The Intervening Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Loyalty: A Multi Group Analysis in Customer Demographics

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to investigate and examine the impact of perceived social media marketing to customer engagement and brand loyalty. An attempt has been made to explore and report the intervening role of customer engagement between social media marketing and brand loyalty among online purchasers. Design/methodology/approach- A self-administered and structured questionnaire was developed and administered to a random sample of 233 online shoppers who purchased products/services online in the last 30 days. The study deployed the PLS - SEM to test the conceptual model since it is less stringent in working with non-normal data. Findings- Social media marketing has a significant positive impact on the customer engagement, which result in high brand loyalty among the online shoppers in the Maldives. The study reported that the customer engagement intervenes the relationship between social media marketing and brand loyalty as a mediator and not as a moderator. The study also identified a partial mediation of customer engagement among various customer groups based on their demographics. Originality/value- This study re- confirms the relevance of social media in modern day marketing decisions. It provides insights to the marketers to understand the potential of social media marketing in enhancing customer engagement and attaining brand loyalty.