The Impact of Social Media Activities on Brand Equity

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of Social Media Activities on brand equity (brand awareness and brand image). A cross-sectional quantitative study has been conducted using a validated questionnaire distributed to a convenience sample of 362 participants who used one or more forms of an Airline’s social media. Multiple Regression analysis was performed using SPSS version 20 to test the hypotheses. Results revealed a significant impact of Social Media Activities as a whole on brand equity. It was found that entertainment, customization, interaction and EWOM significantly affected the brand image, while customization, trendiness, interaction and EWOM significantly affected brand awareness. This study is one of few to examine the impact of social media activities on brand equity towards Airlines in Middle Eastern countries. The study provided several theoretical and practical implications that can benefit airline managers in their marketing efforts using various social media activities.

1. Introduction

The continuous advance and availability of internet services have enabled people to access and interact increasingly with Social Media (SM) [1,2,3] In the marketing field, SM has been an important means for introducing various products and services to consumers, affecting Brand Image (BI) and Brand Awareness (BA) [4]. Moreover, retailers and manufacturers look to SM as a tool for successful diffusion into the market, allowing consumers to become aware of a new product at a high rate [5,6]. stated that marketing through SM involves several activities, entertainment, customization, interaction, electronic word of mouth (EWOM) and trendiness. These activities are taking over many roles in businesses all over the world including marketing [4,7,8,9]. Entertainment is the fun and pleasure attained from using social media, it is the happy time that customers acquire by using social media sites. Moreover, it is the main driver of the attractiveness of using social media [10,11]. Customization is the alignment of social media with customers’ preferences and attitudes in order to enhance their relationship with the brand. This technique is used to deliver branding uniqueness and to increase customer loyalty [12,13]. Further, interaction is a key component of social media, as it allows customers to exchange information and opinions with others. This interaction results in active engagement and keeps customers motivated to seek information [14,15]. With regard to EWOM, it comprises the informal communications between consumers that can significantly influence consumer brand choice, and can be considered as a powerful marketing tool [6,16]. Lastly, trendiness represents the degree to which the information provided via social media is kept up to date and new [11].

This research studied the impact of social media activities SMA on BI and BA, which could be expressed as brand equity [17]. A Jordanian Airline that uses various social media platforms was considered as a case study for this research. Many researchers propose that SM be considered a crucial mean for online marketing, considering worldwide internet popularity; as a result, many companies are taking this advantage by creating their own SM platforms [18]. It should be a concern for entrepreneurs and business holders to explore the degree of influence of SM on customers, in order to enhance their marketing strategies. This study will contribute to developing the airline marketing vision and strategies. Furthermore, it seeks to answer the following question:

What is the impact of using social media marketing on brand equity (BI and BA)?

Studies on the role of SMA on the image and awareness about the brand are still insufficient [4,11]. To the researchers’ knowledge, there are no studies exploring this issue in Jordan yet. This study had provided important knowledge of the impact of SMA on brand equity. Additionally, will be a base for future, similar studies to improve these activities and emphasize particular aspects that have the greatest impact in the marketing field. This research seeks to progress existing literature by gaining knowledge on the impact of social media activities on brand equity, fulfilling the gap of recognizing the role of SMA’s in marketing.

The current study is realized through the expansion of previous theoretical SMA’s and brand equity models for the airline industry. The experimental verification of the research conceptual model has made an influential theoretical contribution to the existing literature. As per researchers’ knowledge, it extended the first experimental analysis of the effect of SMA’s including Facebook and Twitter on brand equity towards Airlines in Jordan. Moreover, it added to the existing literature by examining the impact of five SMA’s together (entertainment, customization, interactions, EWOM, and trendiness) on brand equity. Additionally, the current study enables the airline industry to increase the success in interacting with their customers in a way that enhances brand equity and allows the business to continually grow.

In addition, the findings of this research are substantial and have provided several practical suggestions.

The current study is organized into five sections; the following section contains the literature review and the hypotheses development. Then, the methodology and results follow. This is followed by the discussion section, the implications and research limitations and future research avenues.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Social Media

Not long ago, SM became one of the most powerful ways that many businesses contact and entrust their costumers to establish characteristic brand identity [3,19,20]. In [21] said that “interaction with customers using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in marketing strategies will impact BI positively affect”. [17] conducted a study regarding brand equity, which consists of BA and BI, where they concluded that it is one of the outcomes of businesses’ SMA’s. A previous study by [22] investigated the impact of SMA on BA. The study revealed that one of the most important tools to establish and increase brand equity is SM. [11] examined whether SMA plays an important part in brand equity in the airline industry, and the outcome revealed a positive effect of SMA’s on brand equity.

In light of this, and considering the fast evolution of SM, most airlines have now recognized that keeping the SMA away from the marketing plan would return in negative results related to competitive edge. Furthermore, airlines’ competition is intense and growing continuously, where we can observe that quality services with low cost are increasing since most airlines are pursuing creative and unique methods to enhance the experience of customers during the travel period [23].

A previous study claimed that a well-designed SM strategy could create advantageous effects with the lowest financial outlays. On the other hand, keeping the SM out will negatively affect the image and outcome [24]. Moreover, the authors in a prior study in Jordan recommended airlines to focus on updating the content of their SM links regularly, by displaying interesting offers that will attract more customers and keep their content up-to-date [25].

An aim of the current research is to examine the relationship between SMA’s used by Royal Jordanian, including; entertainment, customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness on brand equity among Jordanians. Previous studies related to these activities were reviewed. Nevertheless, most of the studies were conducted in western countries and the Far East, with few studies existing in Jordan and the Middle East.

2.2. Sma’s and Brand Equity

Brand equity consists of BA and BI, where both are critical components of brand knowledge. Aaker [26] defined BA as potential consumers’ capability of recognizing or remembering a certain brand, which assists consumers to relate products with brands. This can be created by consumers’ recurrent and memorable exposure to the brand. It is defined in literature by Langaro et al. [27] as a prerequisite for brands to be taken into account in consumers’ decision-making process. On the other hand, BI means the group of memories concerned with the brand in consumers’ minds; it shows how the brand recognized in the consumers’ memory [28]. Aaker [28] claimed that brand equity is achieved when customers know the brand, have a distinctive perception of the brand, and when the brand is well-known.

Keller [29] also claimed that whenever the customer is aware of the brand, brand equity takes place, which provides consumers with positive, influential and distinctive retention of the BI. Providing the increasing importance of SMA’s in marketing, businesses have started using SM to deliver key messages associated with the brand to create a solid and favorable BI and BA in the mind of consumers.

2.2.1. Entertainment

Entertainment is an essential part that motivates participants’ attitude and the continuousness of pursuit that leads to favorable perceptions regarding the brand [30]. Moreover, marketers utilize SM to display entertaining and funny contents to deliver interesting information to consumers, such as pictures and videos shared on Facebook and Instagram to please the consumers to fulfil their need for delight which attracts their attention [31,32,33]. For instance, in 2019 RJ used humor in promoting new offers through Facebook. This humor content went viral through Facebook pages where individuals’ opinions varied between supporter and opposer. Nevertheless, people in Jordan were aware of the new offers in RJ due to the humor used.

Manthiou et al. [32] claimed that pleasing content will provoke the attention of customers even if the reason behind using the SM differs for individuals. This has been explored in a prior study by [34], where it was revealed that entertainment is a motivating aspect in encouraging the involvement of participants with SM. Therefore, a pleasant feeling can be created for customers by posting interesting and entertaining activities on SM platforms, such as, uploading games and competitions which can stimulate the customers’ participation [35,36,37]. This being said, many previous empirical studies illustrated that when individuals like the enjoyable content existing on SM platforms, it will create a positive experience in their mind, which probably will lead them to recognize and recall the brand [3,29,35].

2.2.2. Customization

Customization in SM was defined in previous studies as the extent to which services given are tailored to fulfil the consumers’ predilections [15,38]. It differs from conventional advertisement media by being grounded on interaction and communication with consumers, which makes it possible to obtain customers’ satisfaction by optimizing the information given to them individually [38]. In addition to that, customization enables the business to deliver the exclusivity of their brands and increase consumers’ preferences for it [12]. Additionally, it allows businesses to deal individually with customers’ problems and direct the advertising and services as well as personalized message for value creation to a certain set of individuals [39,40,41]. For instance, replying instantly to consumers’ personal questions builds customer contentment [39].

2.2.3. Interaction

Interaction in SMA can be accomplished when consumers give their thoughts on SM platforms, and come across, exchange and argue with people with similar thinking about certain products or brands [42]. Hence, interaction means the amount of space provided by social media platforms to discuss and exchange ideas, bidirectional interactions and data sharing [43,44]. Many businesses encourage their customers to share their purchase experience in simple ways on the selected SM platform, which can be called users’ online interactions [19]. Essentially, SM nowadays is defeating time and space constrictions by encouraging business to interact with potential consumers and increase their closeness [45]. In support of this view, prior empirical studies revealed that to enhance consumers’ behavior towards products and brands, businesses need to create SM interactions with users by making it easier to fulfil their demands, needs, opinions and suggestions in reality [46,47,48]. Furthermore, interactive activities and communications existing on SM platforms will likely reach more consumers than old-fashioned media, such as television and radio. In light of this, businesses are advised to increase users’ interaction and participation on certain subjects and discussions on SM platforms, to create and develop a customer’s connection toward the brand [40,49].

2.2.4. EWOM

A series of recent studies have indicated that Electronic Word of Mouth (EWOM) can hugely impact the interest of consumers in products or brands, which has a significant effect on BE. Moreover, many independent scenarios illustrate that EWOM tends to affect the whole decision-making process of a consumer [50,51,52]. For example, Cortizo-Burgess [53] suggested that a traveler who used an airline could praise or complain about his experience as a passenger on this airline on Twitter, which could influence others’ decisions about booking through this airline. Several authors have recognized that EWOM is considered a powerful marketing tool, since clients, before buying products or services, look for any written online reviews by previous customers to evaluate the products [3,54,55]. Dissimilar to physical word of mouth, which fades after the individual has verbally spoken, EWOM stays visible, at minimum, until a post is removed. However, the post might still be found in Internet caches [56]. In addition to that, one previous study which was conducted on airline, automotive and communication industries revealed that EWOM has a substantial impact on consumers’ BE [41].

However, a previous study investigated the fact that the current generation’s probability of buying certain products is highly affected by the feedback from people who are followed on SM. The products purchase was impacted by SMA on the following platforms: Twitter (50%), Pinterest (47%), and Facebook (45%) [50]. This being said, it has claimed that SM sites are not similarly reliable sources of product information to gather consumer attention and increase sales [57]. Moreover, [57] suggested that even though EWOM has a crucial role in marketing, as SM develops and wider social suggestions emerge, we must study the way consumers may use SM rather than looking into the communicative aspects of SM. Despite that, the reviewed literature shows that EWOM has a substantial effect on airline SM and BE. Hence, consumers become increasingly dependent on SM to obtain information on products [58,59].

2.2.5. Trendiness

Trendiness known for giving the latest information related to a service or a product [15]. As information is continuously provided in actual time on SM, it has become the latest and updated origin of information for consumers. Trendy information includes the latest information on a brand or product, feedback and fresh ideas, which builds consumers’ brand trust and accordingly enforces the consumer’s positive awareness toward the brand or the product [15,32]. Many authors suggested that consumers apt to trust product-related information learned through SM more than traditional channels, as it is perceived to be more useful and up-to-date. Therefore, we can observe that whenever SM platforms provide trendy and hot topics, more trust is created between the brand and customers, therefore minimizing search efforts consumed by users [34,60,61,62].

The three main Hypotheses in this study are:

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

There is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BE (BI and BA) at α ≤ 0.05.

Hypothesis 1.1 (H1.1).

There is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on the BI at α ≤ 0.05.

Hypothesis 1.2 (H1.2).

There is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BA at α ≤ 0.05.

2.3. Conceptual Model

SMA has been defined in the airline industry as; entertainment, interaction, trendiness, perceived risk and customization [11]. However, in other studies related to the insurance services field, these activities were defined as; interaction, trendiness, customization, and perceived risk [16]. Lately, Yadav et al. [63] illustrated these activities as trendiness, interaction, information, customization, and EWOM. SMA in the current research has been considered as follows; entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and EWOM [6]. The conceptual model will study the effect of SMA’s as independent variables on BI and BA as dependent variables (See Figure 1).

3. Methodology

3.1. Population, Sampling and Data Collection

To achieve the stated objectives, cross-sectional quantitative research was conducted. The study target population was 362 customers who are active on SM and are familiar with an airline’s services and activities on its different SM accounts. The instrument applied to collect responses from participants was an online-validated questionnaire, distributed to a sample of convenience respondents who have used one of the airline services [15,64,65]. Online distribution was chosen due to its ease of setup and ease of share, which allow for wider reachability and its low to no cost. The researchers distributed the questionnaire over different online platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. Quantitative findings are less time-consuming and could be applied to social and behavioral variables [63]. However, consent from participants was not obtained as the data were analyzed anonymously.

Looking at the demographic characteristics of the participants, it was noticed that 53% of total received responses were from females, while the remaining 47% were from males. Overall, 48.1% of them were aged from 30 to 40 years old, followed by 40.6% who were in the age range 20-30 years old, while the rest of participants, 11.3%, were older than 40 years old. In total, 57.2% of the total respondents held a bachelor’s degree, while 41.4% held a Master’s degree, and 1.4% held a PhD degree. Researchers have also examined respondents’ behavior on SM and found that Facebook was the most popular network used by participants at 58.8% usage, and 35.9% used Instagram the most, while the remaining 5.3% used other social networks the most, such as Twitter, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. As for time spent by them daily on different SM channels, 21.5% reported that they spent more than 3 h daily on SM, 32.3% spent two to three hours on SM, 29.8% spent one to two hours, while the remaining 16.3% spent between less than one hour daily on SM. As for the number of brands followed by participants on the different SM channels, 68.8% reported following more than five brands.

3.2. Measurement Scales

The researchers reviewed previous studies to prepare the distributed questionnaire (See Appendix A). Fifteen items were adopted from [64] to measure four of the studied social activities, which were entertainment, customization, interaction, and EWOM. As for the fifth social activity under examination, which is trendiness, three items in the questionnaire were used to evaluate this activity and the items were taken from [15,64]. Furthermore, 12 items were included in the questionnaire to gauge participants’ thoughts on BI and BA; these items were proposed by [15,65]. For each item in the questionnaire, participants had to score it on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”.

3.3. Method of Analysis

Since this was a causal study that aimed to understand the impact of SMAs’ on brand equity, image and awareness. Correlation and multiple regression analysis have been applied to analyze the relationships between the tested model variables and the extent to which the independent variables influence the dependent variables. Specifically, the impact of the different social marketing activities (entertainment, customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness) on either BI or BA were tested. The analysis was performed using the SPSS software package. SPSS was used since it is commonly picked by researchers as an analysis tool [66] has a friendly and easy-to-use interface, and since it supports all the statistical analysis methods needed to validate the proposed model.

4. Descriptive Analysis

4.1. Reliability and Validity

4.1.1. Reliability

The SPSS version 20 statistical package was used to analyze the questionnaire. Before collecting the total sample of required data, the validity of the study instrument was ensured, the questionnaire was approved by a group of professors at different business schools to ensure face validity, and then after reflecting the required amendments, researchers came up with the final screen of the study instrument. Consequently, a pilot test sample of 30 cases was distributed and its construct validity was analytically tested. The reliability was checked using the statistical measure “Cronbach Alpha”. The results concluded that all scales used are above 0.70, and the scale of the overall items was 0.953. According to Nunnally, if the Cronbach alpha scale is above 0.70, the questionnaire study sample is reliable [67]. See

Table 1. Construct Reliability Results.

Construct	Cronbach Alpha
SMA	0.947
All items	0.953
Entertainment	0.853
Customization	0.866
Interaction	0.840
EWOM	0.845
Trendiness	0.870
BA	0.898
BI	0.890

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4.1.2. Validity

All the variables were examined for their means, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis. The descriptive statistics presented below in

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics.

Variables	N	Mean	Std. Dev.	Skewness		Kurtosis
	Statistic	Statistic	Statistic	Statistic	Std. Error	Statistic	Std. Error
Entertainment	362	4.3764	1.26743	0.142	0.128	−0.443	0.256
Customization	362	4.4685	1.16740	0.143	0.128	−0.297	0.256
Interaction	362	4.7293	1.27326	−0.554	0.128	0.504	0.256
EWOM	362	4.2993	1.41086	−0.068	0.128	−0.351	0.256
Trendiness	362	4.8453	1.30393	−0.199	0.128	−0.434	0.256
Brand_Awareness	362	5.3707	1.20733	−0.818	0.128	0.526	0.256
Brand_Image	362	4.9223	1.14631	−0.415	0.128	−0.276	0.256
Valid N (listwise)	362

indicate a positive disposition towards the items. The standard deviation (SD) values for all factors ranged from 1.16740 to 1.41086; these values indicate a narrow spread around the mean, as well as the mean values of all items, which ranged from 4.2993 to 5.3707. The values of skewness and kurtosis were found normally distributed because all the values were inside the adequate ranges for normality (i.e., -1.0 to +1.0) for skewness, and less than 10 for kurtosis [68].

The validity of the internal consistency has been verified by calculating the coefficient of Pearson’s correlation between the degrees of each of the five activities of the SM construct and the overall degree of the SM construct to which the items belong. All the coefficients of Pearson’s correlation between each activity and its related items are statistically correlated and significant at the 0.01 level, where the lowest value was 0.280** and the highest value was 0.849**. Therefore, all items are correlated internally with their main variables, which reinforces the content validity [69]. See

Table 3. Pearson Correlation (Independent and dependent variables).

		Entertainment	Customization	Interaction	EWOM	Trendiness	Brand Awareness	Brand Image	Brand Equity
Entertainment	Pearson Correlation	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)
Customization	Pearson Correlation	0.711 **	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000
Interaction	Pearson Correlation	0.526 **	0.526 **	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.000
EWOM	Pearson Correlation	0.698 **	0.708 **	0.590 **	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.000	0.000
Trendiness	Pearson Correlation	0.709 **	0.666 **	0.559 **	0.677 **	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Brand_Awareness	Pearson Correlation	0.447 **	0.465 **	0.496 **	0.373 **	0.564 **	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Brand_Image	Pearson Correlation	0.571 **	0.551 **	0.280 **	0.509 **	0.452 **	0.413 **	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Brand_Equity	Pearson Correlation	0.604 **	0.603 **	0.464 **	0.523 **	0.606 **	0.849 **	0.831 **	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

.

4.2. Testing the Hypotheses

4.2.1. There ss a Statistically Significant Impact of SMA’s on BE (BI and BA) at α ≤ 0.05

To test the main hypothesis, and ensure that there is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BE (BI and BA) at α ≤ 0.05. Multiple linear regression (as shown in

Table 4. Regression 1: SMA with Brand Equity.

Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	0.681 a	0.464	0.457	0.72915

^a Predictors: (Constant), Trendiness, Interaction, Customization, EWOM, Entertainment.

and

Table 5. Regression 1: ANOVA ^b.

Model	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F
Regression	163.976	5	32.795	61.685 a
Residual	189.270	356	0.532
Total	353.245	361

^a Dependent Variable: Brand Equity, ^b Predictors: (Constant), Trendiness, Interaction, Customization, EWOM, Entertainment.

) has been run, and it was found that R (0.681) is the correlation between the SMA and BE (BI and BA). Additionally, it found R² (0.464), which explains the variance, meaning that (68.1%) of the variance, R², in the brand equity has been significantly explained by social media advertising (Entertainment, Customization, Interaction, EWOM, and Trendiness). Furthermore, it found F = 61.685, Sig =.000, so there is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BE (BI and BA) at α ≤ 0.05.

As shown in

Table 6. Regression 1: Coefficients ^a.

Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	Collinearity Statistics
		B	Std. Error	Beta			Tolerance	VIF
1	(Constant)	2.263	0.176		12.861	0.000
	Entertainment	0.172	0.050	0.220	3.427	0.001	0.366	2.735
	Customization	0.217	0.053	0.257	4.117	0.000	0.387	2.581
	Interaction	0.075	0.039	0.097	1.924	0.050	0.596	1.677
	EWOM	−0.028	0.045	−0.041	−0.636	0.525	0.369	2.706
	Trendiness	0.191	0.047	0.252	4.112	0.000	0.400	2.503

^a Dependent Variable: Brand Equity.

, the VIF value is less than 10, and the tolerance is more than 10%, where one predictor variable in a multiple regression model can be linearly predicted from the others with a significant degree of accuracy. Additionally, according to the coefficients, the entertainment, customization, interaction, and trendiness have a significant effect on BE (BI and BA) at α ≤ 0.05. Furthermore, it was found that EWOM does not show any significant effect on BE (BI and BA) due to the significance of 0.525, which is higher than 0.05. The final predictive model is:

Brand Equity = 2.263 + 0.172 (Entertainment) + 0.217 (Customization) + 0.075 (Interaction) + 0.191 (Trendiness).

4.2.2. There is a Statistically Significant Impact of SMA’s on BI at α ≤ 0.05

To test the first sub-hypothesis, and to ensure that there is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BI at α ≤ 0.05, multiple linear regression (as shown in

Table 7. Regression 2: Brand Image and SMA ^a.

R Square	Adjusted R Square
0.385	0.377

^a Predictors: (Constant), Trendiness, Interaction, Customization, EWOM, Entertainment.

and

Table 8. Regression 2: ANOVA ^b.

Model		Sum of Squares	Df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
1	Regression	182.852	5	36.570	44.660	0.000 a
	Residual	291.512	356	0.819
	Total	474.363	361

^a Dependent Variable: Brand Image, ^b Predictors: (Constant), Trendiness, Interaction, Customization, EWOM, Entertainment.

) was run, and it found that R (0.621) is the correlation between the SMA and BI. Additionally, it was found that R² = 0.385, which explains the variance, which means that 62.1% of the variance, R², in the brand equity can be significantly explained by social media advertising (entertainment, customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness). Furthermore, it was found that F = 44.660, Sig =.000, which means that there is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BI at α ≤ 0.05.

As shown in

Table 9. Regression 2: Coefficients ^a.

Model	Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	Collinearity Statistics
	B	Std. Error	Beta			Tolerance	VIF
(Constant)	2.420	0.218		11.082	0.000
Entertainment	0.309	0.062	0.341	4.968	0.000	0.366	2.735
Customization	0.259	0.066	0.264	3.953	0.000	0.387	2.581
Interaction	−0.121	0.048	−0.135	−2.502	0.013	0.596	1.677
EWOM	0.133	0.056	0.164	2.396	0.017	0.369	2.706
Trendiness	−0.001	0.058	−0.001	−0.020	0.984	0.400	2.503

^a Dependent Variable: Brand Image.

, the VIF value is less than 10, and the tolerance is more than 10%, where one predictor variable in a multiple regression model can be linearly predicted from the others with a significant degree of accuracy. In addition, according to the coefficients, entertainment, customization, interaction, and EWOM have a significant effect on BI at α ≤ 0.05, due to their significances being below 0.05. Furthermore, it was found that trendiness does not show any significant effect on BI due to its significance of 0.984, which is higher than 0.05. The final predictive model is:

BI = 2.42 + (0.309*Entertainment) + (0.259*Customization) − (0.121*Interaction) + (0.133*EWOM).

4.2.3. There is a Statistically Significant Impact of SMA’s on BA at α ≤ 0.05

To test the second sub-hypothesis, and to ensure that there is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BA at α ≤ 0.05, multiple linear regression (as shown in

Table 10. Regression 3: SMA and BA.

Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	0.623 a	0.388	0.379	0.95104

^a Predictors: (Constant), Trendiness, Interaction, Customization, EWOM, Entertainment.

and

Table 11. Regression 3: ANOVA ^b.

Model	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Regression	204.218	5	40.844	45.158	0.000 a
Residual	321.991	356	0.904
Total	526.210	361

^a Dependent Variable: Brand Awareness, ^b Predictors: (Constant), Trendiness, Interaction, Customization, EWOM, Entertainment.

) was run, and it found that R (0.623) is the correlation between the SMA and BA. Additionally, it found that R² = 0.388, which explains the variance, which means that 62.3% of the variance, R², in the brand equity can be significantly explained by social media advertising (entertainment, customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness), and also it was found that F = 45.158, Sig =.000, so there is a statistically significant impact of SMA on BA at α ≤ 0.05.

As shown in

Table 12. Regression 3: Coefficients ^a.

Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	Collinearity Statistics
		B	Std. Error	Beta			Tolerance	VIF
1	(Constant)	2.106	0.230		9.176	0.000
	Entertainment	0.035	0.065	0.036	0.528	0.598	0.366	2.735
	Customization	0.176	0.069	0.170	2.553	0.011	0.387	2.581
	Interaction	0.271	0.051	0.286	5.330	0.000	0.596	1.677
	EWOM	−0.190	0.058	−0.222	−3.254	0.001	0.369	2.706
	Trendiness	0.384	0.061	0.415	6.325	0.000	0.400	2.503

^a Dependent Variable: Brand Awareness.

below, the VIF value is less than 10 and the tolerance is more than 10%, where one predictor variable in a multiple regression model can be linearly predicted from the others with a significant degree of accuracy. Additionally, according to the coefficients, customization, interaction, EWOM and trendiness have a significant effect on BA at α ≤ 0.05, due to their significance being below 0.05. Furthermore, it was found that entertainment does not show any significant effect on BA due to its significance of 0.598, which is higher than 0.05. The final predictive model is:

BA= 2.106 + 0.18* Customization + 0.38* Interaction − 0.19*EWOM + 0.38 * Trendiness.

Table 12 also shows that customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness have an impact on BA, while entertainment has no impact.

In conclusion, the hypotheses results are summarized below in

Table 13. Research Hypotheses Results.

Hypotheses	Result
H1: There is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BE (BI and BA) at α ≤ 0.05.	Accepted
H1.1: There is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on the BI at α ≤ 0.05.	Accepted
H1.2: There is a statistically significant impact of SMA’s on BA at α ≤ 0.05.	Accepted

.

5. Discussion

This study aimed to examine the relationship between SMA’s used by airlines including entertainment, customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness on brand equity, as a mixture of BI and BA. The research model was built to examine these five activities [6]. The main and the two sub-hypotheses indicate that there is an impact of SMA’s on brand equity, BI, and BA, respectively. This agrees with the reviewed literature that stated a positive relationship between both BI and BA with SMA’s [11,17,22].

Study results revealed that BE was significantly predicted in the model by entertainment, customization, interaction, and trendiness. According to the analysis results, entertainment, customization, interaction, and EWOM were all significant predictors of BI. As mentioned in the reviewed literature, providing the increasing importance of SMA’s in marketing, businesses are increasingly using SMA to deliver key messages associated with the brand to create a solid and favorable BI and BA in the mind of consumers [70]. BA can be predicted by customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness, while entertainment does not explain changes in BA. This matches with the previous studies that concluded trendy information and latest updates enforce the consumer’s positive awareness toward the brand [15,32]. Moreover, it was advised to increase users’ interaction and participation on certain subjects and discussions on SM platforms to create and develop the customer’s connection toward the brand [40,49].

The findings showed that BA cannot be predicted by entertainment, BI cannot be predicted by trendiness and BE cannot be predicted by EWOM, despite their correlated relations. These results did not match with the literature that emphasized the effect of customization, trendiness and interaction on BI [6,12,46,47,48]. Moreover, the literature has illustrated the importance of entertainment in motivating participants’ attitude and creating favorable perceptions regarding the brand [30]. Additionally, the literature did not match our study regarding the effect of EWOM, as it has been found in a series of recent studies that EWOM can hugely impact BE and affect the whole decision-making process [50,51,71]. The insufficient effect of these activities can lead to the fact that more collaboration is needed to enhance the entertainment and trendiness of SMA’s used in Jordanian Airlines, so that they can strengthen the effect on BI and BA, and consequently its BE. Additionally, it is of high importance to encourage platform users to post their ratings and opinions to encourage the circulation of EWOM.

5.1. Theoretical Implication

This study adds to the existing literature on different social media activities’ impacts on brand image, awareness and overall brand equity, by confirming the positive effect of SMA’s on brand equity It also contributes to the limited literature on social media activities and brand equity in Jordan, hence, the current study broadens the base of literature related to SMA’s in the aviation industry in Jordan. Moreover, it adds to the existing body of literature by studying the effect of each activity, namely, entertainment, customization, interaction, EWOM, and trendiness on each of BI and BA as components of BE. Additionally, the varying results from the previous literature regarding the effect of entertainment and its effect on BA, the effect of trendiness on BI, and the effect of EWOM on BE, implies a need for further studies in the aviation field regarding the effects of these specific components, and encourages studies that investigate methods of improvement of these components.

5.2. Practical Implications

This study provides multiple practical implications for managers and decision makers at airlines. According to the analyzed results, marketing managers need to focus on trendiness in order to increase the customers’ awareness of their brand. For trendiness, more focus should be exerted on providing more up-to-date content on different SM accounts. Airlines also need to frequently share their latest news, offers, products and services. Moreover, airlines should work on creating more fun and entertaining content on different social media accounts, such as pictures and videos, that would both attract customers and engage them with companies’ activities. Entertainment will both enhance customers’ awareness and create a positive image in the customers’ mind and heart. Providing enough space for customers to share their thoughts with other customers, and responding to customers’ requests individually, will have a positive impact on awareness and image of brands. Moreover, the current paper provides a better understanding of the dimensions and drivers of engagement in social media activities in the Jordanian airline industry, which can help managers to improve their social media strategies to build brand equity.

Nevertheless, the current research highlights the importance of customer involvement through social media activities, and gives insight to managers to form and train a specialized team to work on social media activities and to further monitor the interaction of customers on social media platforms, aiming to revitalize their companies’ brand. Practically, SMAs could be an effective and relatively inexpensive way to promote a brand. On the other hand, managers and decision makers could renew their policies and procedures according to their customers’ preferences, to go beyond marketing in reforming and improving their companies.

The current study illustrated that online brand and social presence in the airline industry can build brand equity and add value to the consumer and brand. Consequently, future research could examine the effect of SMA on BE of different industries, to finally conclude new marketing business models.

5.3. Originality

This study is the first of its kind in Jordan to addresses the impact of SMA’s on brand equity in Jordan’s local airline industry, and the first to provide a comprehensive examination of the dimensions and drivers of SM involvement.

5.4. Study Limitations and Recommendations

The analyzed results have shown that SMA’s predicted of about 46% of brand equity, which means that other factors influence brand equity which can be explored alone or in addition to SMA’s. Additionally, the current study explored five activities of SMM; other activities such as advertisement and purchase intention could also be explored in future research. On the other hand, as researchers considered brand equity as BI and BA, future studies are recommended to incorporate other dimensions of equity such as brand loyalty and quality. Some of the outcomes of this study contradicted with the existing literature regarding the influence of EWOM and entertainment on BI and BA. However, due to the originality of the current study, it was useful to conduct this research even on a small sample. Further investigation using a larger sample in the Jordanian context is needed to explain this outcome. Additionally, future studies could focus only on one of these activities, and could include culture or income as moderating factors on the impact of SMA’s on BI and BA.