The impact of social media communication on consumer-based brand equity and purchasing intent in a pandemic

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of the source of the content in social media communication and the content distribution intensity on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) dimensions and how the study will eventually impact purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach A total of 521 samples were collected using an online survey questionnaire. The respondents' validity was verified using purposive sampling techniques, and the responses were analysed using SmartPLS 3.0. Findings The authors outlined the fundamental mechanisms of what makes social media communication effective and discovered that emotional-based brand equity dimensions (brand association and brand loyalty) remained significant in influencing purchase intention. However, attribution-based brand equity dimensions (perceived quality, brand trust and brand awareness) are found to have no impact. Originality/value This study decomposed social media communication into three different dimensions, and the authors' result showed that the dimensions do not impact CBBE to the same extent. The authors concluded that some CBBE dimensions, which appear to be a rigour determinant of purchase intention over time, have a feeble effect during the pandemic. The existing relationship between the CBBE dimensions with purchase intention might not hold in the pandemic context. The authors suggested that anxiety or pandemic fear could alter the normal consumer buying process and make some well-established relationships not hold. As research indicates that pandemics are reoccurring events, the authors' study contributes to the global effort to dampen some of the pandemic-related effects on business and marketing.