Examining the Mediating Role of Brand Equity on the Nexus Between Social Media Marketing and Customer Purchase Intention

Abstract ―​

The objective of our article is to shed light on the opportunities of social media marketing as an excellent brand equity constructs (brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality and brand loyalty) for improving customer purchase intention. To achieve our objective, we went through a literature review, based on previous studies, in order to identify our conceptual model and hypotheses. Subsequently, we tested these hypotheses with a quantitative study, based on a questionnaire intended for 175 hotel customers from the south west region and Douala city of Cameroon, the results obtained of our study are analysed by the modelling of structural equations, using the PLS approach (Partial Least Squares). The study reveals that brand equity has a strong positive direct effect on both social media marketing and customer purchase intention. On the other hand, customer purchase intention does not directly affect social media marketing significantly in this study. The study, on the other hand, reveals that brand equity influences customer purchase intention indirectly through its impact on social media marketing. The results also indicate that brand equity plays a crucial role in driving both social media marketing activities and customer purchase intention. Social media marketing serves as a pathway through which brand equity influences customer purchase intention. Therefore, the lack of direct effect from customer purchase intention to social media marketing suggests the study, and the study recommends that there are other factors that might be more influential in determining social media marketing activities. Therefore, marketers are advised to integrate strategies that leverage strengths identified in advertisement, social interaction, and celebrity endorsement while actively addressing challenges of gender disparity, age, and marital status to optimize brand equity, which affect customer purchase intention across the organisation.