An Investigation on the Impact of Social Media Advertising on the Brand Equity
[Thesis]
Paymaei, Hamed
Galib, Mohammad Hassan
Alliant International University
2020
138
D.B.A.
Alliant International University
2020
This study aims to provide a better understanding of the impact of social media advertising on customer-based brand equity. The scope of this research is Instagram users in Malaysia, and its purpose is to develop a model that helps marketers to realize the essential factors in sponsored advertising affecting their social media marketing. This study goes through different theories and frameworks about advertising value and brand equity and presents a discussion about traditional and online brand equity models. A theoretical framework is developed, reflecting the impact of sponsored advertising on brand equity. For this purpose, this research adopts Aaker's (1991) brand equity and Ducoffe's (1995) advertising value model. The key constructs for measuring customer-based brand equity are brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. Whereas informativeness, entertainment, irritation, and credibility are the considered factors to investigate the perceived value of sponsored advertising. The outcome of the research shows that the information which a sponsored Ad provides has the highest impact on Instagram perception on the value of the Ad. Besides, the more entertaining, credible, and less irritating an Ad is, the more valuable it is considered. It is very important that Instagram users find an Ad valuable as it improves all four dimensions of brand equity, and it has a positive influence on the thoughts and beliefs of the viewer of the Ad about the advertiser brand. However, the impact of social media Ads on Instagram users' minds about the attributes of the brand is different based on their ethnicity. Instagram users from Malay, Chinese-Malaysian, Indian-Malaysian, and other ethnic groups tend to have a different impression in regards to features and attributes of the advertised brand. Also, informativeness, entertainment, irritation, and credibility aspects of an Ad can have a higher impact on the way Instagram users think about the value of the Ad for the users with higher education.