Social Media Marketing Communication and Consumer-Based Brand Equity: An Account of Automotive Brands in Malaysia

Abstract

Achieving brand equity are top priorities for many organizations because brand is one of the most prized assets of any organization. As such, the academia continues to exert considerable efforts on understanding the factors that influence the development of brand equity. For instance, previous studies have demonstrated that social media communication has significant impact on Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE), however, researchers have not really focused on the relationships of several types of marketing communications anchored by different social media platforms for brand equity. As such, the objective of this study is to examine the relationships between the social media marketing communications, specifically, user-generated type (Social Media Word-of-Mouth) and firm created types (Social Media Advertising, Social Media Promotion and Social Media Interactive Marketing); and the CBBE of automotive brands in Malaysia. Subsequently, 800 samples were selected through cluster samplings from five cities in five geographical regions across Malaysia. Survey questionnaires were administered to users of four types of automotive brands, namely; PROTON, PERODUA, TOYOTA and HONDA. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regressions in SPSS 22. The findings revealed that, the selected automotive brands have notable presence on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Furthermore, it was found that, social media advertising, social media promotions and social media word-of-mouth have positive relationships with the CBBE of automotive brands. However, social media interactive marketing has an insignificant role in the CBBE. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed in this paper.

Intention to buy, interactive marketing, and online purchase decisions

“…It encourages ones to realize their buying intentions into purchase decisions. In line with this statement, Adetunji et al (2018) argue that interactive marketing allows marketers to gain interactive relationships with their consumers and brands. In other words, besides as an independent variable, interactive marketing likely moderates the association between intention to buy and purchase decisions by convincing consumers to buy products or brands.…”

“…Furthermore, interactive marketing also connects consumers with brands (Adetunji et al, 2018) or products. Hence, it is also arguably a moderating variable that affects purchase decision processes.…”

“…Interactive marketing programs of online shops will likely motivate consumers who initially only show interest in buying to make purchase decisions. Based on previous literature on the role of interactive marketing in strengthening consumers' purchase decisions (Kang et al, 2020;Nizam & Jaafar, 2018;Stone & Woodcock, 2014) and connections with brands and products (Adetunji et al, 2018;Buettner, 2020), interactive marketing can also act as a moderating variable. Based on these arguments, this study proposes the following hypothesis: H4: Interactive marketing moderates the effect of intention to buy on online purchase decisions.…”

A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Online Marketing Research Trends

“…Online marketing is also understood as e-marketing, where it markets products and services over the internet (Chien and Lee, 2018). Previous studies suggested that the applications of online marketing consisted but not limited to search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, and social media marketing (Adetunji et al, 2018;Giomelakis and Veglis, 2016;Karjaluoto and Taiminen, 2015). Nevertheless, online marketing, such as affiliate marketing, has not received enough attention in recent times.…”

Linking brand engagement to customer-based brand equity and role of brand experience, brand personality, and brand affect: A case of automobile market of Pakistan

“…Globally, the automobile industry has witnessed a shift of power from the west to east (Bernhart, Kleimann, & Hoffmann, 2011) as many countries in Asia have become major automobile manufacturers as well as these countries have a substantial share in the aggregate demand of the automobile market. The growing demand for automobiles in Asia has also identified the importance of leveraging customer-based brand equity (CBBE) amidst the burgeoning pressure on the automobile manufacturers due to increasing competition in the automobile industry (Adetunji, Rashid, & Ishak, 2018). The mounting competitive pressures on the automobile brands in Asian markets have also identified the falling retention rate of automobile customers due to various factors such as preference for higher product quality expectations, better customer experience and due to social factors like growing desire for automobile brands that raise the self-image of customers and help them look distinctive (Edmunds, 2018;Gerrits, Zhang, Klotz, Xu, & Xie, 2014).…”