Author(s): Hafez
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of social media marketing activities (SMMAs) on brand equity (BEQ) through a moderated mediation analysis of brand experience (BE) and perceived uniqueness (PU) in the banking sector in Bangladesh. A self-administered survey questionnaire was developed and circulated among 260 bank consumers in Bangladesh. A total of 222 valid responses were received. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test hypotheses. The findings revealed that SMMAs have a substantial positive impact on BEQ. In addition, BE mediates the association between SMMAs and BEQ. Interestingly, perceived uniqueness was found to have a moderating influence on the link between SMMAs and BE. This study contributes to the brand marketing literature from social media settings by developing and empirically examining the role of SMMAs on BEQ. Furthermore, this research affirms the mediation effect of brand experience on the association between SMMAs and brand equity. Moreover, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study offers completely novel insight for the bank marketers by empirically confirming the moderating role of perceived uniqueness on the robust pathway between SMMAs and BE which will plug the present research gap and enrich SMM literature.