A Structural Model of the Relationship between Marketing Efforts on Social Media, Brand Equity and Customer Loyalty with Airline Social Media Brands in Thailand

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Thadathibesra Phuthong

Abstract

The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between marketing efforts on social media, brand equity and customer brand loyalty in the airline business in Thailand. The study used a questionnaire developed after reviewing the literature and testing the reliability using coefficient alpha. The questionnaire was distributed to 231 samples who had experience using social media managed by airlines, selected through convenience sampling. The data were analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) by using the Partial Least Square approach with SmartPLS software. The results showed that perceived risk was the most important marketing effort in the social media component, and airline marketing efforts on social media had direct effect DE=0.653 on brand awareness and direct effect DE=0.724 on brand image. In addition, the results demonstrated that brand awareness had direct effect DE=0.275 on electronics-word of mouth and that brand image had direct effect DE=0.562 on electronics word-of-mouth, and direct effect DE=0.707 on commitment, while brand commitment and electronics word-of-mouth had indirect effect IE=0.586 on marketing efforts on social media, which corresponded to the hypothesis at statistical significance of 0.05 level. It is expected that the results of this study may be used as a source of fundamental data for development in the planning of airline marketing efforts using social media strategies, particularly due to understanding the relative importance of each marketing effort on social media components, and analysis of the effects of marketing efforts on social media.

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Research Articles
Author Biography

Thadathibesra Phuthong, Faculty of Management Science, Silpakorn University, Petchaburi IT Campus, Petchaburi, Thailand

คณะวิทยาการจัดการ มหาวิทยาลัยศิลปากร 1 หมู่ 3 ต. สามพระยา อ. ชะอำ จ. เพชรบุรี 76120

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