From Social Media Marketing Activities to Brand Loyalty:The Mediating Role of Brand Equity in the Indian Cosmetics Industry

Abstract

The processes by which Social Media Marketing Activities (SMMAs) translate into sustainable brand performance are still not fully comprehended. This paper will look at the direct and indirect impact of five dimensions of SMMA (Entertainment, Interactivity, Trendiness, Customization, and Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM)) on Brand Loyalty, with Brand Equity (comprising Brand Awareness, Brand Image, and Brand Trust) acting as the mediating mechanism. A structured questionnaire was conducted amongst 250 cosmetics consumers in major urban centres in India to base the questionnaire on validated five-point Likert scales. Hypothesis testing was done using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) which was executed in SmartPLS 4.0. All five SMMA dimensions significantly and positively predict Brand Equity ( 0.244-0.336, p < 0.001) and all three components of Brand Equity significantly predict Brand Loyalty ( 0.291-0.334, p < 0.001). Part of the mediation via bootstrapped confidence intervals (5,000 iterations) confirms the partial mediation through each Brand Equity dimension. The total model has a variance of Brand Loyalty that accounts to 68.2 (R 2 = 0.682). eWOM is the most significant SMMA predictor ( = 0.336) and Brand Image is the most impactful Brand Equity pathway ( = 0.334). The results enhance consumer-based brand equity theory in the digital marketing setting and provide more precise strategic advice to the cosmetics brand aiming to build loyalty among the growing consumer base of India with regard to social media usage.