Do Social Media Marketing Activities Build Long-Term Relationships? An Empirical Study of Indonesian Cosmetic Brand on Gen Z

Abstract

Social Media Marketing (SMM), which offers two-way communication between brand and customer, has been widely used for marketing activities as a communication channel. Drawing from the tenets of Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, the present study examined how social media marketing activities (SMMA) affect brand loyalty with brand experience and relationship quality as the mediators for Indonesian cosmetic brand. Empirical evidence was collected from 300 cosmetic users who follow specific Indonesian cosmetic brand on social media and have purchased cosmetic items from that brand. The results of structural equation modelling revealed that SMMA has a beneficial influence on brand experience and relationship quality, brand experience and relationship quality are significant mediators in the relationship between SMMA and brand loyalty, SMMA has no direct influence on brand loyalty, and brand experience significantly influences relationship quality. The findings go beyond the existing literature on Social Media Marketing Activities (SMMA) by providing a holistic model for customer behavior outcome (brand loyalty) in perceiving SMMA through brand experience and relationship quality and confirming the relationship between SMMA and brand experience to relationship quality. This research suggests that managers optimize SMMA and the brand experience dimension to improve relationship quality, significantly promoting brand loyalty for building a long-term relationship.