I. Abstract:Althoughhuman have started using the internet to interact with others since the 1970s through instant messagingapplications (Greiffenstern, 2010); however, it has only really exploded in thelast 15 years with the development of social network especially Facebook. Accordingly,social network permits a user to create a personal profile, homepage andconnect with each other to interact (Baruah, 2012, p.4). Moreover, the social network also increases awareness ofthe movements of social relationships (Baruah, 2012). Therefore, many brandshave deployed social networks as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc to promote theirbrand images. After connections are established between consumers and firms, social network will create two-way interaction;from that, the firms can consider as the effective channel for the brand toreach with their consumers that measuresbased on the level of engagement through positive or negative attitudes on thesocial networks. Thus, it is necessary for businesses to know the impact of social network on the building of brand equity.Besidesthat, brand equity is also mentioned in this report. Brand management isbecoming more important to marketers today (David, 2000; Goodchild and Callow,2001). In the framework of existing competitive environment, the brand is a critical element that concerninggoods purchase, sales as well as earnings generating. Moreover, brand equity isa framework which is designed to indicate the natural value that a brand nameholds for the goods and services included with.Dueto the great importance of these two topics, this report set out to determinethe impact of social networks on brand equity.Keywords Social media, Social networks, Brand equity, Brand awareness, Perceived quality, Brand association, Brand loyalty, Customer engagement.II. Introduction:Nowadays, customers purchasing decisions are increasingly affected by communication and marketing (Alam & Khan, 2015). In 2016, the percentage of online shopping increased by 13.5% over the same period last year (MCMC, 2017). This shows that there are more and more consumers using the internet and spending more time for shopping online. While the use of social networking is a trend as today, companies and governments have also used it as a tool in communications (Kim & Ko, 2012). Alam and Khan (2015) also mentioned that many companies are using social network as an effective tool to attract potential customers and make consumers become loyal to their brands. Thus, how does the social network really affect the brand?Furthermore,customer engagement in social networks isalso considered as the key to promoting the brand (Patterson and Ruyter, 2012,p. 31-34). Therefore, the role of socialnetwork is very important that already become to be the vital thing for theprocess of customer engagement and the growth and development of brand equity.Hence, this research expands and develops a new incorporated conceptualframework and searching for the role of customer engagement in social networks in forming brand equity.III. Literature review:1. Social media:In2009, Safko and Brake defined social media as activities, practices, andbehaviours among communities of people who gather online to share information,knowledge, and opinions using conversational media. (Safko & Brake, 2009).Moreover, social media is considered as a communication tool that works on web2.0 platform this means that activities such as participation, exchange andsharing of information will appear among people (Robinson, 2007). Therefore,the main purpose of using social media is sharing information betweenbusinesses and consumers. And, one of the noteworthy platforms related tocommunication cannot be ignored is social networking. Accordingly, socialnetwork is a platform that allow users share personal information for others toexchange as well as communicate (Palmer & Lewis, 2009, p.162-176). Inaddition, Ellison (2008) also defined social network in another way as web-basedservices that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profilewithin a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they sharea connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made byothers within the system.Nowadays,social networks have started to become a potent networking force connectingpeople from every area in the world. It reinforces the process of socializationby being instant, cheap, and straightforward to use that having huge reach.According to Kemp (2017), there are 2.8 billion global users use social networkat least once a month, which approximately amounts to about 37% of the worldsresidential. Moreover, the use of social networks also rose by 20% compared to2016; especially, Facebook is still the most famous framework on the world withstrong growth (Kemp, 2017). According to Davidson (2015), each person spends 1hour 40 minutes on social networks every day, it accounts for 28% of internetusage. Moreover, the number of Facebook users has reached 2 billion in 2017, thatturns Facebook into the largest and most influential social network in theworld (Chaykowski, 2017).Furthermore,based on the post of Barker (2017), there are 74% of shoppers have made adecision to buy based on information that they have retrieved from the socialnetworks sites. Accordingly, it is very necessary to create intensiveconnections and participation between the consumer and the brand. However,several enterprises are not comfortable about how exactly to improve thecustomer engagement to enhance their brand equity through the use of socialnetworks for internal or external purposes. Social networks are neverthelessimmense among private persons (Wigmo & Wikström, 2012).Theappearance of social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. alsore-structured the marketing landscape. It is seen as a platform to for marketerframework (Qualman, 2010, p.28). Initially, social network is only a platformthat help people can communicate with others, but today it also considered as asearch engine for people to find out about the company as well as the productsthey love. Recently, social media is a channel to distribute and transmit newsthat cannot be ignored (Mitchell, 2014, p. 2-8). Based on a research ofInfographic, at least 50% of social networking users have knowledge of thecompanys products after they follow the company through social networks(Jackson, 2011). Furthermore, social media also allows people to share theirexperiences of branding products or services with friends (Stileman, 2009;Mangold & Foulds, 2009). Accordingly, social network is a new paradigm inmarketing that has provided ample space for business organizations to maintaina successful, long lasting and value-added relationship with their customers. Itmeans social networks has helped to transform business organizations fromtransactional relationship to a social relationship. The upper level of use andinteraction of social networks significantly impacts on the commercialenvironment which is consequently exposed to the paradigm transformation, wherehierarchies break down and the communication and interaction create larger andlarger networks for all the stakeholders of the organizations. Therefore, in awell designed social networks campaign, consumers will spread viral videos,create additional brand related content, tweet about the brand and post abouttheir experiences. Moreover, by tapping into or rather establishing their ownonline social networks, firms can have an impact on a brand community and potentiallyinfluence consumer behaviour and consumer perception for the organizations.2. Customer engagement in social network:Inbusiness, the term engagement was initially presented by Appelbaum in theyear 2001. In the most recent two decades, the idea ofengagement has been utilized in various fieldsincluding marketing, psychology, sociology, political science, andorganizational behaviour (Hoffman, 2010). Shen (2014) used the term customerengagement and defined it as the level of an individual customersmotivational, brand-related and context-dependent state of mind characterizedby specific levels of cognitive, emotional and behavioural activity in directbrand interactions. Hence, Duffyagency(2012) emphasized that companies are now recognizing that customer engagementis also a more strategic way of looking at customer and stakeholderrelationships. In addition, customer engagement is also considered as apositive interaction of a customer with a firm, with prospects and with othercustomers, whether they are transactional or non-transactional in nature, fromthat, customer engagement considered a critical thing that involve in theprocess of forming brand equity, particularly effect on all dimensions of brandequity (Clark & Melancon, 2013, p.12-13). Furthermore, customer engagementconcentrates on customers and their needs with the main purpose is to provideoutstanding value relative to competitors by creating, disseminating messagesregarding customer needs and aims to build trust and commitment inrelationships with customers.Asexpressed before, with the appearance of internet, IT services and socialnetworks, customers are moving from traditional sources of communication anddeciding on online product reviews posted by users on social networks as basisof their purchase decision making. Therefore, one of the factors that make thesuccess of social networks is customer engagement, which is particularlyrelevant in social networks communication. It means customer engagement isviewed as a dynamic interaction of a customer with a brand, product, service,or organization which is expressed, for instance, by the creation of contentson social networks. According to (Dessart et al., 2015), customerengagement includes all consumer-to-firm interactions and consumer-to-consumercommunications about the brand. Even the smallest of gestures, like putting acomment or like on a social networks page can also be interpreted as a formof engagement (Constantinides, 2014).Onthe other hands, levels of customer engagement based on the types of consumersonline brand-related activities (COBRA) identified by (Drury, 2008). Customerengagement with brand social networks pages could be analysed by implementingthree continuous levels that corresponding to a steady involvement with a brandon social networks, particularly consuming, contributing and creating (Golderet al., 2012) as follow:The first level corresponds toconsuming activities. It called cognitive. It refers to users who only watch,read, or view content but never participate or create content. It means a largenumber of customers are only utilizing content, but at the same time only a feware contributors and creators of content. The contributing type is themiddle level of online brand-related activity (Hollebeek, 2011). It calledemotional. It includes both user-to-content and user-to-user interactionsabout brands. Customers, who are contribute content, enjoy writing on brandsfan pages on social networks and always eager to comment on pictures, videosand other brand related content are permanently interested in discussingcontent that others have created that related with brand (Muniz & OGuinn,2011).The creators are the most activeof the three levels of COBRA. These customers are a frequent producer andpublisher of brand related content that others users will probably consume andwill be able to contribute and discuss. It called behavioural.Therefore,to provide contents that engages consumers online, one of the objectives thatbrands must understand consumers motivations for interacting with a brandthrough social networks.3. Brand equity:Each brand is each structure that creates value for both firms and consumers through different ways. It can be said that creating brand equity, or building a strong brand, is an effective strategy for discerning a brand from other of competing brands. So, brand equity has become a vital topic in the business world, and its suitable measures can deal with a number of marketing and brand managers concerns. Brand equity can be defined as a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firms customers (Aaker, 1991). It is usually assumed to contribute to a companys long-term profitability. Further, brand equity is a set of perceptions, knowledge and behaviour on the part of customers that creates demand and/or a price premium for a branded productin other words, what the brand is worth to a customer (Siraj, 2012). It means brand equity is considered as the value that consumers associate with a brand. It is exactly the customers perception of the overall standards of product/service carrying that brand name when compared to other brands. Brand equity represents customers perception rather than any other objectives. Thus, brand equity can be regarded as a concept that forecasts that customers will have a trend to decide to choose a well-known branded product as an alternative of an unbranded one.Figure 1. The demission of brand equity by David AakerOn the other hand, according to (Aaker, 1991), brand equity is amultidimensional concept, it is composed of brand loyalty, brand awareness,perceived quality and brand associations. These categories are measurementswhich represent the perception of the brand, from the view of the consumer.Moreover, (Keller, 1993) identified that brand equity focuses on brandknowledge with its two components namely brand awareness and brand image.However, the research focus more on Aakers concept of brand equity becausethis concept is widely and used by the researchers:Itcan be seen that a brand will have higher brand equity when brand awarenessincreases to a higher level, and as consumers hold stronger, and more favourableand unique brand associations. Companies can improve brand awareness and brandimage (an outcome of perceptions and association) through enhancing customerengagement on social networks sites, resulting in brand loyalty reinforcementand then forming brand equity.4. The impact of customer engagement in social media on brand equity:Inthe business, customer engagement is seen as the key to create customer loyaltyand brand equity (Patterson et al., 2006; Passikoff & Schultz, 2007). An effective marketing communication will helpenhance perceived brand equity, brand loyalty, brand association and brandawareness (Yoo et al., 2000). Whereby, watching, sharing and commenting insocial media are activities that create brand awareness as well as brand image(Zailskaite-Jakste & Kuvykaite, 2012). In addition, Schivinski andDabrowski (2015) also shown the influences of firm-created anduser-generated in social media on brand. Accordingly, the informationgenerated by the enterprise only has an impact on the perception; meanwhile, user-generatedcontent has a significant influence on brand awareness, brand loyalty andperceived brand quality (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2015). Hence, customerengagement is really important to brand results.Inthe society that the internet is developing quickly as today, the concept ofcustomer engagement is very noticeable. According to Lea (2012), customerengagement is capturing customer attention emphasizing touchpoints when marketing products or services. Nowadays, with the diversityof media new shopping experiences, customer engagement considered as effort ofcompany by relationship between consumer and company to able to achieve word ofmouth marketing and increase sale in the future (Magneto, 2015). Moreover,Maguire (2015) emphasized that companies need to leverage media to impressconsumers instead of using it as a form of branding. Presently, there is nodenying the development of technology, especially the website that has providedthe company with interactive platform for customers. Riquelme (2001) said thatwebsite interaction is one of the main factors, which create brand equity. Barreda(2014) found that positive interactions on the website will improve brandknowledge (brand image and brand awareness) as well as brand equity. Forinstance, when customer satisfy a product of brand, they will give some goodcomments; from that, it will generate brand knowledge among other customers.Therefore, interactions in social media will directly affect thecustomers perception of the brand equity. According to Tiwari (2010), brandassociation is a specific perception, maybe real or imaged, that a customer hasabout a product, service or organization. Similar to brand knowledge, customerinteractions in social media also impact on brand association. Accordingly,positive interactions will help increase the value of intellectual property,patents, trademarks, branding channels; because these interactions enhance thebrand image, so brand assets will also be positively affected (Siraj, 2012). Besidepositive interactions, negative word of mouth is harmful to brand equity. Whencustomers are not satisfied with a product, service or company, they will sharenegative experiences in social media (Van Doorn et al., 2010). Larivière et al.(2013) also mentioned that bad values will create negative perspective forcustomers. This will make customers leave the company as well as share negativecomments in social media that negative affect dimension of brand equity.Barhemmati và Ahmad (2015) found that an existing relationship between customer and company will able to help the firm can achieve relationship marketing strategy. Whereby, the last purpose of this strategy is to convince customers to use the companys products or services. IV. References:Greiffenstern, S. (2010). The influence of computers, the internet and computer-mediated communication on everyday English. Berlin: Logos Verlag.Baruah, T. (2012). Effectiveness of Social Media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology enabled connections: A micro-level study. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 02(05), p.4.Davis, S.M. (2000), Brand Asset Management: Driving Profitable Growth through Your Brands. San Francisco, CA.Goodchild, J. and Callow, C. (2001), Brands: Visions & Values. New York, NY.Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (2017). Internet Users Survey 2017 Statistical Brief Number Twenty-One.Kim, A. J., & Ko, E. (2012). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business Research, 65(10), 1480-1486Patterson & Ruyter, D. (2012). Consumer Engagement. C-MEEs: Cross-media engagement evaluations, p. 31-34Kemp, S. (2017). Digital in 2017: Global Overview. Retrieved from: https://wearesocial.com/special-reports/digital-in-2017-global-overviewBarker, S. (2017). How Social Media Is Influencing Purchase Decisions. Retrieved from: https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/05/social-media-influencing-purchase-decisions/Ellison, N. (2008). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Retrieved from: http://www.danah.org/papers/JCMCIntro.pdfWigmo, & Wikström. (2012). Social media marketing: What role can social media play as a marketing tool. Sweden.Qualman, E. (2012). Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, p.28.Palmer and Lewis. (2009). An experiential, social network-based approach to direct marketing, Direct Marketing. An international journal, 3(3), p. 162-176.Davidson, L. (2015). Is your daily social media usage higher than average? Retrieved from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11610959/Is-your-daily-social-media-usage-higher-than-average.htmlChaykowski, K. (2017). Mark Zuckerberg: 2 Billion Users Means Facebooks Responsibility Is Expanding. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2017/06/27/facebook-officially-hits-2-billion-users/#383f8fc37080Mitchell A., & Page D. (2014b). State of the News Media. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org/files/2014/03/Overview.pdfHoffman, D., & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), p. 41-49.Shen, B. (2014). Brands and brand equity: definition and management. International Journal of Business, p. 84-96.Duffyangency. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://duffy.agency/insight/what-is-brand-equity/Clark, M., & Melancon, J. (2013). The influence of social media investment on relational outcomes: a relationship marketing perspective. International Journal of marketing studies, p.12-13.Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C., & Morgan-Thomas, A. (2015). Consumer engagement in online brand communities: a social networks perspective. Journal of product & brand management, p. 28-42.Constantinides, E. (2014). Foundations of Social Media Marketing. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 148(25), p. 40-57.Hollebeek, L. (2011). Demystifying Customer Brand Engagement: Exploring the Loyalty Nexus. Journal of Marketing Management, 27(7-8), p. 785-807.Muniz, A., & OGuinn, T. (2011). Journal of Consumer Research, 27(4), pp. 412-432.Wilkinson, D. (2012). Rhythms of Social Interaction: Messaging Within a Massive Online Network. Journal of Business Research, p. 23.Drury, G. (2008). Opinion piece: Social media: Should marketers engage and how can it be done effectively?. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 9(3), p. 274.Aaker, D. (1991). Managing Brand Equity. Ontario: The Free Press.Siraj, S. (2016). Brand Equity through Customer Engagement in Social Media: A Critical Review. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 18(8), p. 38-46.Keller, K. (1993). Branding and Brand Equity. Marketing Science Institute.Passikoff, R., & Schultz, D. E. (2007). Consumer engagement C-MEEs: Cross-media engagement evaluations. ADMAP, 61(487), p. 31-34.Patterson, P., Yu, T., & De Ruyter, K. (2006). Understanding customer engagement in services. In ANZMAC 2006 Conference: Advancing Theory, Maintaining Relevance. Brisbane, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.anzmac.org/conference_archive/2006/documents/Pattinson_Paul.pdfYoo, B., Donthu, N. and Lee, S. (2000). An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(2), p.195-211.Zailskaite-Jakste, L., &Kuvykaite, R. (2012). Consumer Engagement in Social Media by Building the Brand. EIIC-1st Electronic International Interdisciplinary Conference 2012, p. 3-7.Riquelme, H. (2001). An empirical review of price behaviour on the internet. Electronic Markets, 11(4), p. 263-272.Barreda, A. (2014). Creating brand equity when using travel-related online social network Web sites. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 20(4), p. 365-379.Tiwari, M. K. (2010). Separation of Brand Equity and Brand Value. Global Business Review, 11(3), p. 421-434.Van Doorn, J., Lemon, K. N., Mittal, V., Nass, S., Pick, D., Pirner, P., & Verhoef, P. C. (2010). Customer engagement behavior: Theoretical foundations and research directions. Journal of Service Research, 13(3), p. 253-266.Larivière, B., Joosten, H., Malthouse, E. C., van Birgelen, M., Aksoy, P., Kunz, W. H., & Huang, M. H. (2013). Value fusion: the blending of consumer and firm value in the distinct context of mobile technologies and social media. Journal of Service Management, 24(3), p. 268-293.Lea, W. (2012). The New Rules of Customer Engagement. Retrieved from: https://www.inc.com/wendy-lea/new-rules-of-customerengagement.htmlMaguire, E. (2015). 6 Strategies to Drive Customer Engagement in 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2015/01/29/6-strategies-to-drive-customer-engagement-in-2015/#36e191bf325cSafko, L., & D.K. Brake. (2009). The Social Media Bible. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Robinson, J. E. (2007). A study of social media marketing in North Carolina Special Libraries. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, U.S.A.Jackson, N. (2011). Infographic: Using Social Media to Build Brand Loyalty. Retrieved from: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-using-social-media-to-build-brand-loyalty/241701/Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D. (2015). The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 9(1), pp. 31-53.Get Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!Find out more
