Research on the Impact of Social Media Marketing and Service Brand Equity

Course Title- Service Marketing

Course ID- 350

Section – 3

Submitted to- Dr. MD. Abdul Monem

Submitted By-

Nazibul Hassan Fahim- 2010206

Faiza Juheina Hoque- 2110153

Tahrim Jasia Joha- 2020843

Isfar Khan- 2010350

 Table of Contents
1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

3. Research Methodology

4. Research Findings

5. Conclusion
1, Introduction

Social media marketing (SMM) has become an essential tool for businesses in Bangladesh to connect
with their target audience, enhance their brand equity, and ultimately drive business growth. In the
context of service brands, SMM plays a crucial role in shaping customer perceptions, fostering brand
loyalty, and increasing brand awareness and recognition.

By effectively utilizing SMM strategies, service brands can establish a strong brand presence, cultivate a
positive brand image, and achieve sustainable growth in the competitive Bangladeshi market. SMM
facilitates open communication between businesses and their customers, allowing for real-time feedback
and issue resolution. Businesses can gather valuable insights into customer preferences and expectations,
enabling them to tailor their services and improve customer satisfaction.

SMM provides a direct channel for businesses to interact with their customers, fostering a sense of
community and belonging. By responding to comments, addressing concerns, and rewarding loyal
followers, businesses can cultivate brand loyalty and encourage customers to become advocates,
recommending the brand to their peers and networks.
SMM enables service brands to cultivate a positive brand image by sharing engaging content,
highlighting customer testimonials, and responding promptly to feedback. Active and consistent
engagement on social media fosters a sense of trust and credibility, enhancing the brand's reputation in the
eyes of Bangladeshi consumers. SMM effectively increases brand awareness by providing a platform for
businesses to showcase their products, services, and brand identity to a vast and diverse audience. Social
media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow businesses to engage with potential
customers, answer queries, and build relationships. This direct interaction helps establish brand
recognition and familiarity among the Bangladeshi consumer base.

BKash, a Bangladeshi mobile financial services provider, has built a strong brand image as reliable,
innovative, and customer-centric through interactive social media campaigns, informative content, and
prompt customer service. This has significantly boosted brand trust, perceived quality, and customer
loyalty, solidifying bKash's market dominance.
Overall, SMM has emerged as a powerful tool for service brands in Bangladesh to connect with their
target audience, foster brand loyalty, and ultimately enhance their brand equity.
2. Literature Review
The importance of service brand equity and social media marketing in the context of Bangladesh plays
crucial roles in the success of businesses. A positive brand equity boosts profit margin per customer by
enabling a business to charge a higher price for a product than rivals, even when it was acquired for the
same amount. Sales volume is directly impacted by brand equity since consumers are drawn to well-
known brands. Moreover, social media marketing is essential for service brands to promote their services
as most of the citizens of Bangladesh have exposure to social media and often active. Traditional
marketing is good but social media marketing is better as it can attract vast customers and it is cost
effective as well. Data has shown that social media marketing has a positive effect on brand trust, social
media marketing has a positive influence on brand equity, and social media marketing has a positive
influence on brand loyalty. Based on the latest survey available, in Bangladesh there are about 50.3
million active social media users. This means, the social media marketing will enable the service brands
to reach a wide range of audience and allow them to attract new consumers.
Research has demonstrated the importance of social media in raising brand exposure and awareness
(Smith, 2017, Kim & Lee, 2020). Additionally, Schultz et al.'s 2019 literature highlights the influence of
social media content on shaping consumers' opinions of service firms. Though there isn't enough research
specifically on how well various social media platforms work in Bangladesh to increase brand awareness
for service brands, further in-depth studies studying the role of cultural factors may be essential.
It is also crucial to identify potential gaps an online service provider might face. One of the most
important potential gaps is the cultural factors that influence the perception of service brand portrayed
through social media. Understanding how cultural differences and sensitivities affect the creation and
distribution of content on social media platforms may be inadequate. Brands must adapt their messages
and visuals to cultural norms, values, and restrictions. Insights regarding how well brands modify their
content to accord with the cultural preferences of Bangladeshi consumers may be lacking in research.
While some studies have looked at how social media marketing influence customer perceptions, there
may be no gaps in understanding the depth of these perceptions. As we already know, most Bangladeshi
businesses, whether online or offline, tend to have a short-term vison rather than having future.
Understanding the long-term effects and sustainability of these tactics on service brand equity in
Bangladesh is limited.

3. Research Methodology

Type of research:
In our research, we have used a descriptive approach to investigate the impact of social media marketing
on service brand equity. We want to learn how social media marketing can attract customers as well as
reach a vast number of audience as well as find out the experience consumers as well service providers
have by getting services through online and providing them.

Research Method:
Survey Question Technique:
To find out the experiences of the consumers and providers, we have designed 6 questions for both
consumers and providers and the questions are different accordingly. The consumers were asked different
set of questions regarding their experience as well as the providers. The questions enabled us to draw
conclusions regarding the impact of social media marketing on service brand equity.

Respondents And Sample Procedures:

The total number of respondents were 10 5 of them being the consumer and the other 5 being the service
providers. We chose various service providers, for instance Uber, internet and online clothing service as
the consumers we chose are heavily affiliated with these services mostly.

Research Instruments And Questionnaires

The questionnaire comprised of 6 different questions but it had 2 different sets (one for consumers and
another one for service providers). The questions were mostly descriptive as all they had to do was share
their experience.

Collection Of Data:
The data was gathered by recording their experiences. Questions were asked accordingly, and their
answers were then recorded for further studies which is to conclude and get more consumers and service
providers insight.

3. Research Findings
Data were gathered by asking questions about their experiences as a consumer and service provider and
then they were later used for further research and to conclude regarding the impact of social media and
service brand equity.
At first the basic demographic questions were asked which were age, gender, occupation, and monthly
income. The following data’s were obtained

- Age- 18-40
- Gender- Both male and female
- Occupation- consumers were mostly students and service providers were internet providers, Uber
driver and online clothing service
- Monthly income- consumers were in between 5000-15000 TK range and service providers were
in between 35000-60000 TK range.

After these questions were asked, we then proceeded to ask the 1 st set of questions to the consumers
regarding their online service experience and these are the data’s we gathered

- At first they were asked whether they can rely on online service or not. The answers we got was
what we expected at the first place. They can only rely on the online service depending on the
kind of service they need and the reviews they have regarding the service provider which they
have gathered through online and word of mouth.
 - The second question we asked them was how immediately they respond. The answers we got
were 50\50. Some of them stated that the service provider was prompt in replying to their queries
and others had a different experience. They didn’t get immediate replies which they thought they
would get. Most of the respondents claimed that companies which are renowned immediately
responded to their queries.

- The third question we asked was about how empathetic they are. Most of the respondent said that
companies which are well known are empathetic as they want to ensure customer loyalty as well
as make sure they attract new consumers as well. However, services that aren’t that well known
weren’t that empathetic whereas they should’ve been in order to gain more exposure.

- The fourth question we asked was regarding the necessary assurance from the service provider.
For this particular question, respondents had different experience. They mostly told about how
big companies gave them the necessary assurance and ensured that they will get quality service.

- The fifth question we asked was about the tangible elements linked to online services. All the
respondents were quite satisfied with it as the service providers used the appropriate tangible
elements to provide quality service.

- Lastly we asked about suggestions on what can be done to improve such platform. Almost all of
them had the same answers and they were to be more prompt in getting back to the customers,
provide the services they have been promised to receive and use much more efficient delivery
routes while providing the goods and services to them.

After we got to know about the consumers’ point of view, we decided to ask some questions to the
service providers to get to know about their point of view and this is the data we gathered.

- At first we asked regarding the reliability of their platform. All of them said yes as they want to
deliver the best service they can to the consumers and they believe in customer loyalty and trust.

- Secondly we asked them about their responsiveness towards consumers whether they are prompt
or not in replying to the consumers. Almost everyone said yes they were very prompt in replying
to the consumers regarding any queries and they were very much helpful in every way as well.

- Thirdly we asked them regarding the assurance of delivering the best quality of service to
consumers and how they do that. Most of them had the same answer and that was they don’t over
promise when it comes to delivering services. They provide as much as they can and they always
ensure they listen to consumer’s preference as well.

- Fourthly we asked them about how empathetic they are towards their customers. Almost all of
them tries to be empathetic towards their customers so that they can provide the best service to
 their customers and in return they can attract more consumers through word of mouth from their
existing consumers.

- Fifthly we asked the tangibles element they use to provide services and are they of good quality
or not. Almost all of them tries to use the best tangible element to provide good quality services
for instance good transportation service, high tech products and etc.

- Lastly we asked about the consumer satisfaction from using their services. All of them had mixed
answer regarding this question. Some of them had both good and bad reviews and others had
positive reviews regarding their services.

In short, both the consumers and service provider had mixed reviews regarding their experiences. They
had both positive and bittersweet experiences while attaining the service and delivering the service.

4. Conclusion

This research has examined the impact of social media marketing (SMM) on service brand equity (SBE)
in the context of Bangladesh. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of SBE and SMM, the study
investigated the direct and indirect relationships between SMM activities and SBE dimensions, namely,
brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty.
The findings provide strong empirical evidence supporting the positive influence of SMM on SBE in
Bangladesh. The results reveal that SMM activities significantly enhance brand awareness, strengthen
brand association, elevate perceived service quality, and foster brand loyalty. This confirms the
importance of social media as a strategic tool for service brands operating in the Bangladeshi market.
Furthermore, the study identified the mediating role of brand trust and brand love in the relationship
between SMM and SBE. The analysis demonstrates that SMM activities effectively contribute to building
brand trust and fostering brand love, which ultimately lead to stronger SBE. This highlights the
importance of emotional engagement and relationship building through social media marketing.
This research contributes to the existing literature by providing a deeper understanding of the dynamics of
SMM and SBE in the Bangladeshi context. It offers valuable insights for service brands in Bangladesh on
how to leverage social media effectively to build and enhance their brand equity. The findings suggest
that service brands should prioritize engaging social media content, active customer interaction, and
transparent communication to build trust and love among their audience.
In addition to the theoretical and practical implications, this research also provides avenues for future
research. Further studies could explore the effectiveness of specific SMM strategies across different
service industries in Bangladesh. Additionally, investigating the moderating role of cultural factors and
technological advancements on the SMM-SBE relationship would further enrich our understanding of this
complex phenomenon.
Even though we only surveyed 10 people in total this research can help us to conclude that that SMM
plays a critical role in driving service brand equity in Bangladesh. By actively engaging with their
audience on social media and fostering strong emotional connections, service brands can significantly
enhance their brand awareness, strengthen their brand associations, elevate their perceived service quality,
and build loyal customer relationships. As social media continues to evolve and shape consumer
behavior, service brands must embrace this powerful tool to build and maintain a strong competitive
advantage in the Bangladeshi market.