Relationships between social Web, IMC and overall brand equity An empirical examination from the cross-cultural perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically validate the relationships between social Web, integrated marketing communications (IMC) and overall brand equity and to test the moderating role of national culture on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected among 475 customers and analysed using the LISREL and partial least squares (PLS) techniques and non-parametric methods. Findings - Strong positive and significant relationships are found between social Web and IMC on the one hand, and IMC and brand equity on the other, the second relationship being even stronger than the first one. Moreover, national culture is found to exert a statistically significant moderating effect on both relationships. Research limitations/implications - The findings of this study contribute to the wider knowledge and theoretical understanding of both technology and marketing communications potential in the development of brand equity. The results therefore suggest that brand equity requires a representative brand name and consistent meaning of the brand sustained by social Web and the integration of marketing communications. Practical implications - Consistency in marketing communications can be considered as a primary basis for brand equity building in companies. Moreover, efficient management of the user-generated content available in social media platforms represents a great challenge for marketers. Originality/value - Although the connection between social Web, IMC and brand equity was founded in theory, there is a lack of empirical contributions on the causal relationships among these constructs. This gap is filled by the current empirical contribution. Another significant insight of this work lies in considering the role of national culture in the IMC research.