THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON BRAND EQUITY AND CONSUMER RESPONSE IN HONG KONG

The literature contributed to the research on social media marketing through aspects such as types of social media, brand equity, interaction, word of mouth and customization. Furthermore, the study illustrated the relationship between social media marketing strategies and the brand equity. The discussion of managerial implication and recommendations for the research in future with an aim to make brand equity grow in social media marketing platform. Table of Contents Abstract 2 1. Introduction 3 2. Introduction The social media marketing is nowadays used widely where approximately 93. of the users of social media believes in the presence of social media marketing by company (Ahearne, Jones, Rapp, and Mathieu, 2008). The purchase decision of users of social media is influenced by the information the customers get from these social media marketing.

About 60% of them passed the information to other platforms of social media where it increases the brand selling of the industries. About 44% used the word of mouth in searching for information on the social media platforms. It is very important for company’s marketers to know or understand how they do marketing on the social media platform and how people respond to the brands of the company. The study analyzes social media marketing impacts from brand literature perspective which is the main exploitation and inadequate empirical research. Limited attention up to now is what the barn equity has got in the effectiveness and social media marketing context. However, there are a few notable steps by social media marketing. The study attributes to bring out comprehensive indicators of social media marketing on brand equity and its influence on the customers.

The indications from several kinds of literature show that companies use social media as a channel of marketing in a wide range of information to co-create deigns of the products in the campaigns of advertisement and process of organizational. Fig. Customer Conceptual model Fig. Service-Branding Model 2. Brand Equity Customer brand awareness, customer brand attitudes and customer perception of brand ethics are the three important factors that influence brand equity. With skilled target audience segmentation and share suitable contents on the brand’s behalf, the company can benefit from the interactive relationships. Social media are divided into content-based and profile-based groups by their interaction and connection with the customer. Zhu and Chen, 2015) The content-based marketers find the target audiences by the personal profile information on social media platforms, e.

g. Facebook, Twitter. People today always forward the post and photo on the social media platform to their friends, family members without constraints (Kim & Ko, 2012: Vollmer & Precourt, 2008), the information uploaded by the firm can be easier to spread out than years before. Also, the posts shared by consumer included branding opinions and comments, which determines the brand equity of the firm. According to the research, opinion seeking, opinion giving, and opinion passing are the three perspectives of examining the use of eWOM on social media marketing. Chu and Kim, 2011) The consumer tends to search online for information and opinion from another user before making the purchase decision. With positive eWOM of the brand, the customer is more willing to make a purchase decision or intended to notice the latest news of the brand, these are effective in increasing the brand loyalty and awareness.

Schmenner, 1986) The brands can design their own contents and express individually on the websites, in order to offer consistent experiences for target customers, special arrange the suitable information  based on customer’s different preferences, make every customer feel valued and treasured by the firm, also avoid overloaded messages are sent, as a result of creating brand loyalty. Apart from the customized message, broadcasted message on social media platforms is also effective to notice audiences of the company customized services. For instance, Yves Saint Laurent make use of the online presence by uploading a post on Facebook, widely spread the detailed information of customized lipstick services, marking their own name on YSL lipstick. It showed the effort of customization on building up brand awareness and loyalty in long-term.

Managerial Implications The managerial implication of the social media based on the model has shown that the use of networking and social media platforms have been largely increased in a recent decade. The consistency of the influence of the brand equity is all across Hong Kong regions. In opposite, and view that is doubtful, an illustration of the social media marketing efforts indicated a positive impact on the loyalty of the brand in the whole parts of Hong Kong. Additionally, the second most significant outcome was the price premium which was then followed by brand preference. The two elements are vital to research study though did not look into social media marketing. Therefore, social media marketing efforts have a capacity of coming up with the branding goals which will lead to the conventional activities of the marketing.

The use of the social media can be a major tool to improve information on brands and bring the relationship to consumers. However, the use of the traditional method is recommended such as atmospheric and store to persuade clients to pay a price premium for services or products The differences are there in the research taken in Hong Kong on social media marking, hence a successful approach to the analysis by managerial should be in place. The similarity in the brands marketing by companies in the social media are to be addressed with a feasible framework of communication so that to reach the target consumers. The reactions of the consumer from different parts of Hong Kong should be carefully analyzed by the manager and address them appropriately to enhance the marketing power of the company.

Conclusion In conclusion, the research study poses the following attributes; the strengthening of social media marketing influences on the brand equity and the consumer response by companies have been utilized fully. The influence on brand equity and consumer response is positive by use of social media marketing in Hong Kong 5. Recommendations According to the findings from the study, the managerial implications makes there should be a recommendation for the future improvement of the study. The following are recommendations; The firm should develop a customized strategy of social media. This will help the companies to get a better and a clear perception of activities of social media which can be used efficiently and effectively for the benefits of consumers and companies. This will help the company to achieve its objectives by choice of its social media channel.

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