Keyword

Service quality, differentiation strategy, competitive advantage, small and medium enterprises, South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication on five consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) dimensions through Facebook on the Egyptian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry.


This paper used quantitative approach, which consists of distributing, collecting, and analyzing large-scale questionnaire survey. Questionnaires were administered personally and electronically distributed.  Data were collected from 400 customers based on quota sampling technique to cover the Egyptian population distribution and analyzed by using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).

The results of our paper showed that firm-created social media brand communication has a significant positive direct impact on only four CBBE dimensions (brand awareness, brand perceived quality, brand associations and brand trust). Whereas user-generated social media brand communication has no significant impact on brand perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand trust. Additionally, it has been found that user-generated social media brand communication has a negative impact on brand awareness and brand associations.

This paper adds to the body of knowledge by focusing on the impact of two different types of social media communication (firm-created and user-generated social media brand communication) on 5 CBBE dimensions (brand awareness, brand perceived quality, brand associations, brand loyalty, and brand trust) in new context, which is the Egyptian FMCG industry. On the other hand, this paper provides vital information to the marketing specialists and brand managers to understand how CBBE dimensions could be built via two different types of social media communication.


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