Impacts Of Social Media Marketing Activities On Brand Equity And Consumer Responses In China: The Case Of Sina Weibo

This study set out to examine the effectiveness of social media marketing efforts of fashion brands in terms of their impact on customer-based brand equity and consumer responses in China. The study examines five dimensions of social media marketing activities as outlined by Kim and Ko (2012) (entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and WOM) as a holistic marketing activity. The study employed a mixed methods approach to investigate the impact of fashion brands' social media activities utilizing a quantitative survey and eye tracking technology. Based on the survey, this study developed a structural equation model that reveals the positive relationships between social media marketing activities, brand equity and consumers' responses, which highlights the effectiveness of marketing input on Weibo. In addition, the eye-tracking results enabled us to determine the most salient design elements on fashion brand's Weibo page. This study reveals consumers' preferable contents on brands' Weibo page which contributes to effective brands' social media marketing activities design.