Full Text 01

The effect of social media marketing
activities on brand image and brand loyalty

A quantitative study within the sportswear industry
Frida Johansson
Miranda Hiltula
Business and Economics, master's level

2021
Luleå University of Technology

Department of Social Sciences, Technology and Arts
Acknowledgements
First, we would like to thank everyone who has helped us complete our thesis. Thank you to
every respondent, opponent and friends who helped us create and shape the thesis in one way
or another. This study was conducted during the winter/spring of 2021 and at the end of our
study at University of Technology in Luleå.
We want to give a special thank you to our supervisor Maria Ek Styvén, who has given us
incredible guidance throughout the whole process.
Luleå, May 2021
_______________________ _______________________
Frida Johansson Miranda Hiltula
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to gain further understanding of how social media
marketing activities can affect a firm's brand loyalty and brand image. The study was conducted
within the sportswear industry.
Design/Methodology/approach: This study was of explanatory nature and had a quantitative

approach where it gathered its data through questionnaires that was posted in community
groups on Facebook for the brands Oner Active, Gymshark and Better Bodies. These chosen
brands are an active part of the chosen industry to investigate, the sportswear industry.
Findings: The findings of this study showed that social media marketing activities have a
positive effect on brand image as well as brand loyalty. The social media marketing activities
that had the overall highest impact were entertainment and word of mouth. Furthermore, the
findings of this study concluded that increased brand image has a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
Implications: The findings of this study contributes to the growing knowledge of social media
marketing activities and how they effect brand image and brand loyalty of sportswear brands.
The findings of this study contributes to practitioners as well, it showcases the importance of
social media marketing activities but also provides insight of what activities might be of most
importance to develop in regards to brand image and brand loyalty (based on the circumstances
and limitations to this study).
Keywords: Customer Based Brand Equity, Social Media Marketing Activities, Brand Image,
Brand Loyalty
Sammanfattning
Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med ytterligare förståelse kring hur olika aktiviteter
inom social media marketing kan påverka ett varumärkes lojalitet och image inom branschen
för träningskläder.
Metod: Denna studie har ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt där data har samlats via enkäter som
publicerats i grupper på Facebook, enkäten publicerades i grupper kopplade till företag som är
en del av industrin för träningskläder. Valda varumärken är Oner Active, Gymshark och Better
Bodies.
Resultat: Resultaten av denna studie visade att aktiviteter inom social media marketing har en
positiv påverkan på ett företags image samt lojalitet. De dimensioner som visades ha allra störst
påverkan var underhållning och word of mouth. Fortsättningsvis så kunde även slutsatsen dras
att ett varumärkes image har klar påverkan på kunders lojalitet till företaget.
Implikationer: Resultatet av denna studie bidrar med ökad förståelse om

marknadsföringsaktiviteter inom social media och hur det påverkar image och lojalitet hos ett
företag inom branschen för träningskläder. Resultatet av studien bidrar även till praktiska
implikationer genom att visa hur viktiga marknadsföringsaktiviteter inom social media är för
utveckling av lojalitet hos kunder samt för ett företags image. Resultatet visar även vilka
aspekter av social media marketing som har störst påverkan på ett företags image och lojalitet
(med hänsyn till studiens förhållanden och avgränsningar).
Nyckelord: Customer Based Brand Equity, Social Media Marketing Activities, Brand Image,
Brand Loyalty
Table of content
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Problem discussion 3
1.3 Purpose and Research Question 6
1.4 Delimitations for the thesis 6
2. Literature review 7
2.1 Customer Based Brand Equity 7
2.1.1 Brand Image 10
2.1.1.1 Types of brand associations 12
Attributes 12
Benefits 13
Attitudes 13
2.1.1.2 Favorability of brand associations 14
2.1.1.3 Strength of brand association 14
2.1.1.4 Uniqueness of brand associations 14
2.1.2 Brand Loyalty 16
2.1.2.1 Value propositions 17
2.1.2.2 Brand Building 17
2.1.2.3 Trust and Security 17
2.1.2.4 Website and Technology 18
2.1.2.5 Customer Service 18
2.2 Social Media Marketing Activities 19
2.2.1 The five dimensions of SMMA 21
2.3 Conceptual framework and development of hypotheses 22
3. Methodology 26
3.1 Research purpose 26
3.2 Research approach 27
3.2.1 Deductive and Inductive 27
3.2.2 Quantitative and Qualitative 28
3.3 Literature search 28
3.4 Data collection 29
3.4.1 Questionnaire development 29
3.4.2 Pre-test 33
3.5 Sample selection 33
3.5.1 Participants 34
3.6 Data analysis 35
3.6.1 Data preparation 35
3.6.2 Statistical Techniques 36
Factor Analysis 36
Correlation 36
Multiple regression 37
3.7 Quality standards 37
3.7.1 Reliability 37
3.7.2 Validity 38
3.8 Ethical considerations 40
4. Presentation and Analysis of Data 41
4.1 Demographic characteristics 41
4.2 Reliability of scales 43
4.3 Factor Analysis 44
4.3.1 Step 1 - Assessment of the factorability of the collected data 44
4.3.2 Step 2 - Factor extraction 45
4.4 Hypotheses testing 48
4.4.1 Multiple regression 48
4.4.2 Testing Hypothesis 1 50
4.4.5 Summary of hypotheses 61
5. Conclusions and Implications 64
5.1 Conclusions for Research Question 1 64
5.4 Implications 68
5.4.1 Implications for theory 68
5.4.2 Implications for practitioners 69
5.5 Limitations 69
5.6 Future research 70
References 72
Appendix 80
Appendix I - Correlation between variables (Convergent validity) 80
Appendix II - All questionnaire questions (Part 1-3) 81
List of Figures
Figure 2.1: Overview of Brand Image 15
Figure 2.2: Proposed research model 25
Figure 3.1: Elements of survey questions 29
Figure 4.1: Gender distribution 42
Figure 4.2: Age distribution 42
Figure 4.3: Occupation distribution 43
Figure 4.4: Screeplot 46
List of Tables
Table 2.1: Conceptual framework 23
Table 3.1: The questionnaire items 32
Table 4.1: Total variance table 45
Table 4.2: Pattern matrix 47
Table 4.3: Reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha 48
Table 4.4: Model summary H1 51
Table 4.5: ANOVA H1 51
Table 4.6: Coefficients SMMA and BI 51
Table 4.7: Model summary 55
Table 4.9: Coefficients SMMA and BL 56
Table 4.10: Model summary 60
Table 4.12: Coefficients BI and BL 61
1. Introduction
In this first chapter an introduction to the thesis and the research topic will be portrayed. The
background and problem discussion are explained. Following is the purpose as well as the
research problem of this study. The chapter ends with a description of the existing
delimitations.
1.1 Background
Social media has today reshaped the way people interact and communicate with each other
(Ebrahim, 2020) and in 2020 there were 3.6 billion users in total throughout different social
media platforms (Statista, 2021). By creating a social media presence, firms can in an effective
way enhance their reach and improve their engagement with their customers (Lim et al., 2020).
Throughout this past decade social media has become culturally significant due to its rapid
growth and today it has developed into the most preferred domain to receive and share
information and also connect with people from around the globe (Lim, et al., 2020). Social
media has therefore created opportunities for firms and organisations to be able to connect and
manage customer needs and behaviours in a different way than before. Technical innovations
cause constant change within the social media platforms, both in the technical aspect (social
media platforms developing their platforms through new features and services) and the
user/consumer aspect which makes it important for firms to keep up and embrace the business
opportunities that social media provides (Appel et al. 2019).
There are different ways to define social media, depending on the user’s perspective. In a
practical sense, Appel et al. (2019) define social media as the software digital technologies that
provides users/customers with a digital environment which is most often presented in the form
of apps and websites. Another more practical definition of social media for marketers is, “a
type of digital marketing channel that marketers can use to communicate with consumers
through advertising” (Appel et al., 2019, p 80). Furthermore, Kim et al. (2011) define social
media as online applications, platforms and media whose purpose is to help ease interactions,
collaborations and content-sharing.
Social media is a great asset for companies to improve customer contact before, during and
after a purchase from a specific brand. It is also a tool for increasing brand equity, which
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according to Aaker (2010, p. 26) is “A set of assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name
and symbol, that adds to or subtracts value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to
that firm’s customers.” Smith (2016) means that social media is the best tool for brand equity
in the modern marketplace, and can be used as an asset. When David Aaker defined brand
equity, 30 years ago, the marketing strategies at the time looked different, social media did not
exist but has since its birth transformed the marketplace to what it is in this present time (Smith,
2016). To build brand equity nowadays, Smith (2016) means that the online presence of a
brand, especially their social presence, can add value to both customer and brand and therefore
promote brand equity. A core dimension of brand equity is, according to Aaker (2010) brand
loyalty. Ebrahim (2020) means that brand loyalty differs between the online and the offline
perspective since there are more factors to take into consideration while marketing a company
online.
Branding and customer based brand equity (CBBE) is a popular and important topic amongst
marketers and marketing researchers, many approach it differently but consensus between
practitioners is that brand equity is important since it brings great intangible value to a company
(Keller, 2009). The intangible value that brand equity brings could make a difference in a
brand's transactions. The marketing effects that have been made on a product or service of a
brand could therefore have an impact on customers if they need to choose between purchasing
your brand's product and a similar product of another brand (Keller, 2009). If the customer
chose to purchase one brand over another, there is a big chance that the brand has provided
further unique and differential value to the customer through their branding and marketing
efforts in relation to the competing brand/brands (Aaker, 2010).
Creating a strong brand brings great benefits for an organization and their firm’s marketing
communication effectiveness. A strong brand could enhance customer loyalty, make a brand
less vulnerable to changes in the marketplace and it also allows a firm to have larger margins
on the brand’s products and services (Keller, 2009). The benefits that come with a strong brand
clearly shows that brand management is and should be a management priority. To implement
this it is important for firms to have the right brand knowledge structure in both already existing
and potential new customers so that the firm's marketing resources are effective and have the
best impact possible (Keller, 2009).
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1.2 Problem discussion
Brand equity consists of five main assets, brand awareness, brand association, perceived
quality, brand loyalty and market behaviour (Aaker, 1996). Studying the impact and outcome
of social media marketing at a firm level can increase the understanding of what different social
media marketing activities help to improve the brand equity of a company (Li et al., 2020).
Even though social media platforms provide a huge interest among users, the topic is still new
and research is constantly developed and increasing in numbers. Since the interest of studying
social media has been increasing through the recent years, research regarding connecting social
media marketing activities and brand equity has not been very extensive. Most researchers have
investigated if adapting to social media has affected customers at all in regards to brand
perception and emotional attachment (Lim et al., 2020). Ebrahim (2020) on the other hand
investigated the impact of social media marketing activities on brand loyalty via brand trust
and brand equity in telecommunication companies, his study was geographically located in
Egypt. The result of Ebrahim’s (2020) study was that the overall impact of the three social
media marketing dimensions trendiness, customization and WOM had a positive impact on
brand loyalty and on motivating users towards using social media platforms. Ebrahim (2020)
concluded that the direct relationship between social media marketing activities and brand
equity (including brand loyalty and brand image) were of importance.
Bilgin (2018) investigated whether or not social media marketing activities had any effect on
brand awareness, brand image and brand loyalty. Bilgin (2018) chose to analyse this within the
five brands in Turkey that had the highest social score according to the Market Turkey social
media brand performance data on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The
result of his data collection showed that social media marketing activities had a great effect on
the three dimensions brand awareness, brand image and brand loyalty (Bilgin, 2018).
This is an interesting topic that is applicable to many different areas and different industries,
for example the sportswear industry. A general definition of sportswear is clothes used for
higher activity levels, for example different sports and extreme climates (Elmogahzy, 2020).
The sportswear industry includes companies that are selling sportswear products, which can be
categorized into two categories 1. professional sportswear products and 2. leisure sportswear
products (Elmogahzy, 2020). Professional sports wear are clothes designed to wear while
performing physically strenuous activities such as sports and exercise of various kinds, the
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period of use of the clothes is thus short. Leisure sportswear products are designed for the
opposite reason, for less strenuous activities where periods of use can vary (Elmogahzy, 2020).
Sportswear can also be categorized based on weather conditions (cold weather products,
moderate weather products, and hot weather products) as well as different types of exercise
such as football wear, cycling wear, etc. In this study the focus will be on sportswear industries
selling both professional sportswear and leisure sportswear within the fitness and gym
environment for all climates.
Growth in fitness and health awareness has resulted in a rapid growth of sportswear industry
and was in 2018 valued to ＄167.7 billion (Roshan and Sumesh, 2019). The growth is believed
to be impacted by the increasing numbers of female athletes in sports and fitness and the market
value is estimated to increase to ＄248.1 billion by 2026 (Roshan and Sumesh, 2019). The
interest for sportswear has increased because of the elevated interest among customers. Another
reason for the rapid growth may be because of the increased target group. Sportswear is not
only for athletes, the target group has increased since people today are using sportswear as
daily clothes wear (Xiaofei, 2020). Sportswear is also, according to Ko et al. (2012) , valued
as a well-being trend. Another factor making the chosen market interesting is that the
sportswear industry is highly competitive and dedicated to building strong brand equity (Su
and Tong, 2015). Because of the highly competitive market the sportswear industry is one of
the most branded areas in the global market within the area. Su and Tong (2015) further state
that brands in the sportswear industry are committed to build a stable brand loyalty. The growth
of the market makes it an interesting field to research and continue to develop brand knowledge
within.
This study will focus on brand image as well as brand loyalty which both are parts of customer
based brand equity (CBBE). As Su and Tong (2015) mentioned, sportswear industries are
dedicated to creating strong brand loyalty and this paper will investigate how social media
marketing activities can play a role in this process. Traditional marketing such as traditional
advertising and public relation is according to Lee (2012) outdated, and therefore social media
marketing activities (SMMA) became an alternative since it is well developed and used by
multiple organizations today. According to IRM (2020) the total cost of market communication
ads in Sweden 2020 was 71 440 million SEK where 35,6% of the total advertising investments
were placed on ads on the internet. Other traditional advertising channels such as TV, radio
and printed news together only comprised 9,4% of the total advertising investments (IRM,
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2020). Chakravarthy and Sharma (2020) mean that 89% of social media users in their study,
which was conducted in India, have been exposed to social media advertisements. Brand
loyalty is an important factor to investigate since it, according to Ghafoor, et al. (2013),
contributes to positive purchase intentions among customers. Furthermore, Ghafoor, et al.
(2013) also state that companies must create loyalty among customers to survive since it is
more costly to attract a new customer than maintaining an old one. Brand loyalty can therefore
be seen as an important and interesting factor to investigate since high brand loyalty means
lower corporate costs.
Brand image is according to Sallam (2014) an important factor in consumer behaviour and
marketing research, which strengthens the argument of why brand image is an important
dimension within brand equity to continue researching. According to a research by Alfrod et
al. (2001) brand image can influence brand equity by associations made by signals to
consumers. Conscious signals that are sent out to consumers can thus affect the way a customer
sees a brand. One way to send out signals to customers could be via social media, and therefore
it would be interesting to see and investigate if there is any possible connection between
SMMA and the view of brand image of a particular brand. Another factor making brand image
interesting, according to Tsai and Wang (2014) is that brand image could be used as a hint to,
or not to, purchase a product. Sallam (2014) and Dobni and Zinkhan (1990) also point out that
a goal for many companies is to achieve a positive brand image. Both brand image and brand
loyalty is therefore important for a company’s finance and sales and as the use of SMMA
increases (Kim et al., 2011), it is interesting to see if there is any potential connection between
these variables.
In order for marketers to better understand how social media marketing activities affect their
brand image and brand loyalty it is important to enhance their knowledge concerning both
areas, that is where this research can be useful within the currently expanding sportswear
industry.
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1.3 Purpose and Research Question
The purpose of this thesis is to gain further understanding of how social media marketing
activities can affect brand loyalty and brand image. Furthermore, the relationship between
brand image and brand loyalty will also be investigated. This study will be implemented in the
sportswear industry. This will be described through the perceptions of social media users who
are actively following and interacting with sportswear companies social media accounts and
communities.
Based on the background and problem discussion tre research questions have been formulated:
❏ RQ1: How do social media marketing activities of brands within the sportswear
industry influence brand image?
industry influence brand loyalty?
❏ RQ3: To what extent does brand image influence brand loyalty for brands within the
sportswear industry?
1.4 Delimitations for the thesis
The delimitations made throughout this study will firstly be to target users who are active
members within the Facebook communities of Better Bodies and/-or Oner Active and/-or
Gymshark. These are brands within the sportswear industry which are also active in their
Facebook communities and can thereby ensure that the members are exposed to social media
marketing activities (SMMA). The members of the group have no geographical restrictions
since the forums are online and available worldwide, the majority of the posts in the
communities are in English. Based on this, there will be no geographical delimitation in this
study. Secondly, brand equity has been scaled down to customer based brand equity so this
study will only focus on the customers view of brand equity.
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2. Literature review
This chapter will review literature related to the research area, conducted to gather knowledge
from previous research. The chapter includes theoretical explanations regarding the major
areas of social media marketing activities and CBBE where brand image and brand loyalty
will have the main focus. Finally, the chapter is concluded with a conceptual framework along
with the proposed hypotheses.
2.1 Customer Based Brand Equity
Customer based brand equity (CBBE) is a concept that has received a great deal of attention
amongst researchers throughout the years and there currently exists plenty of research to read
about the subject. Kevin L. Keller and David A. Aaker are two established researchers and
authors within the subject that have different definitions of the term. Keller (1993) defines
CBBE as follows: “Customer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer is familiar with
the brand and holds some favorable, strong and unique brand associations in memory.”(p.1).
While Aaker (2002) defines it as: “A set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand’s name and
symbol that adds to (or subtracts from) the value provided by a product or service to a firm
and/or that firm’s customers.” (p.7).
Although Aaker and Keller have different definitions of the term, they describe brand equity
as a measure reflecting the asset value of a brand from a customer perception (Aaker, 1996) or
more precisely, as Keller (1993) describes it, the consumer response of marketing for a specific
brand, positively or negatively. Keller’s (1993) and Aakers (1996) view of customer based
brand equity has been the base for additional brand research in various countries (Barrett, et al.
1990). The extended research with the base of Keller and Aaker has, however, given varying
results and outcomes which makes related studies of Keller and Aaker difficult to interpret
(Barrett, et al. 1990). Basing this literature review from Keller (1993) and Aaker’s (1996)
models therefore was a validated choice since several studies have been based on these models
with similar results, and both authors have been cited numerous times in databases and search
engines.
Keller (2009) created a model for brand equity which he named the CBBE model, he also stated
that the basic premise of the CBBE model is that the power of a brand lies in the minds of the
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customer. Both authors do thus agree that brand equity is an individual customer value or
perception of a specific brand. However, the framework of how to measure, or how to
understand CBBE is described differently by Keller (1993) and Aaker (1996).
Keller (1993) categorizes brand equity into two categories, brand awareness and brand image
which he means is a part of brand knowledge. Keller (1993) describes brand knowledge as
individual brand components like, for example, name, symbol or design that the brand uses to
differentiate. Keller (1993) means that it is important to understand brand knowledge to know
how it is related to brand equity. Keller (1993) points out that what comes to mind when a
customer thinks about a brand is influenced by brand knowledge, which makes brand
knowledge an important factor to understand CBBE. This makes sense since brand equity is,
according to Aaker (1996), consumer response of marketing.
While Keller (1993) points out the importance of understanding brand knowledge to then
understand the relationship between brand image, awareness and equity, Aaker (1996)
describes brand equity in five dimensions, which together constitute brand equity. Aaker
(1996) means that brand equity has ten sets of measures that can be divided into five categories.
The five main categories that Aaker (1996) uses to describe brand equity are brand loyalty,
perceived quality, brand associations, brand awareness and market behavior. Since this study
focuses on the brand equity dimensions, brand loyalty and brand image/brand associations,
those categories will have separate subheadings presented later in this chapter. Keller (1993)
and Aaker (1996) uses the terms brand associations and brand image in order to explain
eachother. Keller (1993) uses the term brand image to describe what associations customers
have connected to the brand, while Aaker (1996) uses the term brand associations to describe
a customer's perception of the brand (hence brand image). Thus, the authors' use of the different
terms overlap with their meanings but in this study brand image is the term that will be used.
The other dimensions will be described here briefly, starting with brand awareness, written
from both Keller (1993) and Aakers (1996) perspective.
Aaker (2010) means that there are two different ways to measure brand awareness, by
recognition and recall. Both recognition and recall is about remembering a specific brand, or
else said, about the strength of the presence of a brand in a consumer’s mind (Aaker, 2010).
The difference between recognition and recall is that recognition answers the question “Have
you been exposed to this brand before?” while recall answers the question “What brands of this
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product class can you recall?” (Aaker, 2010). Two other levels of brand awareness is top-of-
mind and brand dominance, which both are a type of recall. Top-of-mind is the first brand
mentioned while recalling a brand (Aaker, 1996) and brand dominance is if there is only one
brand coming to mind in a specific area. Brand awareness, in all forms of recognition, recall
and top-of-mind, has a positive impact on situations where customers are in the middle of
choosing between brands. Aaker (1996) also brings up the importance of brand opinion, when
a customer has any type of opinion of the brand, which is a type of brand awareness.
Aaker (1996) talks about brand knowledge as a part of brand awareness, which is the basis for
Keller’s framework of brand equity. Aaker (1996) describes brand knowledge as knowing what
the brand stands for, and Keller (1993) means that awareness of a brand, in terms of recognition
and recall, as Aaker (1996) uses to describe brand awareness, is based on brand knowledge,
which in turn affects consumer response. Important to mention is that Keller (1996) uses brand
awareness to describe brand knowledge, to understand how it affects brand equity, while Aaker
(1993) describes brand awareness as a directly related part of brand equity, where brand
knowledge is a part of brand awareness. Aaker (1996) and Keller (1993) describe brand
awareness as a way for customers to identify brands under different situations, with either brand
recognition or brand recall.
Aaker (2010) means that according to psychology, a past exposure of a brand results in a greater
chance for the customer to choose that brand, since they automatically have a more positive
feeling towards that brand. The positive feeling towards the brand can be explained by
customers believing that the company is spending money to support the brand, since they have
seen it before, and therefore they take it as a “signal” that the brand is good (Aaker, 2010).
Keller (1993) also mentions that brand awareness increases the likelihood to purchase a brand
that the customer has been exposed to before. Other factors important to create positive brand
awareness is to create pleasant awareness levels, for example by having businesses supporting
the brand name or to operate on event promotions or other approaches outside the normal media
channels. To enhance brand equity, recall and recognition is thus important (Aaker, 2010).
Moving on to perceived quality, one of Aaker’s five dimensions of brand equity. Aaker (2010)
means that the perceived quality of a product or service is a major strategic thrust, since the
perceived quality has shown to have a big impact on financial performance and also is a big
factor of how the brand is perceived. Aaker (2010) further describes that perceived quality is
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related to the status of the brand, since perceived quality affects brand association. Aaker
(2010) means that perceived quality is an important contributor to a firm’s return on investment
(ROI). Quality of a product has great significance for customer satisfaction and good perceived
quality has a positive impact on stock return. Aaker (2010) explains that perceived quality is
an important factor for customers when they are deciding whether to purchase a product or not,
the perceived quality then spreads and affects all aspects of a brand, either positively or
negatively. A natural consequence is that when perceived quality improves, other elements of
the positive perception of the brand increases as well (Aaker, 2010). Perceived quality can
differ from actual quality, and therefore the pursuit of increasing the perceived quality depends
on the individual customer.
Thirdly, another dimension of Aaker’s five component CBBE-model is market behaviour,

which describes the company’s or brand’s standing with customers. Market behavior is
according to Aaker (1996) measured and identified by market share (and/or sales), market price
and distribution coverage. Market behavior is significantly connected with the consumer's mind
since market share is decreasing or increasing due to the advantage the brand has in customer
minds. As well as when CBBE increases, a natural consequence is that the market share does
the same. Distribution coverage does also affect market behaviour in forms of market share
and sales data since sales is easily affected by gained or lost geographical sales area (Aaker,
1996).
The next chapters will describe brand image and brand loyalty, the two dimensions of CBBE
that this study focuses on.
2.1.1 Brand Image

One dimension Keller (1993) uses to describe brand equity is brand image, which will be in
focus, together with brand loyalty, in this project. The dimension is significant for a customer’s
brand choice on a conceptual level since brand image stimulates what brand is coming to mind
for a customer facing purchase decisions between brands (Fuller and Stocchi, 2017). Keller
(1993) defines brand image as “perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations
held in consumers memory” (p.3). Brand image is, according to Fuller and Stocchi (2017)
cognitive aspects, as Keller (1993) describes it, as well as psychological aspects on how brands
are perceived among customers. Fuller and Stocchi (2017) also mention that, from Keller’s
view of brand equity, brand image in comparison to brand awareness is a more complex
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dimension since they mean that brand image contains both a cognitive and a psychological
perspective. Sallam (2014) further says that brand image is primarily responsible for
differentiation from competitors since companies are striving to build a positive image about
their products. To more deeply describe brand image, Keller (1993) uses the terms “brand
associations”. Aaker (1996, 2010) also uses brand associations as one of his five dimensions
of brand equity and means that the associations are a part of brand equity. He describes the
dimension as associations that customers make with a particular brand, or: “the category of
brand’s assets and liabilities that include anything linked in memory to a brand” (Sallam, 2014,
p.188).
According to Aaker (1996, 2010) brand associations include image dimensions that are one of
a kind to a brand or product. The associations include product attributes, which will be more
discussed later in this chapter. Fuller and Stocchi (2017) means that brand image for a company
is important since the dimension improves or worsens the mental availability a brand has in the
consumer mind. Brand image is about measuring the brand’s mental market share it has in the
consumers mind. By mental market share, Fuller and Stocchi (2017) means “the ratio between
a brand’s total number of brand image associations and the total number of associations
obtained by all brands in the product category” (p.456). Keller (1993) means that there are
four different forms of brand associations that together constitute brand image which is a part
of brand knowledge;
1. Types of brand associations,

2. Favorability of brand associations,
3. Strength of brand associations, and
4. Uniqueness of brand associations.
(Keller, 1993)
He also states that the aim for every company is to make positive associations which results in
a positive image for a brand, which could be made both by direct experience and brand
communication (Sallam, 2014; Dobni and Zinkhan, 1990). Dew and Kwon (2010) write that
great attitudes and emotions towards a brand builds on positive and unique brand associations.
French and Smith (2013) mean that brand associations can be seen as a core component of
CBBE.
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2.1.1.1 Types of brand associations
The first form of brand associations is types of brand associations. Keller (1993) means that
brand association takes different forms in levels of abstraction. Since there are different types
of brand associations based on abstraction, the associations can be classified into attitudes,
attributes and benefits.
Attributes
Brand attributes are about the characteristics of a product or service; what the customer thinks
about the service involved in the process of buying a product or service. Aaker (1996, 2010)
means that examples of product attributes can be a celebrity endorser and a particular symbol
or logo. Brand association is deeply linked with brand identity, which is what the brand wants
the customer to believe about the brand and how they want their customers to perceive them
(Aaker, 2010). Keller (1993) chose to categorize attributes based on how directly they are
related to the service performance or product, therefore the two categories of attributes are
product-related attributes and non-product-related attributes. Product-related attributes are
things necessary for the functions of the product (Gladden and Funk, 2002). Non-product
related attributes refer to four categories:
1. Price information
2. Packaging or product appearance information
3. User imagery
4. Usage imagery
(Keller, 1993)
The non-product related attributes do not impact the overall product performance (Gladden and
Funk, 2002). The non-product related attributes are according to Grace and O’Cass (2003) all
external to the function or process of the product. In 1998, Keller upgraded his model of non-
product related attributes into four new categories:
1. Price
2. User and usage imagery
3. Brand personality
4. Feelings and experiences (Grace and O’Cass, 2003).
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Benefits
Brand benefits consist of the personal value a customer has to a specific brand and can be
categorized into three types of needs, which could be satisfied through product consumption
(Gladden and Funk, 2002).
1. Functional benefits
2. Experiential benefits
3. Symbolic benefits
(Keller, 1993).
Functional benefits refer to physiological and safety needs (Keller, 1993), an example of a
functional benefit product would be a product that solves consumption-related problems
(Gladden and Funk, 2002). Experiential benefits relate to sensory pleasure, variety and
cognitive stimulation (Keller, 1993), products that satisfy experiential needs would be products
that provide cognitive stimulation and/or variety (Gladden and Funk, 2002). Symbolic benefits
relate to the needs for social approval, personal expression, outer directed self-esteem (Keller,
1993) self-enhancement, group member-ship, role position and/or ego-identification (Gladden
and Funk, 2002). Why Keller used three types of benefits was to give a better understanding of
how people are attaching value and meaning towards the products they consume (Gladden and
Funk, 2002).
Attitudes
Brand attitudes can be defined as the overall evaluation of the brand and are the basis for
consumer behavior. Attitudes can be things such as beliefs about the product or non-product-
related attribute, experiential and symbolic benefits and perceived quality (Keller, 1993).
Gladden and Funk (2002) point out that attitudes have underlying, distinct properties, for
example knowledge, importance and valence, that contributes to the degree of formation.
Cooksey et al. (2005) describe that positive attitudes towards a brand create reasons for a
customer to buy that particular brand. However, it is difficult to accurately specify all brand
attitudes and their benefits. If the customer does not have his or her own attitude towards a
brand, the attitude can be influenced by external factors (Keller, 1993).
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2.1.1.2 Favorability of brand associations
Secondly, Keller (1993) means that associations to a brand can differ based on how favorably
the brand is evaluated by a customer. Favorability of a brand is not always relevant in a
purchase decision, for example, when a customer’s favorite color is on the packaging of the
product it is not always an important factor in the purchase decision (Keller, 1993). Even
though favorability of brand associations is not always relevant in a purchase decision, Baack,
et al. (2010) mean that marketers strive to create favorable associations. Krishnan (1996) links
favorability of brand associations to high brand equity and therefore states that the constant
focus for strong brands should be on achieving positive associations. Schnittka, et al. (2012)
mean that favorability of brand associations varies markedly due to consumers' individual
judgements and the importance of the purchase. Baack, et al. (2011) explain favorability of
brand associations as the degree of how negatively, or positively, the association of a brand is
perceived.
2.1.1.3 Strength of brand association
The third dimension, strength of brand association, is about the connection to the brand, how
strong it is, and how information about the brand is encoded and maintained. French and Smith
(2013) writes that the strength of an association to a brand is necessary for CBBE, since
favorably brand associations increase the chance of brand success because strong brand
associations means superiority over other brands. Baack, et al. (2011) define brand associations
as “the intensity of the connection between the association and the brand node” (p. 93-94).
French and Smith (2013) writes that a brand will more likely be recalled due to a stronger brand
association. Dillon, et al. (2001) also mean that the strength of brand associations is connected
to brand evaluation. Baack, et al. (2011) believe that exposure of marketing campaigns for
customers, with the focus on increasing consumers’ strength of brand association to a particular
brand is increasing the association strength, which is a central goal for strategic brands.
2.1.1.4 Uniqueness of brand associations
Lastly, uniqueness of brand associations is about the position a brand has in a consumer's mind.
Baack, et al. (2010) define uniqueness of brand associations as “the degree to which the
association is perceived as a distinct and different brand feature within the product category”
(p. 94). Gaillard and Romaniuk (2007) mean that an example of uniqueness of brand
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association is when a customer relates a specific attribute to a specific brand. When the
association to a specific brand in a specific product category is not shared with another
competitor, it contributes to an unique position in a buying decision (Keller, 1993). Baack, et
al. (2010), on the other hand, say that uniqueness of brand associations can be shared in
different competing brands within the same product category. Dillon, et al. (2001) also point
out that a sustainable competitive advantage is enhancing uniqueness of brand associations,
Gaillard and Romaniuk (2007) mean that to achieve differentiation, uniqueness of brand
associations is a good strategy. It is common that uniqueness of brand associations is used as a
tool in marketing campaigns to achieve competitive advantage (Farquhar, 1989; Chaudhuri,
2002). Dillon, et al. (2001) and Krishnan (1996) state that uniqueness of brand association
connects to greater brand evaluations and stronger brand equity. Uniqueness of brand
association is thus useful in the decision process for customers since unique associations to a
brand are more beneficial than common brand association according to Gaillard and Romaniuk
(2007). For a better overview of brand image see Figure 2.1 below.
Figure 2.1: Overview of Brand Image
Source: Adapted from Keller (1993) p.7
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2.1.2 Brand Loyalty
A central theme in marketing theory is brand loyalty since the dimension is a great tool for
establishing competitive advantage on the market like premium pricing and reduced selling
costs (Gommans, et al. 2001). An early view of brand loyalty is that a customer is loyal to a
brand if the repurchasing probability is high, which thus focuses on a more behavioral
perspective (Ebrahim, 2020; Keller, 1993; Srinivasan, Anderson and Ponnavolu, 2002). Other
aspects of loyalty are the attitudinal ones proposed by Ebrahim (2020) in order to refer to
customers' psychological aspects including attitudes, commitment and preferences towards a
brand. Therefore, attitudinal loyalty draws the factors underlying the repeated purchase
behavior, making it impossible to only refer to the behavioral aspects when discussing the topic
of brand loyalty. According to Ebrahim (2020), based on the two perspectives, brand loyalty is
defined as “the held commitment toward rebuying the brand in the future regardless to the
situational factors” (p.296). This definition entails that behavioral loyalty then tends to lead to
high and increased market share, while attitudinal loyalty leads to a higher and increased
relative brand value (Ebrahim, 2020). How brand loyalty is viewed within the topic of CBBE
is very different between Aaker (1996) and Keller (1993). According to Keller (1993) brand
loyalty is the outcome that occurs when a brand possesses high levels of brand awareness and
a positive brand image. Aaker (1996) on the other hand views brand loyalty as a core dimension
of brand equity and refers to it as one of the four brand asset categories of his brand equity
model (Aaker, 2010). Both authors agree regarding the benefits of high levels of brand loyalty
which are decreased vulnerability and larger margins (Keller, 1993; Aaker, 2010).
Brand loyalty is considered to be a key factor while valuing a brand since a highly loyal
customer base can be expected to have a more predictable stream of sales and profits than a
brand without a loyal customer base (Aaker, 2010). Loyalty amongst existing customers could
also mean an increased entry barrier to competitors since the cost of trying to persuade
customers to change loyalties could be very costly and time consuming (Aaker, 2020).
According to Ebhrahim (2020) the drivers of brand loyalty in the digital environment are unlike
the context offline “in person”. Erdogmud and Cicek (2012) writes that brand loyalty is affected
positively by companies using social media platforms for activities such as offering campaigns
and publishing interesting content. Brand loyalty in technological aspects can be, for example,
a loyal visitor base to a company’s website.
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2.1.2.1 Value propositions
Mass customization on websites is of importance when creating brand loyalty in online buyer
behavior. One appreciated value proposition contributing to that is product customization, since
a majority of online buyers prefer when products are customized based on their preferences.
The increased customer knowledge base due to technological growth enables companies to
offer customized offerings which has shown to contribute to a stronger relationship between
brand and customer, resulting in strong brand loyalty. High value propositions is, according to
Dowling and Uncles (1997), making it easier for customers to choose in price-based
competition situations. Another value proposition contributing to brand loyalty is according to
Gommans et al. (2001) interactivity.
2.1.2.2 Brand Building
The importance of brand building has increased as the e-business environment has further
developed. This has led to more competitive brand choices for online consumers, which means
that companies have to work on their brand building to maintain brand loyalty (Gommans et
al., 2001). One way to perform brand building in an internet based environment is through
brand name extension, such as website names and interesting forum content (Gommans et al.,
2001). Dimitriadis and Tsimonis (2013) writes that the social media growth can be used as a
benefit for a company’s brand building by marketing and other activities positivity stimulating
brand building since social media contributes with a greater reach of connecting customers to
companies.
2.1.2.3 Trust and Security
Gommans, et al. (2001) underline that trust and security has a critical role in generation brand
loyalty, especially in a technological environment. “Brand trust usually contributes to a
reduction of uncertainty. In addition, trust is a component of the attitudinal component of
loyalty.” (p. 50). E-business issues related to trust and security are for example online credit
card purchasing situations (Ratnasingham, 1998). Gomma, et al (2001) mean that there are
several unique tools and/or techniques that can be used to enhance customer trust on company’s
websites and thus also enhance brand loyalty. An example of these tools is encryption, third
party approvals and authentication (Gommans, et al., 2001). These e-tools are considered to be
extra important since a lot of security factors found while purchasing physically in stores
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disappear with online purchases, things such as seeing the actual product for real or not being
able to talk to a real salesperson.
2.1.2.4 Website and Technology
According to Gommans, et al. (2001) the first impression of an online website has a big impact
on how the customer will value brand loyalty. Hise and Szymanski (2000) mean that the most
important factor for customer satisfaction is site design and convenience since those factors
affect the decision to return to a website, since design and convenience on a website is highly
correlated to customer satisfaction. Why design is correlated to customer satisfaction, which in
turn affects brand loyalty, is because the design of a website can be based on customer
preferences. What Gommans, et al. (2001) mean with that is that a company needs to design a
website based on the target customer segment, which is highly appreciated among customers.
For example; content changes based on geographical aspects and cultural differences. Aspects
that customers will value, in addition to design, content and convenience, in a website is server
reliability, fast page loads, personalized interface and etcetera. Factors that particularly affect
e-loyalty are server reliability and fast response times regarding technical issues (Gommans, et
al., 2001).
2.1.2.5 Customer Service
Customer satisfaction is dependent on the logistic system a company has with its delivery to a
customer after a purchase online. Gommans, et al. (2001) mean that rapid deliveries are as
crucial to brand loyalty as the other factors discussed above since it contributes to customer
satisfaction, which is a step to enhance loyal behavior from customers. When problems with,
for example delivery, occur Gommans, et al. (2001) state that it is important that a well
developed customer service page is developed on the website with for example frequently
asked questions (FAQs). It should also be easy to get in touch with the company through by
example phone number, chat or email-address. Another customer service factor that affects
brand loyalty is whether a warranty is offered on the product or not (Gommans, et al., 2010).
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2.2 Social Media Marketing Activities
Social media can be described as social platforms which are used with the purpose of building
networks and sharing/receiving information (Li et al., 2020) and has provided companies a way
to engage with their existing and potential customers in our now digital marketplace (Hayes,
2018). Social media platforms can take place in many different forms, according to Lim et al.
(2020) there are six unique types; labeled collaborative projects, content communities,
microblogs, social networks, virtual gameworlds and virtual social worlds. Among these six
types Lim et al. (2020) identify three as primarily suitable for firms, these are social networks,
microblogs and content communities. Social networks refers to users using social media with
the purpose of connecting with people (Ebrahim, 2020). Social networks could therefore be
considered a technological social channel that focuses on conversating, sharing and
collaborating with their followers (Ebrahim, 2020). Examples of these social network sites are
Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram. Within these different types of social networks the user
could choose to interact privately between individuals, with different companies and within
different group communities (Ebrahim, 2020). The swiftness of communication and
information that is being exchanged has made social networks an attractive place for marketers
to put resources into, the usage of social media as a marketing tool provides a new landscape
for marketers to create awareness and market their brand (Ebrahim, 2020).
As these communications tools are growing, not only individual users but even bigger
businesses, governmental organizations and people are joining in order to further communicate
and reach their audiences (Kim and Ko, 2011). These entities entail social media further
towards being used for advertising and marketing of firms and organisations (Kim and Ko,
2010). Social media was shown to have a huge impact on a brand’s reputation and by means
of the tools provided by social media, businesses have an opportunity to advertise their brand,
products and/or services but at a lower cost and are able to get direct feedback from them
(Bilgin, 2018; Kim and Ko, 2010).
Many have tried to provide a clear definition of what social media marketing (SMM) is but
there is still no collected consensus amongst researchers. Hayes (2018) describes social media
marketing as a tool which companies use on social media as well as social networks in order
to market their company, product and/or service. Furthermore, a general definition of SMM is
“the process that utilizes social media technologies and channels to create, communicate, and
19
deliver marketing offerings that enhance the company’s stakeholders’ value” (Ebrahim, 2020;
Yadav et al., 2017). In order for social media to have an efficient, functional value to a firm's
marketing it is important to define and apply marketing activities in their social media, also
called social media marketing activities (SMMA) (Bilgin, 2018). Kim and Ko (2011)
developed a classification that today is well used amongst researchers. Their classification of
social media marketing activities entails five dimensions: trendiness, entertainment,
interaction, word of mouth and customization (Kim and Ko, 2011; Ebrahim, 2020). Other
researchers have defined different dimensions for social media marketing activities. A study
regarding social media marketing activities within the airline industry by Seo et al. (2018)
defined the activities as entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and perceived
risk. Other researchers have also defined social media marketing activities differently
depending on the purpose with their study, some identifications include perceived risk,
promotion and selling, support for daily life, and sales response (Seo et al., 2018).
Previous studies have shown that social media marketing activities have a direct impact on
different brand dimensions such as brand image. Seo et al. (2018) conducted a study within the
airline industry that showed that SMMAs had positive effects on brand image and brand
awareness. Another study made by Kim and Ko (2011) was conducted amongst luxury fashion
brands where their purpose was to identify attributes of SMMA and examine the relationships
within those perceived activities, value equity, relationship equity, brand equity, customer
equity and purchase intention. Ismail (2017) found in his study that SMMA does have an effect
on brand consciousness, value consciousness and brand loyalty, which in turn shows that there
is a relationship between brand loyalty and social media marketing (Ismail, 2017).
Yadav (2017) developed and validated a new 15-item, five-dimensional scale for measuring
SMMA within e-commerce and tested to see if the SMMA dimensions had any effect on brand
equity and purchase intention. Yadav’s (2017) dimensions consisted of interactivity,
informativeness, personalization, trendiness and word-of-mouth, his study showed that these
five perceived SMMA dimensions had a positive influence on brand equity and purchase
intention. Ebrahim (2020) found that three of the five of Kim and Ko (2011)’s dimensions were
the most important from a customers point of view, these three were trendiness, word-of-mouth
and customization. Ebrahim (2020) also concluded that SMMA enhances brand loyalty and
that the three dimensions that he classified as the most important were the drivers of brand
loyalty in an online context. Tsimonis et al. (2014) found that social media has become the
20
center of today’s business strategy, this conclusion shows that social media motivates
marketers to implement and use social media marketing activities in order to help their firm’s
thrive.
According to Kim and Ko (2011) 70 % of consumers have visited social media sites to retrieve
information; 49% of these consumers have then based on the information they retrieved
through the social media site made a decision to purchase; 60% said that they most likely would
use social media sites to further pass information to others online; and 45% of those who
searched information through social media sites took part in some form of word-of-mouth. The
report then states the importance of social media to businesses, they also stated that not
engaging in social media are missing opportunities to expand their reach (Kim and Ko, 2011).
With this significant percentage of people spreading content and information to others via
social media shows the importance of the tool, the value of one customer browsing through
social media therefore shows to be greater than initially thought (Kim and Ko, 2011). It is
therefore important that firms and businesses improve and engage with their customers through
their social media marketing activities in order to take advantage of these opportunities to grow.
2.2.1 The five dimensions of SMMA

In this study social media marketing activities will be considered to be the five dimensions
stated by Kim and Ko (2011), these are dimensions highly used by other researchers and are
well known in the subject. The five dimensions included are: trendiness, entertainment,
interaction, word of mouth and customization (Kim and Ko, 2011). The first construct of
SMMA is called entertainment, it involves the fun and joy of using the social media of a
company (Kim and Ko, 2011). Entertainment is an important component that encourages
participation and the continuity of follow-up, even though reasons for why a user is using social
media may differ, the content which captures their attention might create positive emotions
about the brand in the minds of customers (Bilgin, 2018).
The dimension interaction describes the contribution that users make to brands on social media
platforms, and using social media as a way to interactively communicate between a firm and
its customer it is possible to collect needs, opinions and suggestions on a product and brand in
real time (Bilgin, 2018).
21
The degree of how new and up- to-date a brand's content and information are on their social
media platforms is referred to as the trendiness dimension (Ebrahim, 2020).
Customization is to which extent and ease they can retrieve information and service from a
brand's social media accounts. The meaning behind the customization component is to create
customer satisfaction based on the contact and communication between the individual user and
the firm (Bilgin, 2018; Seo et al., 2018). By creating a peer to peer communication between
the firm and the individual user it can make the customer feel heard and unique by the firm in
regards to other competitors.
The last dimension word-of-mouth refers to the informational communication between users,
in other words how willing the users are to share information about a particular brand to other
people (Ebrahim, 2020; Kim and Ko 2011).
2.3 Conceptual framework and development of hypotheses

The conceptual framework is based upon previous literature that has been presented throughout
the chapter; it displays how the different elements of the study are interlinked with each other.
Developing a conceptual model is an important part of the process when a literature review and
it involves three steps, identification of constructs and variables, developing hypotheses and
finally developing a conceptual model that visually presents a theoretical basis for the study
(Hair et al., 2007).
After reviewing the literature related to the research area, two main concepts and seven sub-
concepts have been identified in order to answer the research purpose of this study; to gain
further understanding of how social media marketing can affect customer based brand equity
within brand loyalty and brand image, as well as how brand image influences brand loyalty,
implemented in the sportswear industry. This will be described through the thoughts of social
media users who are following sportswear companies social media accounts and communities.
These constructs are shown and explained in Table 2.1.
22
Table 2.1: Conceptual framework
After developing the literature ideas for potential hypotheses have been developed. Results
from previous studies have shown findings of how social media marketing activities can have
an impact on different dimensions such as brand image and brand loyalty. Kim and Ko (2011)
identified five dimensions of social media marketing activities which have been supported by
many of the previous studies in the literature therefore validating the five said dimensions
trendiness, entertainment, interaction, customization and word-of-mouth. Seo et al. (2018)
found a positive connection between SMMA and brand image within the airline industry, and
Aljarah, et al. (2021) underline that there is a significant positive influence between SMMA
and brand loyalty on coffee shop’s Facebook pages. Previous studies have also shown that
SMMA has a positive impact and enhances brand loyalty (Ismail, 2017; Ebrahim, 2020; Bilgin,
2018). The importance of social media to businesses has become even clearer in previous years.
Kim and Ko (2011) showed statistics of how the majority of people who are using social media
have visited sites in order to retrieve information, which is then influencing the decision to
purchase. The majority also said that they would most likely use social media to pass
information to friends and family - meaning the importance social media has on a business
23
word-of-mouth (Kim and Ko, 2011). Regarding the impact brand image has on brand loyalty,
previous studies have shown that brand image has a positive effect on brand loyalty. Alhaddad
(2015) conducted a model for how brand image, brand trust and brand loyalty interact with
each other on the mobile market in Syria. The result of the study where that brand image has
positive effects on, among other dimensions, brand loyalty. Brand image was also found to
have an effect on brand loyalty based on studies by Alhaddad (2015) and Bilgin (2018).
In our study we hypothesize that social media marketing activities may have positive relations
with brand image and brand loyalty. Furthermore, we also hypothesize that brand image may
have a positive effect on brand loyalty. The hypotheses for this study are therefore as follows:
❏ H1: Social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand image.
H1a: Social media marketing activity trendiness has a positive effect on brand image.
H1b: Social media marketing activity customization has a positive effect on brand
image.
H1c: Social media marketing activity WOM has a positive effect on brand image.
H1d: Social media marketing activity entertainment has a positive effect on brand
image.
H1e: Social media marketing activity interaction has a positive effect on brand image.
❏ H2: Social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand loyalty.
H2a: Social media marketing activity trendiness has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
H2b: Social media marketing activity customization has a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
H2c: Social media marketing activity WOM has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
H2d: Social media marketing activity entertainment has a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
H2e: Social media marketing activity interaction has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
❏ H3: Brand image has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
Based on the literature that has been reviewed and the proposed hypotheses a research model
has been created, the research model in this study is adapted from Ebrahim (2020). The
proposed research model of this study focuses on the linkage between social media marketing
24
activities and if these activities have any positive or negative affects on brand image and brand
loyalty, Figure 2.2 below is the proposed research model and it graphically illustrates what will
be examined in this study.
Figure 2.2: Proposed research model

Adapted from Ebrahim (2020, p.296)
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3. Methodology
This chapter contains information about the research methodology and research design used to develop
the foundation of this study. The chapter will explain the research purpose and approach, the collection
of literature and primary data as well as the sample selection. An explanation of the different statistical
techniques that was used will be described as well as the reliability, validity and ethical considerations.
3.1 Research purpose

The purpose of this study was to gain further understanding of how social media marketing
affected customer based brand equity within the brand loyalty and brand image. Saunders et al.
(2007) describe that there are three types of research designs: exploratory studies, descriptive
studies and explanatory studies. Exploratory studies focus on open questions, interviews and
focus groups. Descriptive studies can be described as an extension of exploratory research,
describing what is happening in detail. Lastly, the explanatory studies analyze variables to see
if there is any relationship between them (Saunders et al., 2007).
The research questions (RQ) developed to answer the purpose of the study was:
❏ RQ3: To what extent does brand image influence brand loyalty for brands
within the sportswear industry?
An explanatory research design was chosen since the study concerned the possible relationship
between the variables SMMA, brand loyalty and brand image and whether or not SMMA’s had
any influence on brand image and brand loyalty.
26
3.2 Research approach
Saunders, et al. (2007) explain that there are three different approaches to follow when
conducting a study: deductive, inductive and abductive. A study can also take a quantitative or
qualitative orientation. This research has a deductive approach with a quantitative orientation,
which is further discussed in the following chapter.
3.2.1 Deductive and Inductive
Deductive approaches are based on theories and previous literature, while inductive approaches
explore a phenomenon by collecting data (Saunders et al., 2007). This research followed the
first mentioned approach, a deductive approach. The approach was chosen since theories and
previous literature has made the foundation of this study. This research was also searching for
relationships between variables, which is a criterion for a deductive research (Saunders, et al.
2007). Deductive studies uses literature to discover theories and develop ideas to test by using
collected data. Saunders, et al. (2007) write that deduction is what most people would think of
as a “scientific research” since it is designed to describe theory subjected to a test (Saunders,
et al. 2007). More specifically, a deductive research follows five stages;
1. Concluding a hypothesis about a relationship of two, or more, variables,

2. Stating a hypothesis based on step 1.
3. Testing of the hypothesis.
4. Presenting the result of the hypothesis testing.
5. Modifying if it is needed.
(Saunders, et al. 2007)
The data collected in a deductive study can be both quantitative and qualitative. This research
was based on quantitative data. The concepts had been operationalised, which is an important
characteristic in a deductive study (Saunders, et al. 2007). Another important characteristic of
this type of study is the control part for allowing hypothesis testing, which also were applied
in this study. Lastly, a deductive study includes generalization. Saunders, et al. (2007) mean
that it is important to select samples of numerical size in deductive studies to be able to
generalise the results of the collected statistics.
27
3.2.2 Quantitative and Qualitative
A research can either be qualitative or quantitative. A data collection method that uses
numerical data is called quantitative and a data collection method that is based on data
expressed in words from interviews or focus groups is referred to as qualitative (Saunders et
al., 2007). The data collected to this research was collected through a quantitative approach
where a questionnaire was made. The quantitative research method gave this study the
opportunity to conduct the research on a bigger scale, compared to if it was conducted through
a qualitative approach since more participants could contribute. More participants entails a
bigger quantity of gathered data, which means that the data collected was more reliable in
regards to representing the desired sample selection. Another benefit of choosing a quantitative
approach was that the questionnaire posted on Facebook communities has collected data
directly from people who are actively following the chosen sportswear brands. Which in turn
provides more reliability to the collected data, because all the participants in the questionnaire
had encountered SMMA in some sort, and therefore could respond based on their experiences.
By ensuring that participants have been exposed to SMMA, answers from people who are
guessing about how SMMA potentially affect them were excluded.
3.3 Literature search

For the most part, the literature search in this study has been made through databases such as
Business Source Premier and Google Scholar. Keywords used to search for appropriate
literature have been, for example, brand equity, customer based brand equity, brand image,
brand loyalty, and social media marketing activities. Those keywords were used both
separately and together. The chosen keywords turned out to give different numbers of hits and
combinations. A lot of articles appropriate to this study were found based on the keywords,
since there is a lot of research connected to this area of subject. Offline sources as books have
also been used to conduct the literature framework. The physical literature was borrowed from
the University library at University of Technology in Luleå.
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3.4 Data collection
Primary data is when researchers of a study gather data themselves by, for example,
observations, interviews and surveys (Saunders, et al. 2007). The primary data collection for
this study was in the form of an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was created for
members of sportswear communities on Facebook, the chosen brands were Better Bodies,
Gymshark and Oner Active.
3.4.1 Questionnaire development

Creating a well thought out questionnaire is important in order to make sure that good quality
data is retrieved, this requires survey questions of good quality (Dolnicar, 2014). According to
Dolnicar (2014) survey questions consist of two types: the query and the return. See Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1: Elements of survey questions

Source: Dolnicar, 2014, p 552
The query is described to be either a statement or a question and is designed to contain

information about the object that is being measured as well as the attribute of the object of
interest. The return is described as the response that is retrieved by the respondents of a survey
(Dolnicar, 2014). The responses in return can be categorised into two different categories,
response options and answer options. Response options are answers that the survey creator
29
anticipates the respondents to answer, expected options can be expressed verbally, examples
of answer options are “Very happy” to “Very unhappy” or “Very comfortable” to “Very
uncomfortable” (Dolnicar, 2014). Answer options, as shown in the picture, have a purpose of
preventing the respondents from guessing when they don’t know or have an opinion about the
stated survey questions (Dolnicar, 2014).
In order to make sure that the respondents can answer the questionnaire without any issues and
decrease the level of misunderstanding it is important that the questionnaire is developed
properly. This includes using a layout that is simple and appealing, avoiding difficult and
complex words and formulations (Hair et al., 2007). The questionnaire in this research was
based on scales that have already been tested, but modified slightly in order to make it fit into
this study, in table 3.1 the full questionnaire is presented. The language used in the
questionnaire was English due to the fact that the questionnaire was posted in communities on
Facebook where English was the dominant language.
The questionnaires used in the survey were put together in Google Forms based on the literature
review as well as adapted and revised according to a pre-test. The questionnaire was divided
into three parts. In the first part. There was one question about on which social network
platform they were following the brand in question, or if they were following them at all. If
their answer was that they did not follow said brand on either Facebook and/or Instagram the
questionnaire would automatically finish for the respondent, meaning that they were not able
to answer any further questions regarding SMMA, BI or BL. This was to make sure that the
data that was retrieved were only collected from respondents that were actively following said
brand. The second part of the questionnaire contained questions that included the respondents
thoughts of the five SMMA dimensions entertainment, trendiness, interaction, customization
and word-of-mouth. Total number of questions regarding SMMA in the questionnaire summed
up to eleven questions. Brand loyalty and brand image were then covered in the questionnaire
with three questions each. It was said for the respondents to answer the questions from their
own standpoint and perceptions regarding the brand in question. All questions regarding
SMMA’s were to be answered through a Likert scale of 1-6 where 1= Strongly disagree and
6= Strongly agree.
According to Dolnicar (2018) midpoint questions in a survey adds little to no value in a

questionnaire. The midpoint questions would instead add a possible evasion for respondents.
30
If there were questions where participants did not have a strong opinion or were less keen to
answer, they could then choose to simply place themselves in between the answers (Dolnicar,
2018). The advantage of this type of scale in this questionnaire is that it reduces the risk of
participants putting themselves in midpoint answers when they feel insecure or unmotivated
and tired. The disadvantage of this scale for this study may be that participants who actually
feel completely neutral in a question are forced to choose an unneutral option. We considered
that the advantage outweighs the disadvantage since we believed that this would contribute to
more reliable data, due to the fact that the participants needed to think about where they stand
and could not choose a convenient midpoint choice.
The questionnaire ended with three questions regarding the respondents demographic
background, where they were able to answer questions regarding their age, gender and
occupation. There were three questionnaires with the same questions, but adapted to the three
different companies in this research; Better Bodies, Gymshark and Oner Active. In total the
questionnaire contained 21 questions for the respondents to answer. Table 3.1 shows the
different questions used in this study. The questionnaires were published on Facebook in the
Better Bodies, Oner Active and Gymshark communities for 10 days during April 8th until April
18th 2021.
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Table 3.1: The questionnaire items
32
3.4.2 Pre-test
Before the survey was published into the different Facebook communities a pre-test was
conducted. The purpose was to clarify any misunderstandings or other errors that could be
prevented before publishing the actual survey, another purpose was to get a better estimate of
how long the questionnaire would take to complete. In the pre-test people with different
academic backgrounds and different ages, within the age span of 21 - 53 years old, participated
in order to get different views and perceptions to the questionnaire. The participants in the pre-
test were 13 people, where the distribution between men and women was even, 6 were male
and 7 were females. The results of the pre-test showed that minor changes of formulation of
the questionnaire had to be made and these recommendations were considered and adapted to
before the survey was published.
3.5 Sample selection

The sample selected for this research consisted of users who were actively a part of the
Facebook communities of the brands Oner active, Gymshark and Better Bodies. These
companies are all a part of the sportswear industry since they are all selling workout clothes.
The companies were chosen because all these brands are active on social media, such as
Facebook and Instagram. The companies reach differs and ranges between 114 thousand to 5,3
million active followers. The community groups of the companies Facebook pages differ as
well, they consisted of approximately 3,52 thousand to 11,3 thousand members. With the large
customer base for all three brands, it was ensured that there were customers exposed to SMMA
and that there was a customer base large enough to use while investigating this research. In
addition to a large customer base, these brands were chosen since all three brands’ main goal
for their clothing is to be used in the fitness and gym environment (Gymshark, n.d.; Better
Bodies, n.d.; Oner Active, n.d.) . There are many different sportswear industries that focus on
many different sports, therefore these three brands were chosen since their main target audience
is the same. By posting the questionnaire in closed Facebook community groups it provided
direct access to people who are actively using social media networks and are following chosen
brand/brands. Private communities means that users need to be approved by the owner of the
group before they get access to the people and information that this group is providing. This
means that these Facebook communities provided concrete data from customers who are
interested in the sportswear industry.
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3.5.1 Participants
The purpose of this study was to see if there was any connection between SMMA and brand
image and/-or brand loyalty in sportswear companies. The aim with the participants of the
survey was thus to capture a target group that was exposed to SMMA from said companies.
According to Yin (1994) the sample selection needs to have knowledge about the chosen
subject. Laundreneau (2009) describes that the selection of participants is about selecting a
representative group from the investigated population, which will represent the whole
population. They further describe that the quality of the sample relies on the representativeness
(Laundreneau, 2009). The decision to use sportswear communities on Facebook as a forum to
publish the survey therefore was made due to the fact that it would capture the desired target
group. These communities include social media users who actively follow these sportswear
brands on different platforms, ensuring that these people have been exposed to SMMA from
the chosen industry, sportswear. The chosen communities were, as told previously in the report,
Oner Active, Better Bodies and Gymshark. The members of the community groups are of all
ages and from different countries, the majority language used in the groups is English.
This sampling strategy was conducted by first finding a forum with people who meet the
criterias: actively follows at least one of the brands Better Bodies, Gymshark and/-or Oner
Active and has been exposed to SMMA. From these forums, a sample was selected by
publishing the survey in the communities available for anyone who wanted to participate. The
aim was that the sample would represent the population researched in this study. There are two
types of sample designs, non probability sampling and probability sampling. Probability
sampling is most common in quantitative studies where the samples are selected by some form
of randomization to represent the population (Larsson and Rosell, 2014). Non probability
sampling is where participants are selected by nonrandom methods (Laundreneau, 2009).
According to Larsson and Rosell (2014) non probability sampling is most used in qualitative
research, but has been implemented in this research even though it has a quantitative approach.
A non probability sampling can be divided into 4 methods;
1. Convenience
2. Judgement
3. Snowball
4. Quota
(Hair, et al., 2007)
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Convenience is a method used by selecting a sample that represents the population based on
availability, in other words, participants that to the researchers are selected because they are a
convenient choice. The judgement method, or else called purposive sample method is about
selecting elements for a specific purpose, to represent the target population. The snowball
method is when the first respondents identify other respondents to the research that also could
participate. Lastly, the quota sampling is used when researchers want to have a proportional
representation of the target population (Hair, et al., 2007). The aspiration for this research while
selecting the target group was that they would be representative to the population, due to this a
few criteria was made which is that they follow Better Bodies, Oner Active and/-or Gymshark
on social media and have been exposed to SMMA. Based on this, the judgment method was
applied to this research. Other reasons for why the judgmental method was used is because of
the advantages of the method, which is that it is convenient, low cost and time efficient. A
disadvantage of this method, however, is that the sample elements chosen may not be
necessarily representative (Hair, et al., 2007).
3.6 Data analysis

The analysis of the data collection was conducted through statistical tests, in order to test the
stated hypothesis. To ensure that the collected data could be properly used, it was edited before
analysis. The editing of data included, first, removing answers which were not complete, in
other words, removing all the answers from participants that did not follow Better Bodies, Oner
Active and/-or Gymshark on either Facebook and/or Instagram. Second, the data was coded
from the different items into SPSS so the analysis could start. In order to test the hypotheses
the program SPSS (version 27) where used.
3.6.1 Data preparation

The first step when preparing the data was to transform the responses into a Google spreadsheet
and also remove three cases of non-completed data. In this case the non-completed data entails
respondents that answered that they did not follow the sportswear brand in question on either
the social network sites Facebook or Instagram. There were no respondents that did not answer
all the questions amongst the participants that were following the stated brand on any of the
social media networks. The next step was to code the answers from the different items into
SPSS so the analysis could start.
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3.6.2 Statistical Techniques
In order to test the stated hypotheses, there were different techniques that were used, in this
study factor analysis and multiple regression was used in order to either accept or reject the
stated hypotheses. Each technique will be described below.
Factor Analysis
A factor analysis is a technique whose purpose is to summarize information gathered from a

sample size and turn it into a smaller number of factors, thus one can say that it is used to
combine several variables into fewer factors. (Hair et al., 2007). There are different types of
techniques one can use when conducting a factor analysis and the two main techniques are
principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis (FA) (Pallant, 2016). Researchers use
the term factor analysis generally even though they might in fact have conducted a PCA
(Pallant, 2016). The techniques are quite similar but differ in some ways, the purpose of both
techniques is to convert data into a smaller number of factors; PCA uses the original variables
including all the variance in the variables while transforming the data into a smaller set of
factors (Pallant, 2016). Factor analysis only uses the shared variance and estimates the factors
through the use of a mathematical model (Pallant, 2016). Since we wanted to include the
variance in all variables and wanted an empirical summary of the data collected the choice was
to continue with a PCA analysis.
Correlation
When measuring correlation a technique was used to see if two variables associate with each
other (Hair et al., 2007). In this study the Pearson correlation measurement was used. The
Pearson correlation measures the linear relationship between variables (Hair et al., 2007). The
correlation coefficient ranges from -1.00 to +1.00. A perfect correlation according to the
Pearson correlation method is if the value is either -1.00 or +1.00, although this is a very rare
phenomenon with two different variables (Hair et al., 2007). However, the higher the
correlation coefficient value - the stronger relationship between the variables. In this study, the
correlation between variables was investigated in the tables of the multiple regression analysis
that was conducted.
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Multiple regression
When conducting a multiple regression the relationship between variables was explored. Thus,
the multiple regression is used when trying to predict the effect of the dependent value based
on the independent value (Pallant, 2016). Independent variables could be described as the value
that the researchers think is the cause while the dependent value could be described as the effect
(Pallant, 2016). In this study, the independent variable was the different social media marketing
activities and the dependent variables were brand image and brand loyalty.
3.7 Quality standards

In order to analyse any constructs the variables whose purpose is to measure some constructs
need to be accurate and in a consistent form. This entails that before the hypotheses can be
tested the reliability and validity of the data needs to be tested.
3.7.1 Reliability
A sign of successful results in a study, is according to Larsson and Rosell (2014), is a strong
and reliable method. Studies with strong reliability indicate consistent, credible and reliable
results (Saunders, et al., 2007). The reliability of a study is of the essence since it states
wherever a similar study will get the same results and if resembling observations can be done
in the same way, also if there is any transparency in how sense was made from the raw data.
Heale and Twycross (2015) explained reliability as the consistency of a measure, Bougie and
Sekaran (2013) agree and state that reliability describes the stability of the measuring
instrument. Larsson and Rosell (2014) say that the credibility in research findings depends on
how the research instruments are producing reliable findings.
To measure reliability in this study, an indicator of internal consistency, Cronbach’s coefficient

alpha, has been used. Cronbach’s alpha is used to determine how the scale is measuring the
underlying attribute by making a statistic of how the average correlation between the items in
the scale is (Pallant, 2016). In other words, if Cronbach’s alpha represents the reliability of
used scales (Larsson and Rosell, 2014). The average correlation is presented in a range from
0-1, the higher the value of Cronbach’s alpha, the higher reliability, but the minimum level of
an approved alpha should be .7 (Pallant, 2016; Larsson and Rosell, 2014). When calculating
Cronbach’s alpha, the outcome is very dependent on the number of items, more specifically
37
Cronbach’s alpha is sensitive when it comes to scales with items fewer than ten. If the items
are few it means that the cronbach’s alpha value might be low. Another factor used in this study
to ensure reliability is the control variables in the questionnaire: age, gender and occupation.
3.7.2 Validity
Validity is an important subject to consider in any study since its purpose is to make sure that
the degree that a construct measures what it is supposed to measure. According to Hair et al.
(2007) there are three parts of validity to consider: Construct validity, content validity and
criterion validity.
Construct validity entails to assess what the construct actually is measuring (Hair et al., 2007).
Construct validity is based on the theory underlying the measurements chosen in said research.
The theory is used to argue why the chosen scale either works or does not work as well as how
to interpret the results (Hair et al., 2007) In order to properly assess construct validity there are
two things that need to be examined; convergent validity and discriminant validity (Hair et al.,
2007). Convergent validity is when you examine to what extent the construct is positively
correlated with other measures of the same construct (Hair et al., 2007). Discriminant validity
is described as to what extent the construct does not correlate with other measures that are
different from it (Hair et al., 2007).
Content validity or face validity entails that the scale measures what it is supposed to measure,
it therefore involves the researcher to, based on his/her judgement, try to determine if the items
are suitable to represent a particular construct. Although face validity is not enough to alone
make sure that the scale in fact is measuring what is intended to measure, it is a commonly
used validation method in business research (Hair et al., 2007).
Criterion validity assesses “whether a construct performs as expected relative to other

variables identified as meaningful criteria “ (Hair et al., 2007, p.419). For example, if a
researcher wanted to measure the construct of customer loyalty a validation criterion to use to
be the satisfaction construct. In order to make sure that criterion validity is established we must
be able to show that.
38
Multicollinearity is a measurement that assesses the relationship amongst the independent
variables of a regression model (Pallant, 2016). If the correlation between the independent
variables are high, values of r =.9 and above (Pallant, 2016), it indicates the existence of
multicollinearity. This entails that the independent variables are too similar to each other which
does not contribute to great multiple regression model, if multicollinearity exists the researcher
need to examine the possibility of removing one of the variables that are to similar since they
then are basically measuring the same thing (Pallant, 2016).
The dimensions and items included in the model were taken from previous studies by Kim and
Ko (2011), Ebrahim (2020) and Bilgin (2018), which therefore means that they could be
considered as validated. However, due to the fact that we used different items in different
dimensions from these three sources measures have been made in order to preserve the validity
of the research model. In order to establish construct validity of the model the correlation
between measurements whose purpose is to measure the same constructs have been examined.
All SMMA dimensions showed to be highly correlated to each other (within the same
construct), which entails that convergent validity is evident (see Appendix I for all correlation
values).
While conducting the factor analysis and trying to make a factor extraction, face validity was
used in order to make sure that the items within the components “made sense” to include
together with each other. This was done by examining the pattern matrix (see Table 4.7) where
we examined the items included in the two proposed components individually. Here we wanted
to establish some similarity between the components to see if it made sense for them to be
analysed together when it was time to move on to the multiple regression analysis. The items
that were loaded in the different components were assessed subjectively and the conclusion
was that the loadings did not “make sense” and seemed to be put together randomly by SPSS.
Therefore, in order to protect the validity of the model, the decision was made to include all
SMMA items into one single component.
Throughout the multiple regression analysis levels of multicollinearity were examined in SPSS
in order to make sure that none of the items were considered to be too similar to each other and
no multicollinearity were found. Which further established the validity of the data from the
independent variables.
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3.8 Ethical considerations
Hair, et al. (2007) describe ethics within the study field as “the application of moral principles
and/ or ethical standards to human actions within the exchange process. Moral principles imply
responsibility.” (p. 60). They further describe that ethical decisions involve judgements of right
and wrong in social, market, legal and ethical aspects. Hair, et al. (2007) chose to define social
responsibilities and market responsibilities. Social responsibilities cover how actions affect
people, while market responsibility is about making sure that, for example, the price charged
is fair.
The ethical considerations in this study were applied to the questionnaire. The respondents of
the survey were allowed to participate voluntarily and anonymously, and the questionnaire did
to our knowledge not create any psychological, financial or social harm. The social
responsibility aspect was made by, for example, having a “prefer not to answer”-alternative in
demographic questions, as for example, in the “gender-question”. The decision to make the
questionnaire voluntary and free covers the market responsibility aspect. In regards to any
psychological or social harm the questionnaire was designed to be as neutral as possible and
did not require the respondents to answer any questions that might be considered as too private
or invasive, other than asking for the respondents age and gender it was completely anonymous.
Before publishing the questionnaire in each Facebook community a responsible person for the
Facebook community was contacted to get permission to publish the questionnaire.
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4. Presentation and Analysis of Data
The results of the study will be presented in this chapter. First an overview of the demographics
will be described before moving on to the Factor Analysis as well as the Hypotheses testing.
Ending the chapter with a summary of the hypotheses.
Results and findings are presented and analyzed in this chapter. The purpose with this chapter
is to analyze and explain the results but also to present details and discuss statistical and
analytical issues and findings that have been discovered along the journey of this study. The
statistical analysis of the collected data is conducted in a program called SPSS and we have
followed an order that is recommended by Pallant (2016).
4.1 Demographic characteristics

Demographic characteristics of the respondents of the questionnaire were firstly examined.
Total number of participants were 87, amongst these respondents 79 were female (91%) and 6
were male (7%) and 2 answered other (2%), the gender distribution is displayed in Figure 4.1
below. This shows that a huge majority of the respondents in this study were female. A guess
to why the respondents were in a female majority is that one of the chosen sportswear brands,
Oner Active, only focuses on female clothing. However, this division was larger than expected
since the other two sportswear brands focus on both male and female clothing and their
communities consist of both men and women. Thus, the respondents in this study are not
considered to reflect the population division between men and women due to the vast majority
amongst females amongst the respondents. This can be good to keep in mind when analyzing
the results as the sample may not reflect the right gender distribution in the population.
41
Figure 4.1: Gender distribution
The age distribution of the respondents is displayed in Figure 4.2. Here we can see that a
majority of the respondents were young adults in the age range of 21-30 (75%). The remaining
respondents were in the age groups of 18-20 (9%), 31-40 (8%), 41-50 (5%), 51-60 (2%) and
finally the respondents within the age groups of 61+ (1%).
Figure 4.2: Age distribution
42
In Figure 4.3 the main occupation of the respondents is displayed. Here we can see that the
majority of the respondents are firstly students and secondly employees. 51% were students
and 44% were employees. The last percentage consists of self-employed, un-employed, retired
and “others”.
Figure 4.3: Occupation distribution
4.2 Reliability of scales

Making sure that the scales are considered reliable is crucial before applying any scale into the
study and factor analysis. Cronbach’s alpha value is a technique to make sure that the scale
used is considered reliable, or in other words to see if the collected data in terms of this study
is reliable. The value of alpha should be .70 or above in order to be reliable (Pallant, 2016).
Ideally, when using Cronbach's alpha you want to make sure that the items used are more than
10 in total since the technique might not be correct if the items are too few (Pallant, 2016), this
study included 17 items in total that measured three different constructs. Cronbach’s alpha has
been applied in order to test the reliability of the items included in the three different constructs
SMMA, BI and BL. The amount of items of the variables included in SMMA is 11, which
makes Cronbach’s alpha OK to conduct since it is above ten items. The Cronbach’s value of
SMMA was .924 which indicated a high reliability. The value extracted when calculating
Cronbach’s alpha for brand image resulted in .778 and brand loyalty showed a value of .915.
43
Which is above the minimum of .70 and therefore, all three constructs could be considered
reliable based on Cronbach’s alpha reliability scale.
4.3 Factor Analysis

The factor analysis of this study will be conducted by following the procedure described by
Pallant (2016).
4.3.1 Step 1 - Assessment of the factorability of the collected data

When determining if data is appropriate for factor analysis it is important to measure the sample
size and also the strength of the relationship between variables (Pallant, 2016). The larger the
sample the better is a general expression when determining how big/small a sample should be
when considering sample size, if the sample is too small the reliability of the correlation might
be questioned (Pallant, 2016). Since this study received 87 responses we are considered to be
of a small sample size. However, according to Pallant (2016) a small sample size should be
enough for factor analysis if the respondents are 5-10 for every one item. This study consists
of a total of 17 items, this means that a minimum of 85 responses is needed in order to correctly
conduct a factor analysis - this study received 87 responses. The items that were used in the
factor analysis were the variables regarding SMMA, which consisted of 11 items.
Exploratory factor analysis was made first in order to make sure of the validity of the
measurement model. In order to test the conformity of the data so that factor analysis can be
applied a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett test was conducted, these tests help to
indicate if the data that was collected is suitable to use for factor analysis (Pallant, 2016). It
was interesting to see that the obtained data for this research showed that KMO reached a value
.905 and the Bartlett test showed a value of p < .001. In order for us to be able to conduct a
factor analysis based on these tests both values need to reach the minimum criterion for
sufficiency. The measure KMO has to have a minimum criterion of .6 and the Bartlett test
needs to be the value .05 or smaller in order to be considered as significant in order to verify
the data for factor analysis (Pallant, 2016). When inspecting the correlation matrix it showed
presence of many coefficients of .3 and greater, which is an indication for possible factor
analysis. By accessing the measure values we concluded (KMO: .905 and Barlett test: p < .001)
that the factor analysis was appropriate for us to move on to.
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4.3.2 Step 2 - Factor extraction
Factor extraction is the process that helps to establish the smallest number of factors that can
be used to best represent the interrelationships among a study's variables (Pallant, 2016). The
techniques that will be used when deciding the numbers of factors to retain is Kaiser’s criterion,
Scree test as well as a parallel analysis will be made.
Table 4.1: Total variance table
First, using Kaiser’s criterion we are interested in seeing which of the components that contain
an eigenvalue of 1 or higher. The total variance explained table 4.6 shows that the first two
components had an eigenvalue above 1 and component 1 and 2 together explained a total of
68.083 % of the variance. One could argue that component 3 might be able to extract due to
the fact that it is not far from reaching an eigenvalue of 1.0, but in this study we will interpret
that the Kaiser’s criterion recommends extracting two components.
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Figure 4.4: Screeplot
Second step is to have a look at the screeplot, since Kaiser’s criterion alone does not provide
enough evidence alone of which factor’s to extract. In order to correctly examine the screeplot
it is important to look at the shape of it, it is important to identify where the shape “breaks”.
The component above the obvious initial break is most likely to be extracted, what this tells us
is that the first value before the break explains/captures most of the variance than the other
components. A smaller break was later found which also suggests an extraction of component
2 and 3 (Pallant, 2016).
The third step of the factor extraction process is to conduct a parallel analysis. A parallel
analysis means that we are comparing the size of the eigenvalues with those that are collected
from a random data set of the same size. This is conducted in a website outside of SPSS called
www.analytics.gonzaga.edu recommended by Mike Crowson, who has a PhD in educational
statistics and research methods and is today working as an Associate Professor at University of
Oklahoma. We go back to have a look at the total variance table (Table 4.6), for the parallel
analysis we must know three things; the number of our analysing variables (in this case 11),
number of respondents (in this case 87) as well as the number of replications. According to
Pallant (2016) 100 replications could be used as a default, since 100 replications is larger than
the size of our respondents sample size, we decided to decrease the number of replications to
46
50 in order to get a more accurate set of randomized eigenvalues. By comparing the new
eigenvalues to our previous values from SPSS, it suggested that only the first components
should be extracted.
Next up in the process is to examine the pattern matrix which shows us the rotated loadings of
the components, see table 4.7. Here we have removed existing cross-loadings, as well as
loadings weaker than .30 to show up in the pattern matrix in order to ease the interpretation of
the table (Pallant, 2016). Findings indicate that variables SMMA 2 and SMMA 3 need to be
removed if we wish to have more than one factor solution. Removing weak loadings and cross-
loadings provided us with a two factor solution as seen in the table below.
Table 4.2: Pattern matrix
As we can see in the pattern matrix, it proposes a total of nine items on the different
components, six items on component 1 and three items on component 2. The loadings on the
items within the different components are loading strong. Ideally, three or more items should
be loading on each component in order to argue a factor extraction according to the pattern
matrix (Pallant, 2016). However, in this case it is important to implement face validity, which
entails the researchers to evaluate the items together and see if the combination within the
components “make sense” to analyse together or if the items seem to be put together at random
within SPSS. Looking at the item questions of those loading in component 2, they contain
questions regarding trendiness and one item from the entertainment dimension while the
remaining question items all load on component 1. This is not a component distribution that
“makes sense” in regards to determining and extracting more than one factor. Since throughout
the factor analysis different results directed us into different conclusions regarding which
47
factor/-s to extract a discussion regarding the decision is needed. The initial eigenvalues
indicated that we should obtain a two-factor solution since there were two factors with an
eigenvalue above 1.0. Moving on the scree plot which showed an obvious break on component
1, indicating that this component should be extracted, but it also showed us breaks that
suggested an extraction of both component 2 and 3. Both the parallel analysis and the
component matrix suggested that only the first component should be extracted. The pattern
matrix showed (after removing existing cross-loadings) that a two-factor solution might be
possible, but due to a face validity analysis we can conclude that the distribution of the items
was not optimal and the decision to only extract one factor is the best solution. Before moving
on to the hypotheses testing another reliability test of the new model needs to be made, thus
this model is based on the one factor solution of all the 11 SMMA variables (see table 4.8
below).
Table 4.3: Reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha
4.4 Hypotheses testing
4.4.1 Multiple regression

Multiple regression is a statistical technique that can be used to explore the relationship
between variables (Pallant, 2016). Multiple regression is a technique that focuses on correlation
which is to be preferred when you have research questions when researching complex “real-
life” questions, which is the case in this study. A great way of using this technique is to
investigate how a set of variables can anticipate a particular result.
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There are three types of multiple regression analyses, which one you choose to use depends on
the description of the stated research questions. The three different types are
● Standard or simultaneous
This is the most commonly used multiple regression technique. Here all the independent
(or predictor) variables enter the model at the same time, every variable is assessed on
its predictive power in comparison to all the other independent variables. (Pallant,
2016)
● Hierarchical or sequential
Here the independent variables are entered to the model one by one in an order that the
researcher sees fit based on theoretical assumptions. Each of the variables becomes
evaluated in terms of what it adds to the assumption of the dependent variable. (Pallant,
2016)
● Stepwise
In a stepwise regression all variables are entered in the beginning and the program
chooses which of the variables to use and in which order, it is a technique that could be
described as a merge of the other two described above. You could use different
approaches: forward selection, backward deletion and stepwise regression. (Pallant,
2016)
In this study a standard analysis was conducted since the purpose is to examine if the
independent variables SMMA can explain any changes in the dependent variable brand
image/brand loyalty. Furthermore, it is a good way to investigate how much unique value that
each of the independent variables is able to explain in the dependent variable (Pallant, 2016).
In comparison to the other two regression methods a stepwise method is not possible due to
this study's lower sample size and a standard analysis was chosen over a hierarchical analysis
due to the relatively low sample size and the presentation of unique value that a standard
analysis shows.
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4.4.2 Testing Hypothesis 1
Hypothesis 1 (H1): Social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand
image.
In order to test the hypotheses a multiple regression was conducted, including the one factor
solution mentioned above (in chapter 4.3.2 Factor extraction). This means that we conducted a
single factor extraction for the 11 SMMA variables where all items in the questionnaire were
included and the mean of all 11 SMMA variables was used as the single factor (variable) in
order to test the hypotheses in comparison to the brand dimensions. Furthermore, the same
method was used in regards to the BI and BL variables, where the mean of the brand image
items were established and the mean of the brand loyalty items as well. Social media marketing
activity factor included as the independent variable and brand image as the dependent variable.
The first step of the hypothesis testing is to examine the correlation between the variables in
the model (Pallant, 2016), here we can see if the independent variable (SMMA) has a
relationship with the dependent variable (BI); a value above .30 is to prefer (Pallant, 2016). In
this case the correlation between SMMA and BI is good, loading at .553. An investigation of
the collinearity of the variables indicates that we do not have a multicollinearity problem since
the tolerance value is 1.0 (which is far above .1) and VIF value is also 1.0 (far below
10) (Pallant, 2016) thus, the relationship amongst the independent variables are not too great
and they are not too similar to each other (Pallant, 2007). If the independent variables
were too similar to each other (if the multicollinearity was high) it indicates that the
variables are measuring the same thing, which might make it necessary to remove certain
variables. Since we only have one factor (an independent variable), it is not possible to test
multicollinearity in this regression.
In order to establish how much of the variance in the dependent variable is explained by the
model the model summary box was investigated, since this study involved a relevantly small
sample the adjusted R square value is to be preferred since there is a risk that the R-square is
quite optimistic regarding a smaller sample. It showed us an adjusted R-value of .297, see table
4.4. This means this model explains 29.7% of the variance in brand image.
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Table 4.4: Model summary H1
The next step is to assess the statistical significance of the result, this is conducted by examining
the ANOVA table featured below (see table 4.5).
Table 4.5: ANOVA H1
From the ANOVA table we can see that the model reaches statistical significance at p <.001,
which is well below .05.
Table 4.5 shows that the social media marketing activity factor is of statistical significance
with a p-value of <.001 towards the dependent variable, which in this case is brand image.
This means that the SMMA variable has a unique contribution to the dependent variable
(Brand Image).
Table 4.6: Coefficients SMMA and BI
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Furthermore, another important aspect to consider while examining the coefficients table is the
beta coefficient (see table 4.6), the value of the beta coefficient tells us how much the dependent
variable (in this case brand image) will increase (or decrease) if the independent variable
increases by one standard deviation (Hair et al., 2007). This shows us that the SMMA variables
have a beta value of .553; which means that if the SMMA variables increase by one, brand
image is expected to increase by .553 standard deviations.
The results of the hypothesis test showed that the regression model was of significance with a
significance level of <.001 and there was no problem with collinearity statistics. This tells us
that the stated hypothesis “Social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand
image” is accepted based on the circumstances and limitations of this study.
Sub-hypotheses
In order to test the sub-hypotheses it is important to distinguish the different dimensions. This
means that we extracted the variables regarding each dimension and tested them in comparison
to the dependent variable in order to see if they alone have a positive effect on brand image.
● H1a: Social media marketing activity trendiness has a positive effect on brand
image.
Testing to see if SMMA trendiness has a positive effect on brand image showed that
the correlation between the two independent variables connected to trendiness and
brand image had a positive correlation of .486 and .484. This indicated a positive
correlation value (Pallant, 2016). There are no signs of multicollinearity problems since
the tolerance value is .5 (above .1) and VIF value is 2.0 (below 10). The ANOVA table
indicates statistical significance - meaning that we can accept the hypothesis and
conclude that the social media marketing activity trendiness has a positive effect on
brand image. Individually, both of the variables show statistical significance according
to the coefficients table and beta-coefficient value range in between .288 to .280.
● H1b: Social media marketing activity customization has a positive effect on brand
image.
First, the correlation between the two independent variables connected to customization
and brand image showed a positive correlation of .394 and .343. The correlation is quite
low but still significant (Pallant, 2016). There are no signs of multicollinearity problems
52
since the tolerance value is .578 (above .1) and VIF value is 1.729 (below 10). The
ANOVA table indicates statistical significance with a value of .002. Based on the
results we can accept the hypothesis and conclude that the social media marketing
activity customization has a positive effect on brand loyalty. Individually, one of the
variables shows statistical significance value according to the coefficients table, while
the other was not statistically significant which indicates that the variable alone does
not contribute with as much unique variance as the other. Beta coefficients show a value
between .296 and .151.
● H1c: Social media marketing activity WOM has a positive effect on brand image.
Next hypothesis states that SMMA WOM has a positive effect on brand image. The
correlation between the two variables connected to WOM and brand loyalty showed a
positive correlation of .484 and .280. This shows us that one of the variables has weaker
correlations but both are still acceptable correlations. There are no signs of
multicollinearity problems, the tolerance value is .583 (above .1) and VIF value is 1.714
(below 10). The ANOVA table indicates statistical significance of <.001. Based on the
activity WOM has a positive effect on brand image. Individually, one of the variables
shows statistical significance value according to the coefficients table, while the other
was not statistically significant which indicates that the variable alone does not
contribute with as much unique variance as the other. The beta coefficient value of the
two items is .519 and -.055.
● H1d: Social media marketing activity entertainment has a positive effect on brand
image.
Next hypothesis states that SMMA entertainment has a positive effect on brand image.
The correlation between the two variables connected to entertainment and brand image
showed a positive correlation of .517 and .441, which shows a high positive correlation
between the independent variables to the dependent variable. There are no signs of
multicollinearity problems, the tolerance value is .366 (above .1) and VIF value is 2.736
(below 10). The ANOVA table indicates statistical significance of <.001. Based on the
activity entertainment has a positive effect on brand image. Individually, one of the
variables shows statistical significance value according to the coefficients table, while
53
the other was not statistically significant which indicates that the variable alone does
not contribute with as much unique variance as the other. Beta coefficients for the
entertainment items vary between .452 to .081.
● H1e: Social media marketing activity interaction has a positive effect on brand
image.
The hypothesis states that SMMA interaction has a positive effect on brand image. The
correlation between the three variables connected to interaction and brand image
showed a positive correlation of .410, .391 and .534, which shows a positive correlation
between the variables. There are no signs of multicollinearity problems, the tolerance
value is all above the minimum value .1 and VIF value is all below 10. The ANOVA
table indicates statistical significance of <.001. Based on the results we can accept the
final hypothesis and conclude that the social media marketing activity interaction has
a positive effect on brand image. Individually, one of the variables showed statistical
significance value according to the coefficients table, while the other two was not
statistically significant which indicates that the variable alone does not contribute with
as much unique variance as the other. The beta coefficient value on the three items
regarding the interaction dimension is .065, -.031 and .551. Thus, one of the items of
SMMA interaction has the most effect on brand image, see table 4.14.
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Hypothesis 2 (H2): Social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
In order to test the hypotheses a multiple regression including the one factor solution mentioned
above (in chapter 4.3.2 Factor extraction) where the mean of all SMMA variables and the mean
of all three BL variables were tested in comparison to each other. Social media marketing
activity factor included as the independent variable and brand image as the dependent variable.
the model (Pallant, 2016), here we can see if the independent variable (SMMA) has a
relationship with the dependent variable (BL); a value above .30 is to prefer (Pallant, 2016). In
this case the correlation between SMMA and BL is good, loading at .552. An investigation of
the collinearity of the variables indicates that we do not have a multicollinearity problem since
the tolerance value is 1.0 (which is far above .1) and VIF value is also 1.0 (far below
10) (Pallant, 2016) thus, the relationship amongst the independent variables are not too great
and they are not too similar to each other (Pallant, 2007). If the independent variables
were too similar to each other (if the multicollinearity was high) it indicates that the
variables are measuring the same thing, which might make it necessary to remove certain
variables. Since we only have one factor (i.e. an independent variable), it is not possible to test
multicollinearity in this regression.
In order to establish how much of the variance in the dependent variable is explained by the
model the model summary box was investigated, since this study involved a relatively small
sample the adjusted R square value is to be preferred since there is a risk that the R-square is
quite optimistic regarding a smaller sample. It showed us an adjusted R-value of .296, see table
4.7. This means this model explains 29.6% of the variance in brand loyalty.
Table 4.7: Model summary
55
the ANOVA table featured below.
Table 4.8: ANOVA H2
From the ANOVA table we can see that the model reaches statistical significance at <.001,
which is well below .05.
Table 4.8 shows that the social media marketing activity factor is of statistical significance
with a p-value of <.001 towards the dependent variable, which in this case is brand loyalty.
This means that SMMA variable has a unique contribution to the dependent variable (brand
loyalty)
Table 4.9: Coefficients SMMA and BL

Source: Extracted from IBM SPSS Statistic Viewer
Furthermore, another important aspect to consider while examining the coefficients table is the
beta coefficient (see table 4.9), the value of the beta coefficient tells us how much the dependent
variable (in this case brand loyalty) will increase (or decrease) if the independent variable
increases by one standard deviation (Hair et al., 2007). This shows us that the SMMA variables
56
have a beta value of .552; which means that if the SMMA variables increase by one, brand
loyalty is expected to increase by .552 standard deviations.
significance level of <.001 and there was no problem with collinearity statistics. This tells us
that the stated hypothesis “Social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand
loyalty” is also accepted based on the circumstances and limitations of this study.
Sub-hypotheses
In order to test the sub-hypotheses it is important to distinguish the different dimensions. This
means that we extracted the variables regarding each dimension and tested them in comparison
to the dependent variable in order to see if they alone have a positive effect on brand loyalty.
● H2a: Social media marketing activity trendiness has a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
Testing to see if SMMA trendiness alone has a positive effect on brand loyalty showed
that the correlation between the two independent variables connected to trendiness and
brand loyalty had a positive correlation of .456 and .343. The second question “The use
of social media by this brand is trendy.” had the lower correlation value but is still
significant (Pallant, 2016). There are no signs of multicollinearity problems since the
tolerance value is .5 (above .1) and VIF value is 2.0 (below 10). The ANOVA table
indicates statistical significance - meaning that we can accept the hypothesis and
conclude that the social media marketing activity trendiness has a positive effect on
brand loyalty. Individually, one of the variables shows statistical significance value
according to the coefficients table, while the other was not statistically significant which
indicates that the variable alone does not contribute with as much unique variance as
the other. Furthermore, the beta coefficient value is within the range of .427 to .041.
● H2b: Social media marketing activity customization has a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
Now it is time to test to see if SMMA customization alone has a positive effect on brand
loyalty. First, the correlation between the two independent variables connected to
customization and brand loyalty showed a positive correlation of .370 and .333. The
correlation is quite low but still significant (Pallant, 2016). as discussed before. There
57
are no signs of multicollinearity problems since the tolerance value is .578 (above .1)
and VIF value is 1.729 (below 10). The ANOVA table indicates statistical significance
with a value of .002. Based on the results we can accept the hypothesis and conclude
that the social media marketing activity customization has a positive effect on brand
loyalty. Individually, one of the variables shows statistical significance value according
to the coefficients table, while the other was not statistically significant which indicates
that the variable alone does not contribute with as much unique variance as the other.
Beta coefficients value for the customization items range between .266 to .160.
● H2c: Social media marketing activity WOM has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
Next hypothesis states that SMMA WOM has a positive effect on brand loyalty. The
correlation between the two variables connected to WOM and brand loyalty showed a
positive correlation of .497 and .317. There are no signs of multicollinearity problems,
the tolerance value is .583 (above .1) and VIF value is 1.714 (below 10). The ANOVA
table indicates statistical significance of <.001. Based on the results we can accept the
hypothesis and conclude that the social media marketing activity WOM has a positive
effect on brand loyalty. Individually, one of the variables shows statistical significance
value according to the coefficients table, while the other was not statistically significant
which indicates that the variable alone does not contribute with as much unique
variance as the other. The beta coefficient value of the two items is -.006 and .501.
● H2d: Social media marketing activity entertainment has a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
Next hypothesis states that SMMA entertainment has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
The correlation between the two variables connected to entertainment and brand loyalty
showed a positive correlation of .564 and .517, which shows high numbers of positive
correlations. There are no signs of multicollinearity problems, the tolerance value is
.366 (above .1) and VIF value is 2.736 (below 10). The ANOVA table indicates
statistical significance of <.001. Based on the results we can accept the hypothesis and
conclude that the social media marketing activity entertainment has a positive effect on
brand loyalty. Individually, one of the variables shows statistical significance value
according to the coefficients table, while the other was not statistically significant which
indicates that the variable alone does not contribute with as much unique variance as
the other. Beta coefficients of the two entertainment items range between .414 to .187.
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● H2e: Social media marketing activity interaction has a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
The final hypothesis states that SMMA interaction has a positive effect on brand
loyalty. The correlation between the three variables connected to interaction and brand
loyalty showed a positive correlation of .405, 410 and .485, which shows a positive
correlation between the variables. There are no signs of multicollinearity problems, the
tolerance value is all above the minimum value .1 and VIF value is all below 10. The
ANOVA table indicates statistical significance of <.001. Based on the results we can
accept the final hypothesis and conclude that the social media marketing activity
interaction has a positive effect on brand loyalty. Individually, one of the variables
shows statistical significance value according to the coefficients table, while the other
was not statistically significant which indicates that the variable alone does not
contribute with as much unique variance as the other. The beta coefficients value on the
three items regarding the interaction dimension is .105, .087 and .345.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Brand image has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
In order to test the hypotheses a multiple regression analysis was made where the mean of all
three BI variables and all three BL variables were tested in comparison to each other. Brand
image represents the independent variable and brand loyalty the dependent variable.
the model (Pallant, 2016), here we can see if the independent variable (BI) has a relationship
with the dependent variable (BL); a value above .3 is to prefer (Pallant, 2016). In this case the
correlation between BI and BL is good, loading at .753. An investigation of the
multicollinearity of the variables indicates that we do not have a multicollinearity problem
since the tolerance value is 1.0 (which is far above .1) and VIF value is also 1.0 (far below 10)
(Pallant, 2016). In order to establish how much of the variance in the dependent variable is
explained by the model the model summary box was investigated, since this study involved a
relatively small sample the adjusted R square value is to be preferred since there is a risk that
59
the R-square is quite optimistic regarding a smaller sample. It showed us an adjusted R-value
of .562. This means this model explains 56.2% of the variance in brand loyalty.
Table 4.10: Model summary
the ANOVA table featured below.
Table 4.11: ANOVA H3
From the ANOVA table we can see that the model reaches statistical significance at <.001,
which indicates a p-value at < .0005.
Table 4.11 shows that the brand image factor is of statistical significance with a p-value of
<.001 towards the dependent variable, which in this case is brand loyalty. This means that the
brand image variable has a unique contribution to the dependent variable (brand loyalty).
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Table 4.12: Coefficients BI and BL
Furthermore, the value of the beta coefficient tells us how much the dependent variable (see
table 4.12) (in this case brand loyalty) will increase (or decrease) if the independent variable
increases by one standard deviation (Hair et al., 2007). This tells us that the value of the brand
image beta coefficient is .753; which means that if the brand image variables increase by one,
brand loyalty is expected to increase by .753 standard deviations.
significance level of <.001, and the calculated p-value was <.0005. This tells us that the stated
hypothesis “Brand image has a positive effect on brand loyalty” is accepted based on the
circumstances and limitations of this study.
4.4.5 Summary of hypotheses

The hypotheses testing indicated an overall acceptance of all three hypotheses that were stated
in this study. The purpose of hypothesis 1 was to see if social media marketing activities have
a positive effect on brand image of firms within the sportswear industry. Based on the data
collected and the multiple regression analysis we can accept the hypothesis and conclude that
in this research, considering the circumstances of the study, social media marketing activities
have a positive effect on brand image.
Furthermore, hypothesis 2 examined if social media marketing activities have a positive effect
on brand loyalty of firms within the sportswear industry. Based on the data collected and the
multiple regression analysis that was made we can also accept the hypothesis and therefore
61
draw the conclusion that social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand
loyalty.
Examining the relationship that brand image and brand loyalty might have was the purpose of
hypothesis 3, after a multiple regression analysis we can conclude that brand image has a quite
high explanation of the variance, relatively higher beta coefficients and is significant. Thus,
indicating that brand image has a high impact on brand loyalty within the circumstances of this
study. The beta coefficient value was .753, which is the highest beta coefficient value of this
study (see table 4.14); this means that if brand image increased by one standard deviation,
brand loyalty would increase by .753 standard deviations.
Table 4.13: Summary of hypotheses
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Table 4.14: Beta coefficients within SMMA dimensions
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5. Conclusions and Implications
In this chapter the conclusions of this study will be presented, here the three research questions
will be answered and discussed. Furthermore, the results, conclusions, limitations and
implications for practitioners and theory will be explained. Finally, suggestions for future
research will be discussed.
The result of this study contributes to the growing research literature regarding how social
media marketing activities effects different brand aspects, in this case brand image and brand
loyalty. The primary data used were collected through a questionnaire where respondents were
asked to answer questions on a 6-point Likert scale regarding how SMMA affects brand loyalty
and brand image. The items used in the questionnaire were collected from different sources
and adapted in order to accurately contribute to the purpose of the study (see table 3.1). Before
testing the hypotheses through a multiple regression analysis a factor analysis was made where
the decision was made to only extract one factor. This single factor contained all social media
marketing activities items that were used in the questionnaire and were then tested towards
both brand image and brand loyalty in order to measure the effect the variables have on each
brand aspect. Furthermore, the hypotheses that brand image has a positive effect in brand
loyalty were tested as well.
5.1 Conclusions for Research Question 1

The test of hypothesis 1 showed a positive correlation of the one factor solution with a
correlation at .553 as well as positive correlation values within the sub hypotheses, however
not all beta values of all the items within each sub hypothesis were shown to be significant;
meaning that those variables might not significantly have any effect on the dependent variable
(see table 4.6 and 4.14). Based on this the conclusion is that the five dimensions of social media
marketing activities have a positive effect on brand image. The sub-hypotheses were as well
accepted based on the individual hypothesis testing, this means that each dimension alone has
a positive effect on brand image.
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The strongest correlations between the sub hypotheses where the SMMA’s are examined
individually shows stronger correlation between interaction, entertainment and trendiness
towards brand image. However, the beta values between the SMMA dimensions and brand
image show the highest loadings on word of mouth (SMMA8), interaction (SMMA5) and
entertainment (SMMA1) (see table 4.14). Based on these results we can conclude that because
of the strong correlations and high beta values (as well as the statistical significance of the
dimensions), word of mouth, interaction as well as the entertainment dimension has the greatest
positive effect on brand image.
Based on the three items SMMA5, SMMA1 and SMMA 8 which states;
● SMMA5: The expression of opinions is easy on social media of this brand.
● SMMA1: X's social media is enjoyable.
● SMMA8: I would like to pass along information on the company’s services from its
social media to my friends.
This indicates that in order for sportswear brands to increase their brand image through their
social networks, focusing on all the social media marketing activities but especially the
interaction between customers and the entertainment on your profiles might help to enhance a
firm's brand image.
Our findings for RQ2 showed a positive relationship between social media marketing activities
and brand loyalty. The hypothesis test showed a positive correlation between the variables with
a value of .552 as well as positive correlation values between the variables within the sub
hypotheses and the dependent variable (brand loyalty), however not all beta values of all the
items within each sub hypothesis were shown to be significant; meaning that those variables
might not significantly have any effect on the dependent variable (see table 4.9 and 4.14).
Statistical significance between all variables of social media marketing activities and brand
65
loyalty was established, sub hypothesis (H2b) showed a significance value of .002, indicating
somewhat less significance in comparison to other variables but still statistically significant.
Based on this the conclusion is (within the circumstances and limitations of this study) that the
five dimensions of social media marketing activities have a positive effect on brand loyalty.
The sub-hypotheses were as well accepted based on the individual hypothesis testing, this
means that each dimension alone has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
Furthermore, the strongest correlations between the sub hypotheses where the SMMA’s are
examined individually shows stronger correlation between interaction, entertainment and word
of mouth towards brand loyalty. However, the beta values between the SMMA dimensions and
brand loyalty show the highest loadings on word of mouth (SMMA8), trendiness (SMMA6)
and entertainment (SMMA1) (see table 4.14). Based on these findings we can conclude that
because of the strong correlations and high beta values (as well as the statistical significance
of the dimensions), the entertainment dimension as well as trendiness and word of mouth has
the greatest positive effect on brand loyalty.
The three items that had the highest beta values stated;
● SMMA8: I would like to pass along information on the company’s services from its
social media to my friends
● SMMA1: X's social media is enjoyable.
● SMMA6: The contents shown in the social media of this company is up to date.
This indicates that in order for sportswear brands to increase their brand loyalty through their
social networks it might be especially important to make sure that the customers social media
experience with the firm is as enjoyable as possible as well as making the informational
communication between users as simple as possible, in order to help enhance the entertainment
and word-of-mouth dimensions. However, since all SMMA dimensions showed statistical
significance and positive relationships towards brand loyalty the firm should try to enhance all
dimensions and not only the two which, according to our findings, were shown to have the
biggest positive effect.
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Comparison - SMMA effect in brand loyalty and brand image
Comparing the results of which dimensions that seems to be of most importance in regards to
SMMA to brand image and brand loyalty some differences were noticed. The dimensions with
the biggest impact on brand image was interaction, word of mouth and entertainment. The
dimensions that had the biggest impact on brand loyalty was word of mouth, entertainment and
trendiness. This shows that word of mouth and entertainment is of high importance in both
brand aspects while trendiness is somewhat more important with regards to brand loyalty and
interaction is somewhat more important for brand image. In comparison to previous studies we
can see that entertainment is a strong significant component of social media marketing
activities, this is observed in our study as well as studies by Bilgin (2018), Kim and Ko (2011)
and Seo and Park (2018). The trendiness dimension which in this study was found to have a
relatively higher effect on brand loyalty has been claimed to be of different levels of importance
in different studies, Seo and Park (2018) claimed it to be the most important dimension while
Bilgin (2018) found it as one of the least important dimensions. The interaction dimension has
also been viewed differently in previous studies, Bilgin (2018) found it less important while
Kim and Ko (2011) found it as an important component of social media marketing activities.
In this study it showed a relatively elevated importance in regards to brand image but not as
much when it comes to brand loyalty. Thus, the findings of this study both differ and agree
with previous studies when concluding the importance of the different dimensions.
❏ RQ3: To what extent does brand image influence brand loyalty for brands within the
sportswear industry?
Our findings in regards to if brand image influences brand loyalty shows that there is a
relationship between the two aspects. The hypothesis testing indicated a strong correlation
between the variables and no multicollinearity issue was detected, this suggests that the items
are not too similar as well as if the brand image of a firm increases so does the firm's brand
loyalty. Thus, if a firm focuses on building and improving their brand image, customers loyalty
towards the brand would increase. This would mean that customers are more likely to purchase
your products/services, that they are more loyal to the brand, making it further difficult for
competitors to tempt them into purchasing their products instead. The adjusted R-square
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indicates that BI explains 56,2% of the variance in BL (see table 4.12). The beta values showed
that if brand image increased by one standard deviation brand loyalty increases by .753
standard deviations (see table 4.14).
Based on the analysis we can see evidence of a positive relationship between the variables
where we can conclude that brand image to some extent has a positive effect on brand loyalty.
These findings agree with previous research from Bilgin (2018) as well as Alhaddad (2015)
who in their separate studies also concluded that brand image affects brand loyalty, interesting
to see that the same conclusion about brand image’s positively effects brand loyalty even
though they are investigated in different industries as well as different geographical areas.
5.4 Implications
5.4.1 Implications for theory

This research contributes to theory by testing how SMMA of companies in the sportswear
industry affect brand loyalty and brand image, and also by describing how brand image
influences brand loyalty. This is a limited research area due to that the study focuses on brand
equity, social media and sportswear industries together. The factors measured to see if they
have any potential impact on SMMA are the two dimensions of brand equity; brand loyalty
and brand image. Previous studies have shown that SMMA has a positive influence on brand
equity, but few have focused only on brand loyalty and brand image by applying them to the
sportswear industry. By focusing on how SMMA affects brand image and brand loyalty, this
study has contributed that the SMMA dimensions interaction and entertainment had the
greatest positive effect on brand image, and that word of mouth and entertainment was
concluded to have the most positive effect on brand loyalty, all in the context of the sportswear
industry. Another implication for theory is that this study analyzes the connection between
brand loyalty and brand image. Brand loyalty is positively influenced by brand image,
according to the test of hypothesis. Positive brand image enhances brand loyalty to some extent
in sportswear industries, which this study has contributed to theory. Previous studies, as well
as this one, have shown the relationship between brand loyalty and brand image, but not in the
sportswear community especially. This study has contributed to theory by the answers from
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the questionnaire for people following sportswear brands exposed to SMMA by suggesting that
brand loyalty and brand image is highly affected by SMMA.
5.4.2 Implications for practitioners

The results of this study shows practitioners the effectiveness that social media marketing
activities can provide if the desire is to develop brand image and/or brand loyalty. The
dimensions identified in this study could hence be used as guidance while navigating within
social media. According to this study a primary concern for practitioners is to keep the content
of their social media enjoyable, trendy and prioritize good interaction with customers in order
to enhance brand image. This means that putting more effort and resources into the firm's social
media marketing activities might be necessary in order to work on further developing their
social media and brand image. Entertainment and trendiness are also important factors for
brand loyalty, but also word of mouth. When focusing on building brand image, another
important implication for practitioners is that brand loyalty will increase as well.
5.5 Limitations
This study consists of some limitations that are important to consider while reading the results
and conclusions. The limitations of this study primarily concerns the collected data, since a
questionnaire that the respondent decides to answer on their own means that the researcher has
less control over the amount of responses as well as who is responding. The gender distribution
of this study resulted in a clear majority of female respondents, hence the results might not be
considered to represent the entire population. The fact that the sample is mostly female
respondents might also be misleading when analysing which dimensions are of most
importance since we do not know if male and females reasons and/or use social media in the
same ways. Thus, we do not know if there would have been differences in the results of which
SMMA dimension that effect the brand aspects more if the majority were male or if the
respondents would have been equal parts of genders, the results might have been different. The
questionnaires were posted in communities where both men and females were present but still
there were a majority of women who answered the questions, the reasoning behind this can
only be speculated; maybe they did not see the questionnaire on their Facebook page? Maybe
men are less keen to answer the questionnaire? Nevertheless, the gender distribution of this
research is therefore important to keep in mind while interpreting the results.
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Another important limitation to consider is the sample size that was relatively small, which
also impacts the analysis of the data. A bigger sample might have meant different results where
more than one factor could have been extracted and the results could have been different;
furthermore a bigger sample could have represented the population in a better way.
Furthermore, it is also important to consider how the chosen sample, members of Better Bodies,
Oner Active and Gymshark Facebook communities, may already be considered engaged to the
mentioned brands. Another sample might have shown different results, since these samples
may be more loyal and have a better image of Better Bodies, Oner Active and Gymshark than
the average of the desirable population. By studying another sample, where it could not be
concluded that all participants already are strongly engaged in these brands, the analysis of data
may have turned out different.
5.6 Future research

This research contributes to further knowledge on how social media marketing activities effects
a brand’s image and loyalty that can influence future research. Due to the fact that this study
had a majority of female respondents a suggestion for future research would be to try to include
more males and get a more even distribution of genders either answering questions in either a
similar quantitative way, or a qualitative approach. Furthermore, exploring if the SMMA
dimensions that were concluded of highest importance in this study (who had mostly female
respondents) might be different with a majority of male respondents could be interesting to see.
Examining possible differences between how male and female users act and react differently
to different dimensions might be useful for companies who might have target groups directed
to only one gender.
Another possibility for future research might be to adapt the research into a geographical area
in order to see if there might be differences in geographical and/or even cultural aspects on
how SMMA’s could effect brand loyalty and brand image. Future researchers could also
investigate further to see which factors of SMMA that have the biggest impact on brand image
and brand loyalty between different industries, since the factors seem to vary within different
industries looking at previous research.
70
Furthermore, for future research it might be interesting to determine if the responses between
different sportswear brands in order to see if the SMMA effects differ in any way, but in order
to do that it is important to remember that a bigger sample might be needed in order to be able
to draw those types of conclusions.
71
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Appendix
Appendix I - Correlation between variables (Convergent validity)
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Appendix II - All questionnaire questions (Part 1-3)
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The effect of social media marketing

activities on brand image and brand loyalty

Business and Economics, master's level

Luleå University of Technology

Luleå, May 2021

Design/Methodology/approach: This study was of explanatory nature and had a quantitative

Implikationer: Resultatet av denna studie bidrar med ökad förståelse om

1.4 Delimitations for the thesis

2.1 Customer Based Brand Equity

Thirdly, another dimension of Aaker’s five component CBBE-model is market behaviour,

2.1.1 Brand Image

1. Types of brand associations,

2.1.1.3 Strength of brand association

2.1.1.4 Uniqueness of brand associations

Figure 2.1: Overview of Brand Image

Source: Adapted from Keller (1993) p.7

2.1.2.2 Brand Building

2.1.2.3 Trust and Security

2.1.2.4 Website and Technology

2.1.2.5 Customer Service

2.2.1 The five dimensions of SMMA

2.3 Conceptual framework and development of hypotheses

❏ H3: Brand image has a positive effect on brand loyalty.

Figure 2.2: Proposed research model

3.1 Research purpose

3.2.1 Deductive and Inductive

1. Concluding a hypothesis about a relationship of two, or more, variables,

3.3 Literature search

3.4.1 Questionnaire development

Figure 3.1: Elements of survey questions

The query is described to be either a statement or a question and is designed to contain

According to Dolnicar (2018) midpoint questions in a survey adds little to no value in a

3.5 Sample selection

3.6 Data analysis

3.6.1 Data preparation

A factor analysis is a technique whose purpose is to summarize information gathered from a

3.7 Quality standards

To measure reliability in this study, an indicator of internal consistency, Cronbach’s coefficient

Criterion validity assesses “whether a construct performs as expected relative to other

4.1 Demographic characteristics

Figure 4.2: Age distribution

Figure 4.3: Occupation distribution

4.2 Reliability of scales

4.3 Factor Analysis

4.3.1 Step 1 - Assessment of the factorability of the collected data

Table 4.1: Total variance table

Table 4.2: Pattern matrix

Table 4.3: Reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha

4.4 Hypotheses testing

4.4.1 Multiple regression

Table 4.5: ANOVA H1

Table 4.6: Coefficients SMMA and BI

Table 4.7: Model summary

Table 4.8: ANOVA H2

Table 4.9: Coefficients SMMA and BL

4.4.4 Testing Hypothesis 3

Table 4.10: Model summary

Table 4.11: ANOVA H3