The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands

Bruno Schivinski, Dariusz Dabrowski

Journal of Marketing Communications, volume 22, issue 2, pages 189–214, 2016 (online January 2014)

• 504 Facebook users
• 60 brands, 3 industries
• Structural equation modelling
• Poland

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Keywords

• social media
• brand equity
• brand attitude
• purchase intention
• Facebook
• user-generated content
• social media communication
• firm-created content
• brand-generated content
• electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)
• brand fan pages
• social media marketing
• consumer-based brand equity
• consumer perceptions of brands
• online consumer behaviour
• brand communication
• schema theory
• overall brand equity scale
• attitude–intention relationship
• source credibility
• structural equation modelling (SEM)
• confirmatory factor analysis
• multigroup analysis
• measurement invariance
• survey research
• Poland
• Central Europe
• non-alcoholic beverages
• clothing brands
• mobile network operators
• social media strategy
• content marketing
• integrated marketing communications
• brand management

What consumers post about a brand on Facebook raised both brand equity and brand attitude, while what the brand posted itself improved attitudes only. In a survey of 504 Facebook users following 60 brands, brand attitude was the strongest route to purchase intention.

Key findings

1. User-generated content builds brand equity and brand attitude. In a survey of 504 Facebook users in Poland who followed 60 brands, user-generated social media communication had positive effects on brand equity (β = 0.24, p < .001) and on brand attitude (β = 0.29, p < .001) (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).
2. Firm-created content shapes attitudes, not brand equity. Social media communication created by the brand itself improved brand attitude (β = 0.38, p < .001) but had no significant effect on brand equity (β = −0.04, p = .45) (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).
3. Brand attitude is the main route to purchase intention. Brand attitude increased brand equity (β = 0.62) and purchase intention (β = 0.60), and brand equity increased purchase intention (β = 0.32), all p < .001; the effect of brand attitude on purchase intention was almost twice that of brand equity (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).
4. The model works across industries, with differences in strength. The measurement model was equivalent across non-alcoholic beverages, clothing and mobile network operators (ΔCFI = 0.000); χ² difference tests showed that brand attitude had a stronger effect on brand equity for non-alcoholic beverages, where it was also the strongest driver of purchase intention (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

At a glance

Design

Online survey; confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (AMOS 21, maximum likelihood)

Participants

504 Facebook users in Poland (59.9% women; 78% aged 15–25), recruited through brand fan pages, March–April 2013

Brands

60 brands the participants followed on Facebook: non-alcoholic beverages (n = 141), clothing (n = 184), mobile network operators (n = 179)

Measures

Firm-created and user-generated social media communication (4 items each), overall brand equity (Yoo & Donthu, 2001), brand attitude and purchase intention (3 items each); 7-point scales

Model fit

χ²/df = 2.21, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.98, AGFI = 0.92, SRMR = 0.02, RMSEA = 0.04

Robustness

Multigroup invariance tests across the three industries

Figure 1. Proposed conceptual framework

Hypothesised effects of firm-created and user-generated social media communication on brand equity, brand attitude and purchase intention.

Figure 2. Standardised estimates for the model

Standardised path coefficients from the structural equation model (N = 504). * p ≤ .001; n.s. = not significant.

Tables

Table A1. List of constructs and measurements used

Constructs and measurements	Standardised loading	CA	CR	Based on
Firm-created social media communication		0.951	0.951	Tsiros, Mittal, and Ross 2004; Mägi 2003; Schivinski and Dabrowski 2013
[FC1] I am satisfied with the company’s social media communications for [brand]	0.92
[FC2] The level of the company’s social media communications for [brand] meets my expectations	0.92
[FC3] The company’s social media communications for [brand] are very attractive	0.93
[FC4] This company’s social media communications for [brand] perform well, when compared with the social media communications of other companies	0.87
User-generated social media communication		0.930	0.931	Tsiros, Mittal, and Ross 2004; Mägi 2003; Schivinski and Dabrowski 2013
[UG1] I am satisfied with the content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand]	0.90
[UG2] The level of the content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand] meets my expectations	0.92
[UG3] The content generated by other users about [brand] is very attractive	0.82
[UG4] The content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand] performs well, when compared with other brands	0.86
Overall brand equity		0.920	0.921	Yoo and Donthu 2001
[OBE1] It makes sense to buy [brand] instead of any other brand, even if they are the same	0.91
[OBE2] Even if another brand has the same feature as [brand], I would prefer to buy [brand]	0.87
[OBE3] If there is another brand as good as [brand], I prefer to buy [brand]	0.89
[OBE4] If another brand is not different from [brand] in any way, it seems smarter to purchase [brand]a	0.62
Brand attitude		0.971	0.971	Low and Lamb 2000; Villarejo-Ramos and Sánchez-Franco 2005
[BA1] I have a pleasant idea of [brand]	0.92
[BA2] [Brand] has a good reputation	0.94
[BA3] I associate positive characteristics with [brand]	0.97
Brand purchase intention		0.945	0.946	Yoo, Donthu, and Lee 2000; Shukla 2011
[PI1] I would buy this product/brand rather than any other brands available	0.89
[PI2] I am willing to recommend that others buy this product/brand	0.94
[PI3] I intend to purchase this product/brand in the future	0.89

CA, Cronbach’s alpha; CR, composite reliability. Seven-point scales (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). ^a Item excluded from the analysis.

Table A3. Structural results

Hypothesis	Path	p	t	β	Result
H1a	Firm-created social media → brand equity	0.45	−0.75	−0.04	Not supported
H1b	User-generated social media → brand equity	0.001	4.64	0.24	Supported
H2	Brand attitude → brand equity	0.001	13.88	0.62	Supported
H3a	Firm-created social media → brand attitude	0.001	6.87	0.38	Supported
H3b	User-generated social media → brand attitude	0.001	5.27	0.29	Supported
H4	Brand equity → purchase intention	0.001	7.45	0.32	Supported
H5	Brand attitude → purchase intention	0.001	14.29	0.60	Supported

t ≥ 4.64, p ≤ 0.001; cmin/df = 2.21; CFI = 0.98; AGFI = 0.92; SRMR = 0.02; TLI = 0.98; RMSEA = 0.04.

Table A2. Convergent and discriminant validity

	CR	AVE	MSV	ASV	BA	FC	UG	BE	PI
BA	0.971	0.919	0.686	0.464	0.958
FC	0.951	0.829	0.482	0.325	0.577	0.911
UG	0.931	0.771	0.482	0.342	0.551	0.694	0.878
BE	0.921	0.795	0.564	0.409	0.730	0.485	0.552	0.891
PI	0.946	0.854	0.686	0.445	0.828	0.501	0.529	0.751	0.924

The square root of the AVE values are marked in italics. BA, brand attitude; FC, firm-created communication; UG, user-generated communication; BE, brand equity; PI, purchase intention.

The question

Brands now communicate on social media, but much of the brand content consumers see there is created by other consumers. Little was known about how these two sources, content the brand controls and content users generate, shape how consumers perceive brands, or whether the effects differ by industry. We asked how firm-created and user-generated social media communication influence consumers' perceptions and behaviour, overall and across industries.

Implications

Practical implications

Social media should complement traditional advertising rather than replace it. Brand posts work best when they build positive associations and attitudes, which then carry through to brand equity and purchase intention. Because consumers find other users' content more credible, managers should encourage it, listen to it and respond to it, and be ready to manage negative content on unregulated brand pages. Strategies that invite user content, as in the beverage brands studied, were linked to the strongest attitude effects.

Theoretical implications

The study separates firm-created from user-generated social media communication as distinct antecedents of consumer-based brand equity and brand attitude, and shows that user-generated content is the stronger of the two. Firm-created content reached brand equity only through brand attitude in the model, which points to attitude as the key mechanism for brand-controlled messages. The measurement model held across three industries and can be reused in other settings.

Limitations and future research

• Only one platform (Facebook) and three industries were studied; communication differs across social media channels.
• The sample was Polish and mostly young, so results may not generalise to other cultures.
• Future research could include all leading platforms, more industries, social media advertising spend, and types of users such as prosumers and lead users.

Questions this paper answers

Does user-generated content affect brand equity?

Yes. In a survey of 504 Facebook users following 60 brands, user-generated social media communication increased both brand equity (β = 0.24) and brand attitude (β = 0.29) (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

Does a brand's own social media content increase brand equity?

Not directly. Firm-created social media communication improved brand attitude (β = 0.38) but had no significant direct effect on brand equity (β = −0.04, p = .45) (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

Is brand attitude or brand equity more important for purchase intention on social media?

Brand attitude. Its effect on purchase intention (β = 0.60) was almost twice that of brand equity (β = 0.32) (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

Do the effects of social media communication differ by industry?

The model held across non-alcoholic beverages, clothing and mobile network operators, but brand attitude had a stronger effect on brand equity and purchase intention for non-alcoholic beverage brands (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).

Key concepts

Firm-created social media communication

Brand content on social media that the company creates and fully controls, treated in the study as a form of advertising.

User-generated social media communication

Brand-related content created by consumers, outside the company's control.

Consumer-based brand equity

The added value consumers attach to a branded product compared with an unbranded one with the same characteristics; measured with the overall brand equity scale of Yoo and Donthu (2001).

Brand attitude

A consumer's overall evaluation of a brand.

Measurement invariance

Evidence that a measurement model works the same way across groups, here three industries, so that comparisons between them are meaningful.

Open science and materials

• Accepted manuscript (PDF) Free full text, including all tables and figures
• Published version Journal of Marketing Communications (subscription)

Study materials

Screening questions

‘How often do you receive newsfeeds from the brands you have “Liked”?’; ‘Do you read the newsfeed from Brand X?’; ‘Do you check what other people post about Brand X?’

Scale items

All 18 items with standardised loadings are in Table A1 below (English versions; the survey was administered in Polish after back-translation).

How to cite

Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), 189–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2013.871323

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