THE INFLUENCE OF ONLINE REVIEWS ON BRAND EQUITY AND PURCHASE INTENTION OF SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS IN ROMANIA

The growth of the internet and the increasing popularity of social media have captured the interest of academics and practitioners. This paper focuses on user generated content (UGC), specifically on reading or viewing online reviews during the information search stage in the purchasing decision process. The paper explores to what extent reading consumer generated online reviews affect Aaker's Customer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model. Following Aaker's CBBE model and its key dimensions (brand awareness, brand associations, perceived brand quality and brand loyalty), the research focused on achieving two main objectives: (1) investigate to what extent consumer reviews influence the CBBE of smartphones and tablets on the Romanian market and (2) investigate which review platform is the most popular among Romanian customers: Facebook, Youtube, blogs, forums or other sources. The research was carried out in Romania focusing on high involvement products such as smartphones and tablets. The data was collected from December 2014 to January 2015 using a self-administered online survey, distributed via Facebook and e-mail, targeting people between 18 and 34 years old belonging to Generation Y and also known as Millenials. The research results show that: (1) viewing or reading reviews affect all the CBBE dimensions in different proportions and (2) Romanian consumers prefer to view or read reviews from forums, followed by blogs and Youtube.