Examining Brand Loyalty & Brand Consciousness through the lens of Social Media Marketing

Abstract

The study explores how social media marketing activities build brand loyalty and how this relationship is mediated through brand consciousness. The empirical investigation involves a self-administered and a structured questionnaire, distributed through a convenience sample of 320 under-graduate and graduate students. Data analysis was conducted through SPSS 23.0 for demographic comparisons and SmartPLS 3 for evaluating the measurement and structural model of the study. The findings show that social media marketing has a significant positive influence on brand loyalty but this relationship is partially mediated by brand consciousness. In the same manner, social media marketing exerts a significant positive impact on brand consciousness and resultantly, brand consciousness also exerts a significant positive impact on brand loyalty.  The results provide valuable insights for marketers in integrating social media as a driving tool for developing brand engagement strategies that not only provide awareness about products/services but also generate a cult following for them.