The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumer based brand Equity for White Goods brands in India

Abstract

Purpose-Social Media has become an integral part of today's life. The business world has seen numerous opportunities in its application, and it has added new dimensions to the marketing function. This paper studies the impact of social media marketing (SMM) functionalities on the brand equity elements for the white goods brands in India. Design/Methodology/ Approach-The study approaches social media functionalities and brand equity as developed by the ISMBE model (Babac,2011) and explores the impact of social media marketing (SMM) variables on the brand equity of the white goods brands in India. The researcher has drawn from past studies on social media marketing and study of brand equity to develop a standardized questionnaire which was administered on a random sample of 150 respondents using Google forms. Various tests of reliability and validity were applied to test the variables, data was analyzed using linear and multiple regression, and finally regressions equations were established to understand the impact of dependent and independent variables. Findings-The study is effective in determining that social media marketing is helpful in building brand equity. The study stresses that white goods brands should consider social media marketing to access consumers in a cost-effective way to build and strengthen brand equity. The findings of the research corroborate with the framework suggested in the ISMBE model. Originality / Value-There is very little research done in the areas of social media marketing and its impact on consumer-based brand equity. While past research has dealt with some categories of brands like mobiles, fashion, malls etc. but there is no study on impact of social media variables on the brand equity of white goods brands in India therefore to that extent it contributes to a fresh understanding on this category in India.