretical saturation, thirty experts were selected. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews based on an interview guide developed from the literature. The interviews were analyzed using MAXQDA software through content analysis involving open, axial, and selective coding. To ensure research quality, content validity was confirmed by academic experts, while reliability was assessed through intra-coder and inter-coder agreement. In the quantitative phase, structured Fuzzy Delphi questionnaires were distributed among the experts. Linguistic variables ranging from very low to very high were converted into triangular fuzzy numbers to reduce uncertainty in expert judgments. Successive Delphi rounds were conducted until consensus was achieved, after which the identified factors and consequences were ranked according to their relative importance.
Findings:The qualitative findings identified a comprehensive set of factors affecting brand forgiveness and its outcomes in the automotive industry. Analysis of interview data showed that brand forgiveness is shaped by a combination of relational, organizational, psychological, and market-related factors. Among the identified antecedents, brand-consumer relationship was recognized as the most influential factor. Customers who have developed strong emotional attachment, accumulated positive experiences, and maintained long-term interactions with a brand are generally more willing to forgive occasional failures. Compensation ranked as another major determinant, indicating that practical corrective actions such as financial reimbursement, warranty extensions, transparent communication, and timely problem resolution significantly improve customers' willingness to forgive. Limited choice alternatives also emerged as an important factor, suggesting that customers facing few acceptable substitutes may continue purchasing from a brand despite previous dissatisfaction. Other influential factors included organizational honesty, fairness, corporate reputation, customer empathy, previous satisfaction, service quality, responsiveness, and effective crisis management.The study also identified several important consequences of brand forgiveness. Customer retention and continuation of purchasing relationships ranked as the most significant outcome. Consumers who forgive a brand are more likely to remain loyal and continue purchasing its products. Another important consequence is the reduction of retaliatory behaviors such as negative word-of-mouth, complaints, and unfavorable online reviews. Furthermore, brand forgiveness strengthens positive customer emotions including trust, gratitude, emotional attachment, and loyalty, thereby improving customer lifetime value and supporting sustainable organizational performance.
Discussion and Conclusion:The findings demonstrate that brand forgiveness is a multidimensional process resulting from the interaction of customer characteristics, organizational behavior, and market conditions. The quality of the existing relationship between customers and the brand plays a critical role in determining whether consumers are willing to forgive organizational failures. Similarly, appropriate compensation and transparent communication enhance perceptions of fairness and significantly facilitate trust recovery. From a managerial perspective, automotive companies should consider brand forgiveness as a strategic objective rather than merely a post-crisis reaction. Investing in long-term customer relationships before service failures occur can create emotional commitment that reduces the negative effects of future mistakes. In addition, organizations should implement comprehensive recovery strategies combining sincere apologies, effective compensation, rapid problem resolution, and transparent communication to rebuild customer confidence. This research contributes to branding literature by providing an integrated framework of the antecedents and consequences of brand forgiveness within the automotive industry. The combination of qualitative content analysis and the Fuzzy Delphi technique offers both theoretical insights and practical prioritization of influential factors. Although the findings are limited to expert opinions within the automotive sector, they provide valuable guidance for marketing managers seeking to strengthen customer trust and improve crisis management. Future studies may validate the proposed framework using customer surveys and structural equation modeling across different industries and cultural contexts. Overall, the study concludes that successful management of brand forgiveness enables organizations to transform service failures into opportunities for rebuilding stronger customer relationships, enhancing loyalty, reducing negative consumer reactions, and achieving sustainable competitive advantage.