The effects of social media brand personality on brand loyalty in the Latvian banking industry: The mediating role of brand equity

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon social information processing theory and its purpose is twofold. First, it aims to examine the relationship among five brand personality traits (responsibility, activity, simplicity, emotionality and aggressiveness) as to brand equity created on social media in the banking industry of Latvia. Second, it aims to unveil the indirect effects of brand personality on brand loyalty, treating brand equity as a mediating variable. A questionnaire was designed and a survey method was employed in line with the above-mentioned purposes. Data were collected from 404 customers who followed retail banks on social media. A series of hypotheses were developed and tested using structural equation modeling. The results show that aggressiveness, followed by responsibility and activeness, form positive brand equity on social media. In contrast, emotionality and simplicity do not contribute to the brand equity of banks on social media. The results also reveal that brand equity positively impacts brand loyalty and partially mediates brand personality and brand loyalty relationships. The theoretical model is thus validated and can be used in future research. The current study is cross-sectional and has a limited sample size and representativeness. Nevertheless, the results of the present study bring valuable implications for marketing managers who value the role of social media in creating long-term company–customer relationships. Over the past 20 years, the literature has been dominated by studies that mainly focus on the definition of brand personality and its traits. Unlike the aforementioned efforts, the current study brings new insight into the subject by focusing on brand personality created on social media and linking it to the actual consumer outcomes and exploring the mediating role of brand equity in the banking industry of Latvia.