The impact of social media marketing activities on brand equity in the banking sector in Bangladesh: the mediating role of brand love and brand trust

Purpose This research aims to explore the impact of social media marketing (SMM) activities on brand equity (BE) in the banking sector in Bangladesh. Moreover, brand love and brand trust are examined as a mediator of SMM activities and BE. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from a total of 289 banking customers in Bangladesh through a structured questionnaire and the hypotheses were examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings The results validated that SMM activities have no significant influence on BE directly. Furthermore, brand love fully mediates the linkage between SMM activities and BE. Likewise, brand trust was found to have a partial mediation effect on SMM activities and BE. Research limitations/implications This study was based on a specific sector in a particular geographic area. Hence, cross-cultural studies on different sectors need to be conducted to generalize the findings of the current research. Practical implications The study offers useful insights for bank marketers to successfully manage SMM activities that can generate consumer interest toward a bank's brand and prevent switching behavior. Furthermore, the proliferation of authentic brand-related information over a firms' social media pages can build strong brand trust, which in turn contributes to BE for the banks. Originality/value The study further extended the current knowledge by showing that how SMM activities influence BE in the banking sector in Bangladesh. Also, this study empirically corroborates the mediation influence of brand love and brand trust on SMM activities and BE in the banking sector in Bangladesh, which was rarely tested in prior studies. Hence, the findings will add value to the nascent literature of BE from an SMM perspective.