Impact of social media on consumer brand loyalty for FMCG brands – A study on consumers in the Colombo District of Sri Lanka

Abstract

" Social media has become an integral part in two out of three people around the world. Equally, all of all the businesses from small to large scale use social media for their marketing activities. Through multiple algorithms and mechanisms social media platforms have a vast potential in reaching large audiences up to specific niche audiences and create brand advocates out of them through interactive content and other mediums

This study investigates how social media impacts on consumer brand loyalty for Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brands in Sri Lanka. RACE Digital Marketing Framework (Chafey, 2020), The 6C model of Social Media engagement (Parent et al. 2011), and SOSTAC Digital Marketing Model (P.R Smith, 1990) were used to explore various dimensions of social media, whereas Brand Loyalty Pyramid Model (Aaker, 1991) and Model of the effects of brand community on social media (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013) were used to examine the theoretical perspective of brand loyalty.

The study uses a positivism philosophy and a deductive approach. A quantitative data was acquired from an online survey that was distributed among social media users in the Colombo District of Sri Lanka. Responses were analyzed and findings on the relationship between social media and brand loyalty were demonstrated using the SPSS software. All four variables (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok) were proven through hypothesis to have an impact of creating brand loyalty for FMCG brands.

A model was presented to predict the correlation of brand loyalty with social media, followed with limitations and recommendations of the study which can be adopted by FMCG brands on how to fine tune their social media channels to win consumer brand loyalty.

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