Social media marketing strategies effects on luxury brands’ consumer response.

Abstract

Social media has changed the landscape for luxury brands, which now must balance between their exclusivity and the market changes such as their growing open and engaged audience. This study reflects on the impact of social media marketing strategies on consumer responses in the luxury industry. Specifically, it assesses the effectiveness of SMMEs (entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth) in terms of dimensioning Brand Equity and consumer response in the luxury context. A survey was pursued quantitatively by 102 research subjects, it gave the data needed for this analysis. Results were analyzed using descriptive and linear regression analysis through SPSS. Apart from confirming that SMMEs indeed significantly enhance Brand Equity, the study also shows that both SMMEs and Brand Equity positively influence consumer responses, where interaction and trendiness turned out to be strong drivers toward purchase intention and loyalty. The results thus show that while a surefire strategy can ap- ply through such outreach, social media should serve so that the prestige of luxury brands remains unsoiled. This study further gives more insights into the field where luxury brand managers can capitalize by recom- mending selective influencer engagement and interactive and multi-channel marketing strategies to embrace social media as a potential vehicle for brand equity development and consumer loyalty without diminishing the essence of luxury.