The Influence of Advertising on Brand Equity of Chabahar Free Zone Tourism Destination (Iran)

Abstract

The present empirical research is principally aimed to show the impact of advertisement on the brand equity of Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone (CFZ) of Iran as a tourism destination. The primary data were collected via a 24-item questionnaire possessing a five-point Likert scale. The scales used for the questionnaire were constructed by adapting the expressions used in previous studies. A pilot survey with 20 participants of tourists in CFZ was primarily carried out to examine the suitability of questionnaire structure, content validity, content comprehensiveness, terminology, comprehensibility, convenience, and speed of completing the questionnaire. The statistical population in this study includes all tourists in the CFZ. Since the statistical population is unknown, the probability random sampling technique was used in this study. In total, 384 samples were considered and 155 questionnaires were received. Of the considered questionnaires, 136 valid ones were used for data analysis. To calculate the reliability and ensure the questionnaire’s internal consistency, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients and composite reliability were utilized. The questionnaire’s validity was verified and approved by the convergent and divergent validity method. In this study, the hypotheses and fitting of the model were examined utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM). Moreover, Smart PLS software was utilize for analyzing the gathered data. In this study, it was proved that advertising has a considerable effect on brand equity. Moreover, the findings showed the importance of advertising in creating brand equity and confirmed that the value of brand equity could be improved by focusing on advertising.