Role of brand experience and brand affect in creating brand engagement: a case of higher education institutions (HEIs)

HEIs globally face growing competition that demands new marketing strategies and practices to leverage the power of social media platforms to increase brand engagement of HEIs. Largely ignored in past studies, this study established the much-needed link between brand equity drivers, namely brand experience, brand interactivity, and brand engagement on social media and identified the path to engage students and measure their loyalty. A total of 254 self-administered responses (survey questionnaires) were collected from the students of 5 public and 10 private universities. The results drawn through PLS-SEM analysis exhibited a significant mediating role of brand affect (emotional response) between brand experience (sensory and behavioral) and brand engagement behavior. The findings also showed the critical rule of brand interactivity towards brand engagement behavior. The study suggests leveraging the power of brand experience and brand interactivity to drive brand engagement behavior through the critical role of brand affect in HEIs.