DefinePK

Abstract

The study explores how social media marketing activities build brand loyalty and how this relationship is mediated through brand consciousness. The empirical investigation involves a self-administered and a structured questionnaire, distributed through a convenience sample of 320 under-graduate and graduate students. Data analysis was conducted through SPSS 23.0 for demographic comparisons and SmartPLS 3 for evaluating the measurement and structural model of the study. The findings show that social media marketing has a significant positive influence on brand loyalty but this relationship is partially mediated by brand consciousness. In the same manner, social media marketing exerts a significant positive impact on brand consciousness and resultantly, brand consciousness also exerts a significant positive impact on brand loyalty.  The results provide valuable insights for marketers in integrating social media as a driving tool for developing brand engagement strategies that not only provide awareness about products/services but also generate a cult following for them.