ABSTRACT
This paper examines how bank social media marketing activities (SMMAs) shape customer-based brand equity (CBBE). Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, structured questionnaires measuring five SMMA dimensions, brand experience, brand trust, and four CBBE dimensions were administered to 600 customers at the banking halls of all 23 licensed commercial banks in Ghana, yielding 534 (89.0%) responses following systematic data cleaning. In stage 1 of the study, eWOM (ß = 0.709) and trendiness (ß = 0.501) were found to be the strongest predictors of brand experience, while customization (ß = 0.418) was the dominant predictor of brand trust. In Stage 2, brand trust was a stronger predictor of brand awareness (ß = 0.530) and perceived quality (ß = 0.517) than brand experience, while brand experience was the stronger predictor of brand loyalty (ß = 0.548) and both brand experience and brand trust mediated 16 of 20 tested paths.
Keywords
social media marketing, brand equity, brand experience, and brand trust.