The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to fill the gap in the discussion of the ways in which firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication impacts consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) metrics through Facebook.
Design/methodology/approach
We evaluated 302 data sets that were generated through a standardized online survey to investigate the impact of firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication on brand awareness/associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty across 60 brands within three different industries: non-alcoholic beverages, clothing and mobile network providers. We applied a structural equation modeling technique to investigate the effects of social media communication on consumers’ perception of brand equity metrics, as well as in an examination of industry-specific differences.
Findings
The results of our empirical studies showed that both firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication influence brand awareness/associations; whereas user-generated social media brand communication had a positive impact on brand loyalty and perceived brand quality. Additionally, there are significant differences between the industries being investigated.
Originality/value
This article is pioneering in that it exposes the effects of two different types of social media communication (i.e. firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication) on CBBE metrics, a topic of relevance for both marketers and scholars in the era of social media. Additionally, it differentiates the effects of social media brand communication across industries, which indicate that practitioners should implement social media strategies according to industry specifics to lever CBBE metrics.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Faculty of Management and Economics and the Department of Marketing at Gdansk University of Technology (DS 020352) and by the National Science Centre (NCN) in Poland (Preludium 4 - UMO-2012/07/N/HS4/02790). The authors would like to thank James Gaskin from Brigham Young University and Jacek Buczny from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their detailed and insightful comments concerning the SEM procedures used in this article. The authors would also like to thank Maria Szpakowska, Julita Wasilczuk and Krzysztof Leja for their support, which made it possible for them to achieve their research objectives. Special thanks to Adam Okonski for the language edition. Nevertheless, the authors would like to thank Debra Zahay and the three anonymous reviewers for their generous and insightful guidance.
Citation
Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D. (2015), "The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 31-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-02-2014-0007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited