Multicultural Education

Volume 8, Issue 2, 2022

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Investigating The Impact Of Social Media Marketing Activities On

Consumer Behavior With The Mediating Role Of Brand Equity
(Case study of Tegeta-Motors Company in Tbilisi, Georgia)
Bahman Moghimi

Article Info Abstract

Article History The present study aimed to investigate the impact of social media marketing
activities on consumer behavior with the mediating role of brand equity.
Received: This study was an applied research in terms of aim and a descriptive and
July 03, 2021 non-experimental research in terms of data collection and a research study
in terms of way of implementation. The statistical population of the study
Accepted: included all customers of TEGETA-MOTORS Company of Tbilisi in
February 04, 2022 Georgia. Due to the unknown number of people in the statistical population,
Cochran's formula was used to estimate the sample size and 384 people
Keywords : were estimated as the sample size. A convenience sampling method was
Social Media Marketing used. Library and field methods were used for data collection and the
Activities, Consumer research data collection tool was a questionnaire. The content and face
Behavior, Brand Equity. validities of the questionnaire were reviewed by researchers in previous
studies and were confirmed by expert and relevant professors. Using
DOI: Cronbach's alpha coefficient, it was found that the reliability of the
10.5281/zenodo.5973117 variables is at an acceptable level. SPSS and SMART PLS software was
used to analyze the data. The results showed that brand equity has a
mediating role in the impact of social media marketing activities on
consumer behavior. Also, brand equity affects price sensitivity, quality
sensitivity, hedonic shopping, and shopping experience.

Introduction
Social media platforms increase the interaction between consumers and businesses. Thus, social media has made
businesses interact with more consumers and facilitated interaction with consumers (Moscardo, Benckendorff &
Pearce, 2019, 304). The environment of these networks is very smart and they create high communication
capabilities and participation capacity. Nowadays, social networks have emerged as communication channels. In
these networks, customers establish a relationship with their desired brand and share their information and
research about their desired brand. Accordingly, researchers have conducted several studies on social networks
(Gheiratmand and Abedini, 2019, 3). Research suggests that consumers participate in online communities, since
they are looking for brand information that is sometimes difficult to access through other sources. Consumers'
cognitive needs for brands are met through social media marketing because they share information about
consumers, the brand, and the new products they buy. Social media marketing activities increase consumer
interactions with the customer. It makes consumers feel part of a community that reinforces social integration
needs. Therefore, it can be stated that social media marketing has many advantages (Bazi, Filieri & Gorton,
2020, 225). Consumer brand equity is a way for perceiving the brand equity from a consumer perspective. It
indicates how dependent, loyal and aware consumers are of admired brands. If consumers enjoy the cognitive,
social, personal, hedonic benefits of social media when shopping, they will be more motivated to strengthen
their brand and thus may connect more with the brand community. Consumers who are very busy can give more
important results for brand through word-of-mouth advertising and sharing innovative ideas, which may have a
positive impact on brand equity (Xie, Poon & Zhang, 2018, 270).
Other factors that affect brand equity are the benefits of social network and brand experience, which may
increase the relationship between social media marketing and brand equity. Network marketing provides more
attractive content for customers, entertains them, and provides a good customer experience. Also, they can use
the benefits of social media to influence brand equity. The positive experience that the customer perceives and
the benefits that the use of social networks gives to the customer increase customer’s perception of brand equity.
Benefits of social networks in this study are also defined cognitive benefits, social integration benefits, personal
integration benefits, and hedonic benefits (Zollo et al., 2020, 260). Based on the previous studies, the success
and failure of brands and companies, especially in today's competitive environment, is greatly influenced by the
reactions and behavior of consumers, and it is clear that not paying attention to such issues that seek to identify
factors affecting consumer behavior, deprives companies of the benefits of strengthening and directing
consumer behavior in line with interests of the company. As the result of current consideration in the literature

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and based on the interaction presented in the theoretical foundations for marketing through social networks,
brand equity and consumer behavioral reactions; the present study seeks to answer the question of what role
does brand equity play in the impact of such type of marketing activities on consumer behavior among the
customers of Tegeta-Motors Company as an organization that does not have a long history of marketing through
social medias.

Theoretical foundations
-Brand equity
Brand equity is the sum of assets and liabilities associated with a brand and serves to increase or decrease the
value that a product or service offers (Ding and Tsang, 2015, 998).
-Social network marketing
Social media marketing is defined as the process by which companies create, communicate, and provide online
marketing services through social media platforms to build and maintain stakeholder relationships. It is done
through facilitating interaction and sharing information, personal purchase recommendations and word-of-
mouth advertising among stakeholders about existing and popular products as well as services (Yadav &
Rahman, 2017, 1295).
-Consumer behavior
Consumer behavior is an activity when people engage in and face the actual or potential use of a variety of
market items, including products, services, ideas, and the store environment. Consumer behavior is defined as
physical, emotional and mental activities that people engage during selecting, purchasing, using and disposing
of goods and services to satisfy their needs (Fattahian, 2015, 32). A review of the theoretical background of the
research showed that Mohammad Shafiei, Rahmatabadi and Soleimanzadeh (2015) conducted a study entitled
"The impact of social network marketing communications on brand equity, communication equity and customer
response". The research results help social network managers to influence customer response through
mechanisms in brand equity and communication equity. By using the results of this study, it is possible to
recommend to marketing managers use mechanisms predicted in social network marketing communications and
advertise their brand activities in social networks to observe customer responses to these activities and use these
mechanisms to strengthen customer loyalty to their brand and receive customer feedback to increase brand
satisfaction.
Gheiratmand and Abedini (2015) conducted a research with the aim of creating brand equity by using social
media marketing using the structural equation method. Based on the research results, different dimensions of
social networks affect the brand equity. Entertainment, interaction, customization and word of mouth marketing
in this study had a direct and significant impact on brand equity according to this research. Based on the
ranking, brand association has the highest rank in social media marketing. Azimi and Azizollahi (2019) carried
out a study entitled “The impact of consumer experience on brand equity based on consumer opinion”. The
results showed that consumers' perception of usability had an impact on brand relationship and perceived brand
value and enjoyment of use. Also, more enjoyment in using the product had an impact on brand communication,
perceived value and brand trust. However, it had no impact on brand loyalty. Also, increasing social value
increased enjoyment, and the consumer's strong relationship with the brand had an impact on perceived brand
value and perceived brand value had an impact on brand trust and confidence and brand loyalty. Therefore, the
dimensions of experience have affected the brand equity.
Moghimi and Dastouri (2021) conducted a research and found out that and model of CRM including social-
CRMfacilitate “voice of customer” (VOC) listening and implement multi-channelmarketing efforts in order to
advertise the organizations’ products and services with the aim of converting them into loyal customersshall be
very effective tool of branding and will create loyalty beyond reasons. This clearly signifies the role of social-
media in CRM and other branding or organizational strategies.
Taheri and Kaeidian (2015) conducted a study entitled “The impact of social media marketing activities on
brand equity and customer response”. The results of this study showed that social media marketing activities
affect brand awareness and brand image and also brand awareness affects electronic word-of-mouth advertising
and brand commitment. It also showed that brand affects electronic word-of-mouth advertising and brand
commitment. Fakhari, Sheida and Hemmati (2014) conducted a research entitled "Investigating the role of social
media-based marketing activities on purchasing decisions by creating brand equity". Based on the research
hypotheses, the variable of social media marketing activities affects the variables of value parity,
communication equity and brand equity, and these variables in turn affect the purchase intention. Zollo et al.
(2020) conducted a research entitled “The relationship between social media marketing and brand equity: The
mediating role of benefits and consumer experience”. The results indicated that cognitive, personal and social
benefits play the mediating role in the relationship between social media marketing and brand equity, but
hedonic benefits do not play such a role. Also, both the emotional and rational experiences of the brand
significantly predict brand loyalty, brand awareness, and perceived quality.
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Managers of luxury brands may use such findings to develop social media marketing strategies that enhance the
overall brand experience and brand equity assessment in the social media environment. Ebrahim (2020)
conducted a study entitled “The role of trust in understanding the impact of social media marketing on brand
equity and brand loyalty”. The results showed that social media marketing activities consist of only three
dimensions, namely fashion, customization and word of mouth. These marketing characteristics on social media
directly affect brand loyalty and indirectly affect brand equity through brand trust. This study emphasizes the
role of trust and provides guidance for measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing. Koay, Ong, Khoo
& Yeoh (2020) conducted a study entitled “Social media marketing activities and consumer-based brand equity”
testing the Modified Mediation Model. The results showed that marketing activities on social networks have a
significant positive impact on the brand equity of the consumer. Also, the brand experience mediates the
relationship between perceived social media marketing activities and consumer-based brand equity.Quan, Chi,
Nhung, Ngan & Phong (2020) conducted study on the impact of website brand equity and electronic brand
experience on electronic loyalty: the mediating role of electronic satisfaction. The results revealed that
electronic brand has the greatest impact on electronic satisfaction and brand awareness has the greatest impact
on electronic loyalty. Also, electronic satisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between website
brand equity, electronic brand experience, and electronic loyalty. Given what was stated in the research
background section and based on the research hypotheses, the conceptual model of the study is presented as
follows:

Price
sensitivity

Quality Consumer behavior Brand equity Social

sensitivity network
marketing

Figure 1- Conceptual
Purchase model of research
experienc
e model, the research hypotheses are presented as follows:
Also, based on this
•The main hypotheses
-Social media marketing has a significant impact on brand equity.
-Brand equityHedonic
has a significant impact on consumer behavior.
-Brand equity
shoppinga mediating role in the impact of social media marketing on consumer behavior.
plays
•The sub-hypotheses
-Brand equity has a significant impact on price sensitivity.
-Brand equity has a significant impact on quality sensitivity.
-Brand equity has a significant impact on the shopping experience.
-Brand equity has a significant impact on hedonic shopping.

Methodology
The present study is an applied research in terms of aim and a descriptive and non-experimental research in
terms of data collection and a research study in terms of implementation method. The statistical population of
the study included customers of Tegeta-Motors Company in Tbilisi, Georgia [Dighomi Branch]. A convenience
sampling method was used in this study and the sample size was estimated at 384 people using Cochran's
formula. Kim and Ko (2012) Social Network Marketing Questionnaire was used to assess social media
marketing. It included 11 questions and 5 components of entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization
and word of mouth advertising. To assess brand equity, Zarantonello & Schmitt (2013) Brand Equity
Questionnaire was used. It includes 4 items. To assess the consumer behavior, Fattahian (2015) questionnaire,
which has 15 questions and 4 components of price sensitivity, hedonic shopping, and shopping experience, was
used. And sensitivity to quality is employed. These questionnaires are scored on a five-point Likert scale (1 =
strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = no idea, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree). The Social Media in this
research is solely chosen “Facebook” due to social strengthen of it in Georgia. The validity and reliability of this
questionnaire have been previously examined and confirmed, and in this study, the face and content validities
(based on the opinion of the professors of the relevant department) and the construct validity were evaluated
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using confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was also calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Details
are provided in the table below.
Table 1- Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the main research variables
Cronbach's alpha coefficient of
Dimensions Number of questions
variables
Social network marketing 11 0.862
Brand equity 4 0.733
Consumer behavior 15 0.930
Total questionnaire 30 0.974

After collecting the data from the statistical sample, the data were analyzed to answer the main research
questions. To analyze the data, two descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used in SPSS and Smart
PLS software:

Descriptive Statistics
Considering the gender of the sample group, males included 70.8% and females included 29.2% of the sample.
Considering the education of the sample group, people with diploma and lower education included 24.5%,
associate level of education included 16.1%, bachelor level of education included 48.4% and master level of
education included 10.9% of the sample. Considering the income level of the sample group, people with
monthly income of less than 30 million Rials included 12.2%, people with monthly income of between 30 and
60 million Rials included 54.9% and people with monthly income of more than 60 million Rials included 32.8%
of the sample. Based on the information in the table and Diagram 2, the consumer behavior variable has a mean
of 3.460 ± 0.896, the social network marketing variable has a mean of 3.477 ± 0.822, the brand equity variable
has a mean of 3.439 ± 0.734.

Variables N Mean SD
Test statistic sig

Consumer behavior
384 3.460 0.896 0.076 0.510

Social network marketing 384

3.477 0.822 0.078 0.200

Brand equity 384

3.439 0.734 0.132 0.834

Table 2 - Descriptive statistics of research variables

Since the significance level of the test in all variables is more than 0.05, the assumption of the normality of
observations (null hypothesis) is not rejected. As a result, parametric tests are used to test the hypotheses.

Testing the research hypotheses

The following table summarizes the results of the hypothesis testing

Path
Hypothesis Hypothesis T-VALUE Result
coefficient
Main Social media marketing has a significant impact on
hypothesis brand equity. 0.623 5.116 Accepted
1
Main Brand equity has a significant effect on consumer
hypothesis behavior. 0.609 7.161 Accepted
2
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Main Brand equity plays a mediating role in the impact of

hypothesis social media marketing on consumer behavior. 0.118 2.417 Accepted
3
Sub- Brand equity has a significant impact on price
hypothesis sensitivity. 0.503 5.850 Accepted
1
Sub- Brand equity has a significant impact on quality
hypothesis sensitivity. 0.510 5.825 Accepted
2
Sub- Brand equity has a significant impact on the shopping
hypothesis experience. 0.571 6.286 Accepted
3
Sub- Brand equity has a significant impact on hedonic
hypothesis shopping. 0.548 6.179 Accepted
4
Table 3 - The result of testing the research hypotheses

Discussion and Conclusion

Based on the results of statistical tests, it can be concluded that social media marketing has a direct impact on
brand equity. In this regard, Shafiei et al. (2015), Gheiratmand and Abedini (2015), Taheri and Kaeidian (2015),
Fakhari et al. (2014), Zollo et al. (2020), Ebrahim (2020) and Koay et al. examined the impact of social media
marketing on brand equity and their results were in line with results of this study. In explaining the hypothesis
result, it can be stated that Tegeta-Motors customers believe that using the company social networks is
entertaining, convenient, low cost and very persuasive, and they can easily communicate with other customers
of the company and based on the results of this study, 39.8% is effective on the brand equity from their point of
view and makes them do not intend to move from Tegeta-Motors brand to another brand and always prefer
TEGETA brand to other brands. Based on the results of statistical tests, it can be concluded that brand equity
has a direct impact on consumer behavior. Based on the results of this study, it is effective by 38% on their
views on price, quality, experience and hedonic shopping. In other words, the brand equity of Tegeta-Motors
makes the consumers of this brand see the behavior of their sellers, the cleanliness of the stores, promotion-
discounts and costs resulting from the purchase of Tegeta-Motors’ products in the best condition. Kahn et al.
(2020) and Koay et al. (2020) found results consistent with these results. In explaining the hypothesis, it can be
stated that Tegeta-Motors customers believe that if Tegeta Company uses social networks as one of the
marketing tools that has a customized design and provides up-to-date information to users, it will affect the
brand equity of Tegeta from their point of view and they will prefer this brand over other brands in their minds.
Also, it shapes their shopping behavior, creates positive experience and causes hedonic shopping.
Although brand equity has a direct impact on price sensitivity, the review of theoretical foundations showed that
this hypothesis has not been addressed in previous studies and no studies have been found to compare the
results. In explaining the hypothesis results, it can be said that Tegeta-Motors customers believe that the brand
equity of Tegeta and their attitude towards the value of this brand affects their price sensitivity by 26% and they
attach special importance to the price of Tegeta-Motors. However, since it was found that brand equity has a
direct impact on quality sensitivity, a review of theoretical foundations showed that among previous studies,
Zollo et al. (2020) have paid attention to this hypothesis and their results have been consistent with this research.
Lack of finding a similar domestic study can be evidence of research innovation in Georgia. In explaining the
hypothesis results, it can be said that Tegeta-Motors customers believe that the brand equity of Tegeta brand in
the minds of consumers of the company's products affects their sensitivity to quality by 29%. In fact, 29% of
changes in quality sensitivity variable are determined by the brand equity variable and this makes Tegeta
products perceived with better quality and always expect higher quality from this company due to the perceived
brand equity.
Given the results of statistical tests, it can be concluded that brand equity has a direct impact on shopping
experience. Review of theoretical foundations showed that Zollo et al. (2020) and Kahn et al. (2020) have paid
attention to this hypothesis and their results have been in line with this research. Among the consistent studies,
we can refer to the studies conducted by Azimi and Azizollahi (2019). In explaining the hypothesis results, it
can be said that Tegeta-Motors customers believe that the brand equity of Tegeta affects their shopping
experience by 33%. In other words, the perceived brand equity of Tegeta customers causes them to pay more
attention to the verbal advertisements of the sellers of this company, to consider the expertise and skills of the
seller when buying Tegeta products and services, and pay attention to the information in Tegeta company's
product stores and engineers.
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It was also found that brand equity has a direct impact on purchasing, and a review of the theoretical
foundations showed that this hypothesis has not been considered in previous studies, and no studies was found
that to compare the results and it can be evidence of research innovation. In explaining this hypothesis result, it
can be said that Tegeta customers believe that the brand equity of Tegeta-Motors means increasing the share that
this brand occupies in the minds of consumers. This increase in the brand's mental share makes hedonic
shopping from Tegeta brand by 30% and when purchasing Tegeta-Motors Company products, the opinion of
friends and family members becomes more important to them and they will experience more hedonic shopping
of Tegeta services and products with their friends.
The main section of any research is the recommendations driven from the analysis of questionnaires. In this
section, to use the results obtained from the research, recommendations are presented to the relevant officials
and the relevant statistical community.
-Tegeta-Motors Company can provide the necessary infrastructure to make marketing through social media
more practical in its company so that it can influence the brand equity of its brand and consumer behavior.
-Tegeta-Motors Company can increase the multimedia resources such as video, photo, and animation related to
the audience in its social media and affects the brand equity as well as consumer behavior by increasing the
marketing efficiency through social media.
-Tegeta-Motors Company should emphasize on the luxury and innovative aspects of its products to be able to
lead their behavior towards purchasing the company's products and services to gain loyalty by creating superior
value in the minds of customers, and in this regard it can encourage organizational innovation and creativity in
employees to strengthen innovation in its products.
-One of the factors that promote brand equity is the customization of products and services that Tegeta-Motors
Company can affect quality-sensitive customers by increasing customization and meeting the customer demands
at maximum level and guide the behavior of consumers to purchase the company's products and loyalty to the
company's brand.
-Tegeta-Motors Company should provide the necessary training to its sellers so that they can provide
appropriate and complete information to customers and affect their shopping experience through service and
maintenance requests and products.
-Tegeta-Motors Company can use total quality management to reduce the price of products by redesigning its
processes and thus affect the brand equity and attract price-sensitive customers who are always looking for more
appropriate prices.
-Tegeta-Motors Company can consider rewards for word of mouth advertising by old customers and introducing
new customers so that it can influence the brand equity in the minds of existing customers, create hedonic
shopping in them and identify and absorb the actual customers. As research recommendations, it can be stated
that since the conceptual model of this research has been used in Tbilisi Dighomi Branch, it is recommended
that the proposed model of research be examined and tested at the national level. Only one measurement tool
was used to evaluate each dependent variable, so it is recommended to use various measurement methods and
tools as it can help to better conceptualize the variables. The future studies can investigate other brands in
various categories of goods such as Hardware and bumper, engineering services, electronic services, luxury
spare-parts, and so on. Also, in the present study, only “questionnaire” was used to collect the desired
information, while paying attention to tools such as interviews can have different results. Future researchers can
also consider the impact of social media dimensions such as being up-to-date, customization, and word-of-
mouth advertising on brand equity and consumer behavior. Also for further research, it is advised that Instagram
and Tik-Tok is also added to research because these social Medias are also fast growing in the county.

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Author Information
Dr. Bahman Moghimi
Academic Staff at School of Economics and
Administrative Studies and the University of
Georgia, Tbilisi