Brand Love: Mediating Effect of the Relationship Between Social Media Marketing, Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity iPhone Brand Smartphone in Ambon City

Abstract

Competition between smartphone brands requires manufacturers to be able to introduce products and brands to consumers using various strategies, one of which is using social media marketing. One smartphone product that uses social media marketing as a marketing strategy is the iPhone brand smartphone through its Instagram account by prioritizing User Generated Content (UGC). This research aims to analyze the relationship between social media marketing, brand love, brand loyalty, and brand equity, and analyze brand love as a mediating variable in these relationships. To determine the sample size, the inverse square root technique was used by focusing on 100 consumers who use iPhone brand smartphones in Ambon City with a purposive sampling technique. The data analysis method uses the PLS‑SEM method with the SmartPLS application ver. 4. The results of data processing prove that social media marketing has a significant impact on brand love, social media marketing does not have a significant impact on brand loyalty, social media marketing has a significant impact on brand equity, brand love has a significant impact on brand loyalty, brand love has a significant impact on brand equity, and brand love can significantly mediate (full mediation) the relationship between social media marketing and brand loyalty