Abstract:
Marketers since long have been looking for ways which can help them in creating brand equity. Nowadays Retaining brand equity is the major issue faced by many companies. The advancement of technology, advent of web 2.0 and arrival of hand held devices like smartphones and tablets people now have easy access to information, and due to this technology trends are changing rapidly. Social media marketing has paved new path for marketers and the concept is gaining increasing importance for both academicians and practitioners. The aim of this research study was to probe into the comparative impact of brand communication on brand equity through social media channels and its associated mobile application in comparison to traditional media channels .Investigation was made to check the impact of both communication tools on consumer-based brand equity; comparing the size of impact created by the two communication tools; splitting the special effects of firm-generated and user-generated social media communication; and identifying the role played by hand held devices to social networks. The study was conducted on customers who follow at least one brand based online community on the social media related to fast moving consumer goods or clothing/apparel industry and owns a smartphone/tablet. A survey based empirical study was conducted and data was collected from 393 consumers. The chosen categories of products are Apparel, Fast Food/Restaurants, Cosmetic, Perfumes, Soft Drinks, Cold Drinks and Dairy Products. The technique used for data collection was probability sampling. The results of the study indicates, that social media communication both firm and user generated have a greater impact on consumer mind-set (Brand awareness and Brand image) in comparison to traditional media communication. Findings of the results shows that the impact of social media communication is approximately two times greater than the impact created by traditional media communication. The results also demonstrates that social network mobile application usage act as a catalyst for social media marketing as now these social networks are just a click away. In our findings the path through social network mobile applications usage has the highest coefficients (β=.64; r=0.64; R2=0.41; p<0.001). The research study provides evidence that Brand Awareness and Brand Image combines to form Brand Attitude which than translates into Consumer Purchase Intention, hence provide support in generating consumer –based brand equity
