Modelling the impact of social media marketing for apparel brands: evidence from India

Social media has been widely acknowledged as a significant platform for different business activities. The study examines and models the interactions between social media marketing activities, their effectiveness, brand equity, and customer responses concerning apparel brands. The Indian apparel market is the second-largest retail market after food and grocery in India. The digital population of India amounted to approximately 688 million active users, of which 400 million users were active social media users as of January 2020. The primary data was collected from a survey of 266 respondents in India, of which 262 responses were found valid. WarpPLS 7.0 was used in which data was subjected to variance-based structural equation modelling for hypotheses testing. The study found that social media marketing activities of apparel brands with interactive and trendier contents would be proven effective, which would form favourable brand equity amongst the customers and eventually would result in customer loyalty. It also found that apparel brands' interactive and trendier social media marketing activities would form customers' willingness to pay a premium price if these activities are perceived as effective. The study concludes with the implications for academics as well as for industry.