Interactive Marketing in the Digital Era

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Information

1.1.1 Background of the Study

Traditionally, companies addressed their customers using marketing communication tools such as public relations and television ads. A major limitation of such tools is the passive way in which customers received information on products and brands (Qiutong and Rahman 2019). The recent years have seen a steady growth in the share of two-way communication resulting in revolutionary change in the role of customers from passive to active. This change was influenced by the evolution of the World Wide Web, which brought about a new phase in marketing which in turn created an opportunity for customers and business organisations to develop and maintain social relationships (Park et al. 2016). The period after 2003 to 2004 witnessed new eras that are more of extensions of the World Wide Web such as Web 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0: these extensions allow data to be shared and reused across enterprises, applications and community boundaries. The second World Wide Web generation, Web 2.0, has been regarded a more personalised and communicative form of the World Wide Web that emphasised on connectivity, participation, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and sharing of ideas among users and therefore, Web 2.0 technologies helped companies to manage their relationship with customers through the help of external customer blogs, external social networks, wikis, and the RSS filters (Ahmad et al. 2015). It is also in the Web 2.0 era that companies faced new tools of communication, commonly known as social media, which was used alongside traditional websites (Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016). Since its discovery, social media has changed the way people interact with each other and with companies (Qiutong and Rahman 2019). Social media has helped companies across all industries to online engage with potential customers and to increase their online presences; for example, business organisations are increasingly using social media in their communication and in promoting their business (Marques and Moschatou 2017). Through commoditisation, organisations have recognised they need to stay attractive for customers, to build relationships with customers, and to make customers loyal to the organisation and social media has stood out as the vehicle that fosters such relationships (Ngai et al. 2015). Since the era of Web 2.0, there has been increased usage of private computers, the internet, smartphones, e-commerce, and social media technologies, which has drastically changes the strategies and methods of corporate marketing (Park et al. 2016). Today, vast numbers of consumers are social media users and in this reality, it is imperative that marketers influence purchase intentions and customer preferences using the social media networks (Qiutong and Rahman 2019). Through the social media networks, organisations are able to directly communicate with their customers while the customers are able to communicate with other customers on the social media platforms (Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016). Social media refers to an online place where people who share interest gather to share their opinions, thoughts and comments (Ngai et al. 2015). On the other hand, Park et al. (2016) write that social media are the tools that people and companies use for communication and in particular, the collaborative, participatory, user-empowering, and knowledge sharing tools available on the web. Some of the social media tools that are commonly used are organisation sponsored websites, search engines (such as Google), social networking sites (such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Myspace among others), content communities (such as Piczo.com), creativity work sharing sites (such as Youtube, Vimeo, and Vine), business networking sites (such as LinkedIn), virtual worlds (such as Second Life), blogs and microblogging sites, social bookmarking, and online gaming sites among other new sites (Qiutong and Rahman 2019). Of these, this study focuses on only one type of social media: social networks.

Social media has affected many aspects of consumer behaviour in the 21st Century including acquiring and sharing information, awareness, purchase, opinions, attitudes, and post-purchase behaviour. In the advent of social media, organisations are able to communicate with their customers and get feedback from them while customers are able to communicate with other customers and share the information about the products and services offered by various business organisations (Ahmad et al. 2015). However, privacy issues have risen with the rise of social media marketing (Stephen 2016), which implies that social media has its pros and cons in relation to business management. In the current competitive business world, social media offers an unconventional and effective method for organisations in different industries to engage and communicate with consumers, which is a basis for building strong customer relationships (Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016). One such industry is the fashion industry: ever since the arrival of the internet, the fashion industry has been among the fastest growing industries using social media to communicate with their customers (Park et al. 2016). In the recent past, different social media tools have been actively used by consumers to search, compare, discuss, and purchase clothes (Qiutong and Rahman 2019) thus creating a revolutionising effect on the fashion industry. As a result, most fashion firms have quickly adjusted to the social media revolution for gaining feedback, monitoring trends, engaging, promoting, and making the sale purposes (Marques and Moschatou 2017). Social media marketing refers to the use of social media together with other communication channels with an aim of achieving organisational goals through creating value for stakeholders who include customers, employees, suppliers, and the government agents (Ngai et al. 2015). In the past few decades, social media marketing has been proved effective in attracting consumers’ attentions, enhancing interaction, improving sales performance, enhancing customer relationship performance, building brand performance, and enhancing operational performance (Qiutong and Rahman 2019). Notwithstanding the widespread use of social media marketing among companies, there is still a lot that remains unknown about the effected of social media marketing on customer loyalty especially in the fashion industry (Park et al. 2016). In this background, the aim of this study is to explore the effect of social media marketing on customer loyalty in the fashion industry.

1.1.2 Social media marketing in the fashion industry

The fashion industry remains innovative and willing to meet the challenges of new technologies. According to Qiutong and Rahman (2019), the use of social media as well as the ability of people to be their own media outlets has significantly changed the way in which fashion is presented, reported, and consumed and more importantly, social media has changed the way fashion is designed. With this marketing ability, many individual fashion designers create their own private labels and become the owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (Ahmad et al. 2015). These independent fashion designers extensively use the features of social media for various reasons including to enter the fashion industry, to assist job functions, to facilitate communication, as well as to promote their performance (Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016). The social media has boosted the drastic growth of private labels in the fashion industry, attracted the attention of major stakeholders including retailers, buyers, and investors, and given these firms more power to compete in the highly competitive fashion industry (Park et al. 2016). Brand communities formed through social networking sites have a strong impact on customer loyalty towards brands in the fashion industry (Qiutong and Rahman 2019). Despite this shifting pattern in the fashion industry, there are only a few studies that measure the impact of social media benefits (communication and interaction) on consumers’ sense of loyalty towards the fashion industry. To address this gap, this study seeks to answer one research question: how do fashion companies use social media marketing to develop sustainable relationships with customers?

1.1.3 The House of CB

The House of CB (Celeb Boutique) opened as an online store in May 2010 from the bedroom of a 17 year old. A few years later, the House of CB owns multiple stores around the UK and with worldwide expansion plans. The company has 5 international offices and a huge social media following of more than 1 million fans (House pf CB 2020). The company has its own in-house studio design where all their pieces are created. The House of CB is rapidly growing and evolving into an international brand (House pf CB 2020). The company has been able to successfully sell to different celebrities such as Jlo and the Kardashians, which has made the company even more popular and as a result, the brand is considered a necessity for the fashion-conscious people (House pf CB 2020). The company’s main brand is bootylicious bodycon dresses, which have become very popular among teenagers. The choice of this company for this study was influenced by the ability of the company to attract the attention of so many fashion consumers as well as the ability of the company to attract a huge social media following.

1.2 Research Opportunity

As earlier mentioned, the fashion industry is very competitive and social media marketing is providing an opportunity for businesses to become more competitive, which implies that for House of CB to gain and maintain a competitive advantage, it has to integrate and effectively use social media in its marketing strategies and activities. As an online store, House of CB is affected by the rapid changes in the industry fashion which are influenced by the emergence of more fast-fashion and strong presence of online-only retailers and as such, the company has to pitch its communication strategies correctly (Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016). The effect of the internet is apparent in the UK fashion industry where British web-only retailers Boohoo and ASOS are racing ahead of online sales (Marques and Moschatou 2017). This has consequently affected the sales of fashion retailers in the UK. It is therefore inevitable that these organisations have to modify their marketing strategies to adapt to the digital-led society to target consumers (Ahmad et al. 2015). In the retail environment, social medial has been seen to accelerate the accessibility of information to consumers, which in turn impacts on customer loyalty. House of CB is one of the organisations in the UK fashion retail industry that increasingly uses social media to engage and manage relationships with its customers and as a result has remained a competitive firm in the UK fashion industry. Therefore, understanding how social media marketing promotes customer loyalty is an apparent research opportunity that this study seeks to explore. In addition, it has been recognised that social media aids the interactions between consumers and fashion companies and this communication is fundamental in influencing consumer awareness, attitudes, behaviour, and loyalty (Qiutong and Rahman 2019). It is therefore important for UK fashion companies to continue researching and developing their understanding of how different social media platforms affect fashion consumers and their loyalty. Many researchers have approved that social media marketing significantly impacts on customer loyalty but that notwithstanding, there is limited research exploring how social media affects customer loyalty in the fashion industry an opportunity that prompts this study.

1.3 Research Aim and Objectives

The aim of this study is to explore the impact of social media marketing on customers’ loyalty towards fashion companies with a particular focus on the House of CB. In order to assess this aim and determine that design of the study, the following objectives are formulated:

To investigate the impact of trust in an organisation’s social media content on customer loyalty

To explore the impact of satisfaction through social media marketing on customer loyalty

To find out the effect of social media engagement on customer loyalty

1.4 Scope of the Research

This study will be conducted cross-sectionally due to time and resource limitations. A cross-sectional study focuses on a particular phenomenon or phenomena at a particular time (Saunders et al. 2016). This study is undertaken for academic course and therefore time-constrained, which lends it to investigate the effect of social media marketing on customer loyalty in a snapchat. In this study, social media is defined as the tools that people and companies use for communication and in particular, the collaborative, participatory, user-empowering, and knowledge sharing tools available on the web. These tools vary from organisation sponsored websites, search engines, social networking sites, content communities, creativity work sharing sites, business networking sites, virtual worlds, blogs and microblogging sites, social bookmarking, and online gaming sites among other new sites. Of these tools, this study focuses on only one type of social media: social networks. Social media marketing is defined as the use of social media together with other communication channels with an aim of achieving organisational goals through creating value for stakeholders who include customers, employees, suppliers, and the government agents. In particular, social media marketing will be defined as using social networks in order to establish sustainable relationship with customers thus the role of marketing on social networks on customer loyalty will be explored. While a various studies have explored the impact of social media marketing on customer loyalty, this study focuses on the fashion industry and specifically on the House of CB. This particular company has become very popular on social media attracting a very huge social media following (House pf CB 2020) and therefore it is important to explore how marketing on different social networks has helped the company acquire and maintain loyal customers.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Social Media Marketing

Originally, people joined social media in order to keep contact with their friends, relations, siblings and such but today, companies use social media to avail their products and discounts as well as to ensure consumers remain updated about brands (Zhang and Li 2019). From this perspective, social media marketing is a strategy that has enabled companies to keep their customers associated with the brands they offer and with the company. This has benefited organisations as they are able to improve their brand loyalty and customer loyalty due to the increased positive relationships (Zhang and Li 2019). Through social media marketing, customers get better products/services and preferential treatment and these customers are normally value centric but they also do not waste resources (Iankova et al. 2019). Value for such customers is more important than brand image and the quality of goods during the decision-making process (van Asperen et al. 2018). As such, social media marketing has increasingly helped companies to satisfy their customers which then generates positive word of mouth and eventually leads to customer loyalty and adds value to the company (Novotová 2018). According to Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016), social media serves marketers four purposes: (1) business networking, (2) market research and generation of feedback, (3) branding, publicity and reputation management, and (4) customer service and customer relationship management. Many organisations are yet to realise the benefits of social media especially customer loyalty and brand loyalty given that these firms are not able to build customer relationships and they lack the means to deploy social media marketing strategies (Zhang and Li 2019). Nonetheless, there are many companies that are engaging with social media marketing and their potential customers through social media marketing and they have benefited with loyal customers (van Asperen et al. 2018). Organisations are actively reducing the efforts of customers in searching for relevant brand information through incorporating social media in their marketing strategies. Integration of social media in marketing strategies has helped companies to satisfy their customers effectively and efficiently, which is attained through continuous engagements with customers (Zhang and Li 2019). The outcomes of customer engagement and relationship have a positive relationship, which in turn improves customer trust, satisfaction and loyalty (Iankova et al. 2019). Further, customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty and brand loyalty but these cannot be attained without brand awareness, which implies that for a customer to become loyal to an organisation, the organisation must continually advertise itself and its brands among the consumers (Novotová 2018). Therefore, the information that companies share on social media leads to increased consumption of the products, which is influenced by customer loyalty and brand loyalty (Nash 2019). Moreover, loyal customers share information with other customers on social media as per their experience with the product/service (Hsiao et al. 2019).

2.2 Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is a fundamental factor that influences the sustainability of any company (Novotová 2018). Loyalty can be defined as a deeply held commitment to rebuy or re-patronise a preferred product or service consistently in the future thus resulting in repetitive same-brand or same-brand-set purchasing regardless situational influences and marketing efforts aimed at making customer to switch to other brands (Iankova et al. 2019). A company that has loyal customers enjoys various benefits. First, loyal customers pay less attention to alternatives and repeatedly buy products from the same organisation (van Asperen et al. 2018). Second, loyal customers have a higher likelihood of generating positive (electronic) word-of-mouth and share their positive experiences with other customers, which increases a company’s customer base (Mas‐Tur et al. 2016). In the same vein, Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016) write that companies that gain customer loyalty lock in many profitable relationships with their customers at the expense of the slow-footed competitors. Customer loyalty also has some benefits for customers. According to Iankova et al. (2019), loyal behaviour towards a particular brand or company leads to increased trust, social advantages, reduced uncertainty, and higher likelihood of receiving customised offers and special treatments. Customer loyalty literature identifies two groups of loyalty namely attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty. This study focuses on attitudinal loyalty.

2.2.1 Behavioural loyalty

Behavioural loyalty relates to the number of stores a customer is willing to visit and the willingness to pay more money for a preferred brand or from a favourite company (Iankova et al. 2019). On the other hand, van Asperen et al. (2018) define behavioural loyalty as a customer’s behavioural outcomes such as repurchasing a given product from a specific company. Research shows that behavioural loyalty is influenced by attitudinal loyalty.

2.2.2 Attitudinal loyalty

Attitudinal loyalty incorporates psychological components such as motives and feelings that influence a customer to have a relationship with a certain product or company (Novotová 2018). Attitudinal loyalty is mainly manifested through positive word-of-mouth, customers recommending a brand or company to other consumers, and a customer showing high level of commitment to the brand and the virtues of the company (Iankova et al. 2019). In the same vein, Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016) write that attitudinal loyalty relates to a customer’s psychological expression which includes the intention to repurchase and the intention to recommend the brand or company to other potential customers. There are various components to attitudinal loyalty such as cognitive components, affective components, and conative components (van Asperen et al. 2018). Based on these three components, attitudinal loyalty is defined as the process through which customers first become loyal at a cognitive level (knowing), which is followed by an affective level (feeling), then followed by a conative level (willing), and finally at n action level (readiness to act and overcoming obstacle) (Novotová 2018). Cognitive loyalty represents a customer’s thoughts about a particular brand or company but also reflects commitment to information like price and brand features (van Asperen et al. 2018). Cognitive loyalty is based on a company’s (brand’s) performance levels and aspects although it does not relate to the meaning of attachment or commitment (Novotová 2018). However, Gamma (2016) notes that cognitive loyalty has its basis on cognition which in turn derives from experience-based knowledge and second-hand information which in most cases relates to consumers’ perceptions of a company or brand. This implies that cognitive loyalty is the kind of loyalty that customers attribute to a brand or organisation based on the information or knowledge they have about the brand. Of the three types of attitudinal loyalty, cognitive loyalty is considered the weakest (Iankova et al. 2019). On the other hand, Yao et al. (2019) argue that cognitive loyalty is the baseline of customer loyalty in that it helps consumers evaluate products and services before making a purchase decision. On the contrary, Lee et al. (2015) consider cognitive loyalty as a kind of phantom loyalty thus argues that cognitive loyalty is not a part of attitudinal loyalty. This concurs with the conceptualisation of several researchers who posit that attitudinal loyalty consists of conative and affective components. For example, Thakur and Kaur (2015) define attitudinal loyalty as a positive affect towards the continuance of a relationship while Bilgihan et al. (2016) maintain that attitudinal loyalty is a psychological attachment that arises from a consumer’s desire to continue a relation with a company or brand through identification and affective attachment. Still, Selvarajah (2018) argues that attitudinal loyalty is comprised of commitment to an organisation or brand and the intention to continually purchase the brand or from the company. From these perspectives, attitudinal loyalty consists of effective and conative elements and therefore this study will focus on affective and conative loyalty. Affective loyalty can be defined as a positive attitude that a customer has towards a brand of company based on cumulative satisfaction (Iankova et al. 2019). In this case, attitude reflects a pleasurable fulfilment and therefore it is recognised as affect. In the same vein, Novotová (2018) writes that affective loyalty relates to the pleasure customers have using a particular brand which makes them prefer that brand over others available in the market. Analogously, Gamma (2016) notes that affective loyalty primarily relates to customers’ loyalty to emotion or preference and as such affective loyalty addresses a lower level of customer loyalty, and is subject to change. On the contrary, Yao et al. (2019) argue that affective loyalty is related to a psychological bond that a customer has with a brand or organisation based on favourable feelings. From the same perspective, Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016) write that affective loyalty is an affective attachment to a brand or organisation, which influences repetitive purchases. Further, van Asperen et al. (2018) argue that affective loyalty represents the appraisals or emotional responses of customers towards a particular brand, which substantially influences purchase intentions and the decision to continue using the brand or not. From these perspectives, affective loyalty is related to customers’ subjective perceptions and associations about a brand. Additionally, these perspectives denote that affective loyalty is planted in the mind of consumers as an affect as opposed to a mere cognition and therefore it cannot be addressed as a lower level loyalty, which informs its selection in this study. In this study, affective loyalty is defined as an affective attachment that customers have to House of CB. Conative loyalty relates to a customer’s behavioural commitment to repurchase products/services of a specific brand (Novotová 2018). Conation is defined as the commitment to behave towards a particular brand in a particular way which contains a statement to repurchase the brand which ultimately turns into action loyalty meaning that the customer will always purchase that brand (Iankova et al. 2019). Analogously, van Asperen et al. (2018) state that conative loyalty relates to a customer’s desire or behavioural intention or willingness to act towards a particular brand and therefore can be seen as a brand-specific commitment to repurchase. Similarly, Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016) note that conative loyalty is a customer’s intention to repurchase a specific brans and willingness to recommend that brand to other potential customers as well as the willingness to express positive word-of-mouth about that brand. Conative loyalty represents the deepest component of attitudinal loyalty and has a higher likelihood of leading to re-patronage (Iankova et al. 2019). In this study, conative loyalty is a customer’s intention to repurchase and willingness to recommend House of CB products to other potential customers through positive word of mouth.

2.3 Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction refers to the difference between a customer’s expectations and experience performance after using a particular product or service for a given period (Hsiao et al. 2019). On the other hand, Nash (2019) defines customer satisfaction as an emotional and cognitive evaluation of the experience a customer has with a certain product or service and from this perspective, a customer is satisfied if the product/service achieves the level of performance that inspires a pleasant feeling. Analogously, Novotová (2018) writes that customer satisfaction is the result of comparing expectations with actual performance: if perception is below expectations, a customer achieves dissatisfaction but if the perception matches or exceeds expectations, the customer achieves satisfaction. Still, Mas‐Tur et al. (2016) share in the same thought asserting that customer satisfaction derives from the perceived difference between expectation and performance of a certain product/service and as such, customer satisfaction is a feeling of comfort or frustration depending on whether the product/service operates better or worse than the customer expected. Further, Kaura et al. (2015) share in the same though defining customer satisfaction as the function of pre-purchase expectations and post-purchase perceived performance of a given product/service in which a customer expects a positive effect. Therefore, we conclude that various researchers agree on customer satisfaction being the difference between expectations and perceived product/service performance which results in a feeling of comfort or frustration with the product. In this study, customer satisfaction relates to customers’ comfort or frustration in using House of CB products based on the expectations they had after consuming the social media content. In the context of social media marketing, both user-generated content and firm-generated content affect the expectations of a consumer in using a certain product. According to Kim and Park (2017), consumers provide ratings and the reviews that describe their satisfaction level with products thus helping other consumers anticipate their experience with these products. In the same vein, Ramanathan et al. (2017) write that online customer review ratings are a top source of information for consumers and the satisfaction levels expressed through these reviews forms the expectations of the consumer. Additionally, Agnihotri et al. (2016) state that most customers in this digital era make use of store websites to understand previous customer experiences by displaying their feedback as reviews that support shopping decisions. Normally, positive reviews left by previous customers encourage future customers on the basis of perceived satisfaction (Berman 2016). In the fashion industry, consumers access social media platforms to routinely share their views on store choice, brand choice and their experiences with specific brands; therefore influencing the expectations of other consumers in terms of brand choices (Gautam and Sharma 2017). In other words, information of consumer experience through product reviews on social media informs a customer’s expectations on the basis of perceived satisfaction which ultimately impacts of customer satisfaction. In this background, we expect that previous customers’ feedback on satisfaction expressed in review ratings on social media will inform the expectations of future customers and ultimately affect customer satisfaction. We hypothesise that if consumers are satisfied based on the social media information they consume, they are more likely to be loyal to House of CB’s social media platforms.

2.4 Customer Trust

Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016) define trust as a customer’s confidence in an organisation’s or brand’s reliability and relates to a customer’s willingness to engage with the organisation or brand despite the risks that are involved. Similarly, Utami (2015) defines trust as a favourable attitude that reflects the confidence that a consumer has in a company’s reliability and integrity. Novotová (2018) argues that in marketing, an organisation must be able to give consumers a sense of confidence so that the consumer can take action. In the same vein, Utami (2015) writes that trust has a critical role in affecting relational exchanges between an organisation and its customers. A study conducted by Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016) shows that consumers are willing to try brand extensions when the brands are highly trusted and at times, brand trust is seen to compensate for lack of knowledge about the new product. This implies that consumers are willing to purchase a product they have no knowledge about as long as they trust the company and other brands provided by the company. In this study, trust is defined as a consumer’s confidence in the integrity and reliability of a particular organisation which reflects the willingness of the consumer to develop a relational exchange with that particular organisation. Previous literature on customer loyalty has established a positive relationship between trust and customer loyalty. According to Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş (2016), customer satisfaction and trust are the most established drivers of loyalty in marketing activities. In the same vein, Iankova et al. (2019) argue that trust is a product or organisation is an important variable in customer satisfaction and therefore organisations should invest in developing trustworthy relationships with customers by incorporating the aspects of trust in order to form psychological bonds with the customers which in turn will influence customers to continually purchase from the organisation. Companies that are able to develop trusting feelings on their customers are likely to gain loyal customers (Hsiao et al. 2019). Influenced by these perspectives, this study assumes that trust has a mediating role in the association between social media marketing and customer loyalty. This implies that customers will only be able to trust House of CB is they have confidence in the reliability and integrity of the company, which will then influence their willingness to continue shopping with the company and recommending the organisation to other potential customers. The source of information posted on social media by various organisations affects how consumers’ perception of the information in terms of credibility. In this case, social media content can be created by the organisation (firm-generated content) or by consumers (user-generated content) and each of these forms of social media content affected consumer trust.

2.4.1 User-generated content and consumer trust

User-generated content refers to content that is created and publicly made available by end-users in a creative effort (Zhang and Sarvary 2014). Nonetheless, most of studies on this topic consider content creation over content dissemination when conceptualising user-generated content. A study conducted by Adetunji et al. (2017) reveals that the growth of social networking sites and online brand communities have influenced the popularity of user-generated content in social media advertising. Another study conducted by Cheregi (2018) establishes that consumers develop and share content in order to promote themselves, acquire intrinsic enjoyment, and change the existing public perceptions. On the other hand, Skinner (2018) identifies co-creation, empowerment, self-concept, and community as the factors that motivate consumers to generate their content. Halliday (2016) reveals that user-generated content is a rapidly growing driver for brand conversations and consumer insights given that consumers want to express their brand related opinions with their friends and companies. User-generated content is brand-related thus can be categorised as a type of product involvement. A study conducted by Han et al. (2018) reveals that organisations should encourage and share content created by consumers as a way to build relationships with consumers and promote brand awareness. However, Adetunji et al. (2017) note that negative user-generated content can harm a brand’s reputation and equity considering that many consumers believe that user-generated content is more credible than firm-generates content. Extant research has shown that user-generated content has a positive relationship with customer trust. According to Flanagin and Metzger (2013), user-generated content has the capacity to leverage the highly experiential aspects of consumers’ knowledge and information which significantly impacts on customer trust. In agreement, Choi and Lee (2017) write that users have first-hand knowledge or experience with a brand, and therefore are accurately perceived by consumers to have a great deal of experiential credibility. Analogously, Chari et al. (2016) establish that user-generated online product reviews and electronic word-of-mouth is perceived as more credible as compared to content created by marketers given that user-generated content is informed by experience with the product. Further, the results of a study conducted by Goh et al. (2013) shows that the volume of social information provided by internet users is positively related to the information’s perceived credibility, consumers’ reliance on it and their confidence in its accuracy given that users rate a product they have experienced and based on how satisfied they were with the product. Moreover, Kim and Johnson (2016) write that user-generated content is more credible as it is based on experience while that generated by firms could be intended to manipulate consumers towards purchasing a given product. Under this background, this study expects that consumers will be more confident in the credibility of information posted by users such as product reviews and recommendations as this is based on their experience with the products of the House of CB.

2.4.2 Firm-generated content and customer trust

Firm-generated content refers to the messages posted by an organisation on its official social media pages with an aim of promoting brand awareness and increasing sales. According to Kim and Johnson (2016), firm-generated content has a greater ability to provide information that addressed the needs of consumers but its trustworthiness is questionable given that its messages emphasise on the positive aspects of a product in order to enhance perceptions and attract and encourage consumers. Similarly, Flanagin and Metzger (2013) argue that in order to increase sales, marketers embed positive statements in firm-generated content with an aim of creating a favourable product reputation and image. In the same vein, Chari et al. (2016) assert that customers tend to doubt and resist persuasion by firm-generated content since firms overstate product benefits while concealing or omitting problems or weaknesses in order to persuade customers to purchase the products. Another study conducted by Choi and Lee (2017) compares the effect of user-generated content and firm-generated content on customer trust and reveals that firm-generated content typically describes the product information which lowers the credibility of such information, while user-generated content embeds usage experiences which promotes customers’ trust. In light of this information, this study expects that customers will have little or no trust in firm-generated content and therefore they will tend to rely on recommendations and product reviews made by fellow consumers when making purchase decisions.

2.5 Customer Engagement via Social Media

In an era and society in which consumers easily interact with other consumers and organisations through social media, customer engagement through social media is a fundamental part of customer relationship management (van Asperen et al. 2018). Over years, the role of customer engagement is studied in different fields; for example, engaging customers through advertising and in the fashion industry to understand the behaviour of clothing shoppers. However, up-to-date there is no consensus on the concept of customer engagement and therefore different approaches and definitions exist. Brodie et al. (2011) conducted an overview of customer engagement and found about 50 definitions of customer engagement, which are categorised on behavioural, emotional, and cognitive aspects. In the overview article, definitions of customer engagement varied from very broad which focused of the three aspects to narrow which focussed on only one aspect. An example of a broad definition of customer engagement is provided by Verhoef et al. (2010) as cited in (Brodie et al. 2011) who refer to customer engagement as the level of a customer’s cognitive, physical and emotional presence in their relationship with an organisation. In addition, Iankova et al. (2019) define customer engagement based on the three aspects as a customer’s positively-valenced brand related behavioural, emotional, and cognitive activity during or related to focal brand/consumer interactions. As already mentioned, several researchers defined customer engagement based on specific aspects and this forms the narrower definitions of customer engagement. From this orientation, Guesalaga (2016) defines customer engagement as a customer’s behavioural manifestations that have an organisations or brand focus, beyond purchase, emanating from motivational drivers. From the same perspective, Hsiao et al. (2019) also emphasise behavioural aspects of customer engagement which are the act of connecting and involving with a brand or organisation. Iankova et al. (2019) also associate customer engagement with actual customer behaviour. Customer engagement is primarily concerned about developing relations between an organisation and customers along with establishing new and high-value customer relationship (van Asperen et al. 2018). The overriding purpose of connecting and engaging with consumers is to develop that value that these consumers have towards an organisation which in return leads to loyal and more prolonged customers that are willing to spend their money on the products or services of that organisation (Guesalaga 2016). Engagement with a company through the social media has been established to result in a felling of connectedness among customers (Iankova et al. 2019). Additionally, engaged consumers are acknowledge to be of added value for business organisations especially in markets that are dominated by price competition (Nash 2019). Therefore customer engagement is fundamental in generating improved organisational performance. In the fashion industry a number of studies have focused on the impact of customers’ social media engagement. A study conducted by Novotová (2018) showed a positive relationship between customer engagement on social media and brand/organisation’s image. Another study conducted by Nash (2019) also demonstrates there is a positive association between customer engagement on social media and a company’s reputation. Similarly, the findings of a study conducted by Hapsari et al. (2017) reveal that exposure to social media content has positive effects on the perceived product attractiveness.

Several researchers have studied the relation between customer engagement and social media use. For example Harrigan (2015) investigated the relation between customer engagement and social media use and found out that customers feel more engaged with brands and organisations when they are able to submit feedback, and that higher levels of engagement result in higher likelihood of communication via word-of-mouth or social media among customers are their friends. Given the beneficial effects of customer engagement, many companies have developed programmes to increase customers’ brand engagement with a primary focus on customer value (Novotová 2018). This study explores customer engagement from an online perspective, that is, social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter since these sites are the most popular among brands (Iankova et al. 2019). The study follows the engagement classification of Man and Tsai (2013) who studied the motivations of people to engage in brand-related social media use based two types of online engagement: consuming social media content (for example viewing, watching, reading) and contributing to social media content (conversing, reacting, sharing, adding, recommending). With a similar typology, Hsiao et al. (2019) argue that many consumer activity on social networking sites ci comprised of two elements namely viewing and posting which can be termed as passive and active social media use. Although other studies classify customer engagement in other elaborate ways, this study will distinguish only two types of online engagement (passive and active engagement) so that it can draw conclusions more easily by using two extreme ends of the engagement spectrum. Although scholars are yet to come to consensus on the definition of customer engagement and particularly in online customer engagement, online customer engagement is considered a business practice that is fundamental to social media marketing success (Iankova et al. 2019). Many organisations have recognised engagement as the most important online outcome they should deliver with their social media activities and in return they will achieve competitive advantage through having loyal customers (Harrigan et al. 2015). In a study among eConsultany firms, 80% of the firms mentioned that online engagement is important and essential to the company (van Asperen et al. 2018). Therefore, this study assumes that the objectives of customer engagement should include important relational outcomes such as trust, commitment, emotional attachment to a particular brand, and loyalty.

2.6 Social Media Engagement and Customer Loyalty

A number of researchers suggest that social media engagement is positively correlated to customer loyalty. A study conducted by van Asperen et al. (2018) establishes that engaging customers on Facebook has a positive impact on sales and on word-of-mouth communications. Similarly, A study conducted by Lim et al. (2015) shows that internet users that become fan of a particular company’s Facebook page have increased number of visits to the company and have more positive word-of-mouth as opposed to nonfan internet users. Still, a qualitative study conducted by Nisar and Whitehead (2016) reveals that customers that participate in virtual brand communities are more loyal to these brands as compared to other consumers. In the same vein, Lim et al. (2015) establish that social media brand communities have indirect but positive impact on customer loyalty but trust plays a mediating role. Further, Harrigan et al. (2017) note that the social media activities of any company have a positive effect on sales and customer loyalty. Some studies within the fashion context show that social media engagement is positively associated with customer loyalty. A study conducted by Geissinger and Laurell (2016) shows that when consumers involved with a social media page of a fashion shop, they had intentions to revisit that particular social media page and continually purchase from the shop. Another study conducted by Ananda et al. (2015) reveals that the attitudes of customers towards a Facebook page of a fashion operator has a positive impact on customer loyalty but insignificant influence on word-of-mouth communications. As earlier mentioned, this study distinguishes between active and passive social media engagement and therefore the objective of this study under this aspect is to establish whether different forms of engagement (active and passive) with House of CB’s social media activities have different associations with loyalty. In other words, this study seeks to establish whether active and passive social media engagement is related to affective and conative loyalty. Based on studies reviewed above on these concepts, we expect that active and passive social media engagement will have positive impact on affective and conative loyalty.

2.7 Customer loyalty: are customers loyal to retailers or brands?

Existing literature on customer loyalty shows that customers could either be loyal to brands or specific retailers or stores, which would significantly affect small and medium sized entrepreneurs in terms of do they market their brand or the store itself in order to gain loyal customers. In addition, some companies such as House of CB choose some retailers who have a loyal customer base, such as TopShop to sell their brand. This implies that in social media marketing, companies should choose the right content so that they are able to gain customers that are loyal to both the store and the brand. This section reviews literature on customer loyalty towards retailers and brand.

2.7.1 Customer loyalty towards retailers

Consumers can be loyal customers to specific retailers or stores not for the sake of the brands sold in that particular store but influenced by the qualities of the store itself and other factors related to the retailer. If customers do not find their preferred brand in a specific store, they are more likely to buy the brands available in that store because they are more familiar with the retailer as compared to other retailers and appreciate the quality of the brands offered by that retailers and therefore, they will purchase alternative brands because they are loyal to the retailer (González-Benito and Martos-Partal 2012). According to do Vale and Matos (2017), loyalty to the retailer favours loyalty towards the commercialised store brands, which influences customers to buy alternative brands in a store if they do not find their preferred brands because they have trust in the retailer. Numerous studies have explored strategies through which retailers build loyalty towards their stores and the retailer. For example, Sivapalan and Jebarajakirthy (2017) note that although store brands can influence customer loyalty towards a retailer, there are other many factors that contribute to loyalty towards a specific store such as convenience, service quality, and the appearance of the store. Other studies have investigated the role of retailing service quality in influencing customer loyalty towards a particular store or retailers. For example, a study conducted by Frasquet et al. (2017) concludes that enhancing retailing service quality helps retailers to create greater customer value, which in return makes customers more loyal to this particular retailer or store. Similarly, Rubio et al. 2017) assert that enhancing the retailing service quality is the best strategic tool retailers could use to make customers loyal to the retailers and to their stores. Analogously, Sivapalan and Jebarajakirthy (2017) write that is customers have a favourable evaluation of and attitude towards a particular retailer, they tend to be loyal to that retailer which implies that retailers can benefit with loyal customers through enhancing their service quality. In this background, this study argues that retailers can drive customer loyalty towards their stores by enhancing the retailing service quality. Some studies have investigated the relationship between consumers’ perceptions of retail business ethics and customer loyalty to retailers and the results show a positive link between ethical perceptions and customer loyalty to retail stores. According to Diallo and Lambey-Checchin (2017), the morality of a retailer’s behaviour has an influence over customer loyalty towards that specific retailer. In the same vein, Lu et al. (2013) write that retailers who have developed extensive ethics and CSR-related strategies such as social equity, fair trade and cohesion measures shows that such retailers are commit towards contributing to a better quality of life for consumers, employees, and suppliers and therefore, customers prefer purchasing from such retailers in order to support their sustainability mission. Analogously, Frasquet et al. (2017) argue that trust, corporate reputation and CSR have a mediating effect on the relationship between business ethics and customer loyalty towards retailers. Further, Rubio et al. (2017) establish a direct association between customers’ perceptions of a retailer’s ethical conduct and their level of loyalty: customers are more likely to demonstrate behavioural and attitudinal loyalty to an ethical retailer. Nonetheless, do Vale and Matos (2017) write that retailers influence customer loyalty indirectly through trust: customer perceptions of ethical behaviour influence trust and then customer loyalty through trust. In support of the indirect effect of ethical behaviour through trust, Diallo and Lambey-Checchin (2017) write that ethical perceptions towards a given retailer influences trust, which then enhances loyalty to that specific retailer. Therefore, this study assumes that consumers’ perceptions of retail business ethics have a substantial effect on customer loyalty to the retailer. Other studies have focussed on the effect of retailer price positioning on customer loyalty towards retailers. A study conducted by Francioni et al. (2018) shows that consumers generally consider the store’s price image when choosing among different stores. In agreement, do Vale and Matos (2017) emphasise that price is one of the most fundamental marketplace cues employed by retailers loyal customers to their stores. Nonetheless, price facilitates customer loyalty towards retailers only when customers are sensitive to prices (González-Benito and Martos-Partal 2012). Analogously, Frasquet et al. (2017) state that price-conscious customers tend to be more loyal to retailers that implement low-price strategies. From this perspective, a retailer’s price positioning only influences customer loyalty if the customers are price sensitive and therefore, this study assumes that price positioning is not an effective strategy for retailers seeking to gain loyal customers.

2.7.2 Customer loyalty towards brands

In many instances, customers will tend to move from one store to other searching for their preferred brand, which implies that customers are not always loyal to stores but at times to the brands sold in those stores. Brand loyal customers are only willing to buy one brand regardless the store or the retailer they will find it from. Customer loyalty towards brands is influenced by experience and familiarity of specific brands given that positive experience with a brand reduces the perceived risk of buying the product and increases the perceived quality, thus encouraging loyalty (González-Benito and Martos-Partal 2012). In support, Hebblethwaite et al. (2017) write that brand loyal customers have greater experience with the brand which allows the customer to move from one store to the other looking for that particular brand. Customer loyalty to brands allows them to evaluate the results of their consumption repeatedly and if sustained over time, such evaluation contributes to developing trust in the retailer who commercialises the brand and in the brand itself (Kamran-Disfani et al. 2017). Brand loyal customers are considered fundamental for the productivity of survival of business organisations especially in this competitive era (Biscaia et al. 2017). Branding products and attracting loyal customers have therefore emerged imperative components of many organisational competitive strategies (İpek et al. 2016). On the other hand, Riebe et al. (2014) note that retaining loyal customers is more cost effective that attracting new customers given that brand loyal customers re willing to pay higher prices for their favourite brands and are also less price sensitive as compared to other customers. Brand loyal customers are also beneficial in increasing the quality of products and services as they provide important information about the needs and preferences of customers. Brand loyalty literature identifies a number of factors that influence customer loyalty towards brands. Chinomona (2016) argues that the behavioural and perceptional components of brand equity are important elements of branding and thus are extensively used in influencing brand loyal customers. In the same perspective, Jørgensen et al. (2016) write that the symbolic and functional attributes and responsibilities of a brand influences customer loyalty given that consumers perceive a brand and the benefits they receive from consuming it. In the same vein, Dehestani et al. (2013) assert that brand name, brand symbols, and personality significantly affect how customers perceive a brand, which in turn influences their commitment to that particular brand. Analogously, Azad et al. (2014) state that managing the brand perception is an important marketing strategy in that it helps position a brand in a unique way in the minds of customers resulting in sales, margins, profitability, and a continued interest from customers. A study conducted by Jørgensen et al. (2016) reveals that brand perception significantly affects customer loyalty. The study identifies different elements of brand perception which affect the behaviour of customers which are perceived quality, brand awareness, brand fondness, brand association, brand image and the image of the country in which the brand is produced. The results of the study reveal that customers prefer the products that correspond to their image, and they express their characteristics or personality through the products that correspond with their self-image. Similarly, Kamran-Disfani et al. (2017) argue that brand perception is major determinant of customer loyalty: when customers perceive a brand to be of high quality, they have increased fondness and associate with the brand which in turn increases loyalty to that brand. In the same vein, İpek et al. (2016) write that brand perception factors are highly related with self-concept and therefore brand perception is based on customers’ perception of the brand and its associated utility rather than other objective indicators such as price. Brand perception management is seen as an opportunity for the retailer to add value to the product and then generate higher revenues from the product (Dehestani et al. 2013). Other factors that influence brand perception include brand association, perceived quality, brand awareness, brand image, brand fondness, and product country image (Foroudi et al. 2018).

2.8 Hypotheses and Conceptual Model

H1: Social media marketing has a positive impact on customer loyalty in the House of CB

H2: House of CB social media content has a positive effect on customer trust and customer loyalty

H3: Customer-generated content has a positive effect on customer trust and customer loyalty

H4: Social media engagement has a positive effect on customer loyalty

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Philosophy

Saunders et al. (2016) identify two major research philosophies: epistemology and ontology. Ontology considers the assumptions that a researcher makes about the way things work in a particular field of study while epistemology focusses on what can be termed as acceptable knowledge in a given field. Johnston (2014) maintains that epistemology is concerned with what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a given field of study. This study adopts the epistemological stance. From the epistemological stance, a researcher believes that reality is represented by real objects which are used as resources to obtain the required information. In addition, the researcher would generate data from his/her feelings as well as the feelings and attitudes of other people in the field of study. The resources that a researcher embraces in collecting data are commonly referred to as the positivist philosophy to the development of knowledge while the feelings and attitudes are called interpretivist philosophy. This study adopts the positivist philosophy. The positivism philosophy works in a manner similar to that of a natural scientist. The researcher works with observable social reality to produce law-like generalisations such as those produced by a natural scientist (Hughes and Sharrock 2016). In this study, the researcher uses consumers as resources which leads to the production of credible data. Hypotheses are developed based on existing literature and then data is collected to test and confirm these hypotheses. According to Ahmed and Ahmed (2014), the positivism philosophy has a higher ability of providing facts rather than impressions, and for this reason it was adopted for this study. Additionally, positivism does not allow a researcher to alter the collected information which yields more credible results (Saunders et al. 2016), and this also informed the adoption of this philosophical stance for this study. Further, Antwi and Hamza (2014) write that positivism maintains that a researcher is independent and therefore he/she cannot affect or be affected by the respondents in a study, which significantly enhances reliability of the generated data. Despite these strengths of the positivism philosophical stance, Amankwaa (2016) writes that in many instances the credibility and reliability of the generated data is affected by the researchers’ value proposition. In order to overcome this weakness, this study uses a highly structured methodology which facilitates replication. In addition, the study emphasises on quantifiable data that can be statistically analysed.

3.2 Research Approach

Saunders et al. (2016) recognise two approaches to business researcher namely deductive and inductive research approach. The deductive approach uses existing literature to develop hypotheses which are then tested and confirmed using the collected data while the inductive approach develops theory based on the collected data. This study is qualitative in nature and therefore adopts the deductive research approach. According to Ormston et al. (2014), the deductive research approach is very appropriate when a researcher seeks to test the relationship between variables. This study sought to find out the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty and therefore the deductive approach was the most appropriate approach. The literature review chapter allowed the researcher to develop hypotheses that are then tested and confirmed through data collection and analysis. An important characteristic of deduction is that concepts need to be operationalised in a way that enables facts to the measured quantitatively. In this study, the concept of customer loyalty was defined in quantifiable terms of likelihood to repurchase products and the likelihood to recommend the products to friends. Likelihood can be expressed in quantifiable terms such as very likely, likely, neutral, and not likely, and these are used in the study.

3.3 Research Design

Research studies can be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory depending on their purpose (Saunders et al. 2016). An exploratory study is intended to establish what is happening so that the researcher understands a given phenomenon in a new way (Bambale 2014). A descriptive study portrays accurate profiles of persons, events or situations (Bambale 2014). An explanatory study establishes a causal relationship between variables whereby the researcher studies on a situation or problem in order to explain the relationship between the underlying variables (Bambale 2014). In this study, a cursory analysis of quantitative data on consumers’ perception of social media marketing was conducted in order to establish the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty to the marketed brands. The choice of the explanatory research design in this study was influenced by the aim of the study which is to understand the impact of social media marketing on customer loyalty. In order to get a clear view of the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty, the study explores and analyses quantitative data as perceived by consumers.

3.4 Research Strategy

This study adopted the survey research strategy owing to its quantitative nature as well as the adopted deductive approach. The survey strategy has a number of strengths that influenced its selection for this study. First, the survey strategy allows a researcher to collect large amount of data from a sizeable population in a highly economic way (Saunders et al. 2016). In this study, data was obtained using a questionnaire which was administered to the study sample; the questionnaire was standardised thus allowing easy comparison of the generated information. Second, the survey strategy is authoritative since the researcher has autonomy over what data will be collected and the respondents confine their answers within the stipulated measures (Rahi 2017).in this study, the researcher had control over the research process, which made sure that the collected data was not wide-ranging thus easy and faster to analyse using descriptive and inferential statistics. Further, the data generated using a survey strategy can be used to suggest possible reasons for a specific relationship between variables (Bryman 2017) and therefore was considered ideal in exploring the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty.

3.5 Sampling Methods

Sampling techniques are divided into two types namely probability sampling and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling gives each case in the population an equal chance of being selected in the study while the non-probability sampling gives each case in the population an unknown likelihood of being selected for the study (Saunders et al. 2016). This study adopted the probability sampling technique. Within the probability sampling techniques are five main techniques of selecting a representative sample namely simple random, systemic, stratified random, cluster and multi stage sampling, and the choice of the sampling technique depends on the research question and the research objectives (Rahi 2017). Of the five probability sampling techniques, simple random sampling was adopted for this study. The population for this study were all consumers regardless they have purchased from the House of CB or not as long as they are active in social media. This implied that the persons in the researcher’s contact list all qualified to be selected for this study and therefore 128 were randomly selected for the study. Random numbers ensured that the sample was selected without bias and therefore was a true representation of the entire population stored in the phonebook. In order to encourage high response rates, the researcher briefed each selected case and sought a verbal consent for the cases to be part of the study. Upon consent, the questionnaire was sent emailed to the selected cases. For any refusal cases, replacement was made in order to ensure the sample size remained representative of the entire population in the phonebook.

3.6 Data Collection Instrument

Self-administered questionnaires were used as data collection instruments in this study. These were administered electronically using the LSBU online surveys platform. The selected sample was computer-literate and therefore could be contacted through emails, which informed the selected of self-administered questionnaires through the internet. In addition, there was high confidence that the right persons had responded given the questionnaires were targeted to individuals. To lower the risk of contaminated data that would reduce the data’s reliability, the sample was only known to the researcher so that the respondents did not discuss their answers. To further promote response rate, the sample was allowed 6 days to complete the questionnaire and email it back: the longer duration ensured that the respondents had enough time to complete the survey. The information contained in the questionnaire was informed by the research aim and objectives. The questionnaire was divided into four parts: demographic information, social media marketing and customer trust, social media marketing and customer satisfaction, and social media engagement and customer loyalty. Given the explanatory nature of this study, the research objectives were subdivided into more specific investigative questions and measurements developed to capture data required for each part of the objective. All the questions were investigative in nature in order to gather information that satisfactorily answered the research question and met each objective of the study. The questionnaire had 14 questions.

3.7 Data Analysis

The generated data was analysed quantitatively using descriptive and inferential statistics. The generated data was first coded, entered into a computer and checked for errors. Frequency distribution tables were used to show the specific values while diagrams were used to show the highest and lowest values. In addition, contingency tables (cross-tabulation) were used to show specific values and interdependence while values and proportions were compared using percentage pie charts. The chi square test was used to find out whether social media marketing was associated with customer loyalty. Descriptive analysed helped in describing the generated data and relating it to the insights gained while conducting the literature review. Microsoft Excel was used for graphical representation of the data.

3.8 Validity, reliability and Ethical considerations

Validity focuses on whether the research findings are a true representation of the reality while reliability is concerned with the extent to which the same data can be obtained in future studies (Saunders et al. 2016). To promote the reliability of the study findings, the questionnaire was self-administered and the respondents were not allowed to discuss their answers thus the questionnaire was independently completed. Additionally, the questions were clearly formulated to ensure they made were understood by respondents in the way they were intended by the researcher. To promote validity, the questions in the questionnaire were all investigative and were defined based on the literature review. Additionally, the project supervisor was used to assess whether each measurement question in the questionnaire was essential. The observed research ethics in this study included informed consent; the researcher sought respondents’ consent to participate in the study by first explaining the purpose of the research and then requesting each case to be part of the study. No any form of incentives was given to manipulate the cases to participate in this study. Second, the privacy and confidentiality of the respondents was maintained by ensuring personal information was not a salient feature of the study. Anonymization, through the use of codes, was used to ensure the generated information could not be tracked back to the source. Third, the study adopted the voluntary nature of participation and therefore the respondents were given the right to withdraw at will or omit any questions they were not confident answering for whatever reason. Throughout the data collection process, the researcher engaged the respondents in a way that did not cause stress, harm, discomfort, or pain thus ensuring the respondents were happy and comfortable throughout the data collection period.

3.9 Limitations

The major limitation of the study findings is generalisability of the research findings given that the information is collected from a sample of 20 persons thus not a representative of the entire population in the fashion industry. Therefore, future researchers should research the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty with a larger sample (of not less than 200 participants) and compared their findings to those of this study. The other limitation relates to the generalisability of the findings to the House of CB: the sample was selected based on internet usage and consumption behaviour but not particularly because they shop with the House of CB. Therefore, future studies should conduct a similar study with a sample generated from House of CB’s loyal customer base and compared the findings with those of this study. Future studies could also consider other data collection instruments such as semi-structured interviews or interviewer-administered questionnaires and compare the findings to those of this study.

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS

A semi structured questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument and it was sent to a sample of 128 persons. The questionnaire had four sections including demographic information, social media marketing and customer trust, social media marketing and customer satisfaction, and social media engagement and customer loyalty. The study achieved 100% response rate and the sections below summarises the findings.

4.1 Demographic Information

Gender

As shown in figure 1, out of the 128 study participants, 106 (82.8%) were female, 21 (16.4%) were female and 1(0.8%) were others. The participant that fell in the category of others specified to be a non-binary.

Age

As shown in figure 2, the study participants below the age of 20 years were 4, those between 20 and 25 years were 36, those between 26 and 30 years were 67, those between 31 and 35 years were 13, those between 36 and 40 years were 2 and those above 40 years were 6. This means that most of the study participants (52.3%) were aged between 26 and 30 years, followed by those aged 20 to 25 years (28.1%), followed by those aged between 31 to 35 years (10.2%), followed by those above 40 years (4.7%), followed by those below the age of 20 years (3.1%) while the least were those aged between 36 and 40 years (1.6%). Therefore, the respondents were evenly spread between the six age groups.

Social media platforms popular among the participants

Six social media platforms were identified and the study participants were asked to check all the social media platforms they were active in and they were also given the option of including other platforms they used. Of the six identified social media platforms, Instagram was the most popular scoring 94.5%, followed by Facebook (56.3), followed by Twitter (48.4), followed by Pinterest (32.8), then Tumblr (7%), then Vine at 0.8%. In the category of others, the study participants identified WhatsApp, TikTok, and YouTube.

4.2 Social media marketing and customer satisfaction

Customers that review product ratings and reviews on social media in the decision making process

The study participants were asked whether they ever visited a store’s website or social media page to find out how previous customer rated or reviewed a product prior to making purchases. As shown in figure 4, 73% of the participants indicated they did while 27% indicated they did not. The 73% that indicated they checked the reviews of previous customers were further asked if checking product reviews and ratings affected their purchase decision and the figure below summarises the findings.

Does product reviews affect purchase decisions

From figure 5, it is evident that most consumers (89%) are affected by product reviews and ratings as they make purchase decisions while 11% are not affected product reviews and ratings left by previous customers as they make purchase decisions.

Product review ratings and anticipated satisfaction

The participants were asked whether product ratings and comments left by previous customers about a particular product help them anticipate their experience with that particular product and the figure below summarises their feedback.

As shown in figure 6, most of the participants (61%) indicated that product ratings and comments left on social media platforms by previous customers helps them anticipate their experience with that specific brand, 37% were not sure how previous ratings and reviews affected their anticipated experience while the remaining 2% indicated that comments and ratings left by previous customers do not help them anticipate their experience with the product. The respondents were then asked to react to the following statement, “”social media marketing informs my anticipated experience with the advertised product which ultimately affects my level of satisfaction with the product.” The figure below summarises the reactions.

As shown in figure 7, 16% of the respondents strongly agreed that social media marketing informs anticipated experience which ultimately affects their level of satisfaction with the product, 55% agreed with the statement, 23% were neutral to the statement, 6% disagreed with the statement while none of the respondents strongly disagreed with the statement.

4.3 Social media marketing and customer trust

Among the objectives of the study was to establish how credible consumers found social media content and how it affected their purchase decisions. In order to meet this objective, the respondents were asked between firm-generated content and consumer-generated content which they found to be more credible and the figure below summarises the findings.

As shown in figure 8, most of the study participants (91%) found information posted by consumers more credible while 9% found information posted by firms more credible. The respondents were then asked to give reasons for their choices. One of the respondents indicated that consumer-generated content was more credible given that previous customers give reviews and rate a product based on their experience and the anticipated experience. Another respondent indicated that user-generated content is more credible as it depicts authenticity. However, the respondent indicated that with the rise of social media influencers, it is challenging to trust the information posted by users. Nonetheless, the respondents indicated it is easier to trust user-generated content as opposed to firm-generated content as companies are always seeking to market their products without even experiencing them. In support of consumer-generated content, another respondent mentioned that when companies publish anything about their products, they are more likely to embellish the product, which makes firm-generated content less credible. Finally, another respondent indicated user-generated content is more credible because product reviews by previous customers are a true reflection of what the product can attain. In order to find out if trust in the social media content affects consumer decision making, the study participants were asked whether they relied on both firm-generated content and user-generated content in making purchase decisions. The figures below summarise the findings.

As shown in figure 9, some customers (8%) always rely on firm-generated content when making purchase decisions, most of the respondents (86%) sometimes rely on firm-generated content when making purchase decisions while 6% never relies on firm-generated content when making purchase decisions.

As shown in figure 10, a significant number of the study participants (37%) indicated they always rely on user-generated content when making purchase decisions, most of the respondents (60%) indicated they sometimes rely on user-generated information when making purchase decisions, while some respondents (2%) indicated they never rely on user-generated content when making purchase decisions.

4.4 Social media marketing and customer loyalty

In order to relate the study findings to the house of CB, the remaining sections of the questionnaire integrated the House of CB. The study participants were first asked whether they know the House of CB, whether they have shopped from the house of CB, and whether they have intentions to purchase form the house of CB in the future. The table below presents the findings.

As shown in table 1, 59% of the respondents know the House of CB, 38% have purchased from the House of CB and 81% have intentions to purchase from the House of CB in the future. However, 41% of the study participants do not know the House of CB, 62% have never purchased from the House of CB and 19% had no intentions to purchase from the House of CB in the future. From the findings, the House of CB is quite popular among the respondents even though most of them have never purchased from it: with this popularity, most of the study participants have intentions to purchase from the company in the future. The study then sought to find out how the House of CB engages its customers on social media and if social media engagement has an effect on customer loyalty. First, the respondents were asked to react to the statement that “the House of CB passively engages its customers on social media which means that customers can only view, watch, or read the posted content”. 57% of the respondents agreed with this statement while 43% of the study participants disagreed with the statement. Second, the study respondents were asked to react to the statement, “the House of CB actively engages its customers on social media which means that customers can converse, react, share, add, or recommend the information posted by the House of CB.” 87% of the respondents agreed with this statement while 13%% of the respondents disagreed that the House of CB actively engages its customers of social media. The remaining part of questionnaire sought to establish whether the House of CB has been able to influence loyal customers through social media engagement. The following figures present the findings.

Statement:

I have a higher likelihood of making the House of CB my first choice

Response

Statement:

I am highly likely to share opinion about the House of CB and its products

Response

Statement:

I have a higher likelihood of making suggestions to the House of CB

Response

Statement:

I have a higher likelihood of rebuying products provided by the House of CB

Response:

Statement:

The likelihood of me recommending House of CB social media sites to my friends is high

Response:

Statement:

I have a high likelihood of defending the House of CB and its products

Response:

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION

5.1 Introduction

The aim of the study was to explore the influence of social media marketing on customer loyalty in the clothing industry with a focus on the House of CB. A semi-structured questionnaire was used as the data collection tool and it was sent to a sample of 128 persons. The study attained a 100% response rate which means that all the selected participants filled in the questionnaire and sent it back to the researcher within the allowed timeframe. This chapter discusses the findings in relation to the reviewed literature while linking the information to the research objectives.

5.2 Consumer Demographics

Eighty three percent (83%) of the respondents were female, 16% were male and 1% was non-binary. These cannot be said to be a fair representative of the UK consumers because the sample was randomly selected and the selected sample it too small to be a representation of the entire UK population. In terms of age, a majority of the respondents were aged between 26 and 30 years followed by those aged between 20 and 25 years. This shows that most of the consumers in the UK and specifically in the clothing industry are aged between 20 and 30 years. In relation to popularity of the social media platforms in use in the UK, Instagram emerged the most popular among the respondents with a score of 95% followed by Facebook with a score of 56% and then Twitter with a score of 48% and then Pinterest with a score of 32%. This means that most of the UK consumers are active on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. However, it must be taken into account that most of the respondents in this study were aged between 20 and 30 years, which implies that most of the persons in this age group are more active on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest as compared to the other social media platforms in use in the UK. These findings contradict those of a study conducted by Duffet (2015) which shows that Facebook is the most popular social media platform among all other social media platforms. The study also opposes the findings of a study conducted by Juntunen et al. (2019) which shows that Twitter is the second most popular social media site after Facebook while in this study it comes after Instagram and Facebook in terms of popularity. However, Juntunen et al. (2019) argue that there is scarce literature that examines Instagram as a social media marketing tool which could imply that Instagram is popular among consumers only that it has not attracted the attention of many researchers. Other social media platforms that were mentioned in this study include Tumblr, Vine, WhatsApp, Tiktok, and YouTube but only a few respondents were active on these platforms which agrees to previous research which has rarely investigated how active consumers and organisations are active on these social media platforms for marketing and purchase decisions.

5.3 Social media marketing and customer satisfaction

The first objective of this study was to find out if social media marketing has an effect of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the performance of a given product which is determined by the expectations a consumer has prior to purchasing a product and the experience after using the product: when a product meets customer pre-purchase expectations, then the consumer is satisfied with the product but when the experience with the product does not match the pre-purchase expectations, the consumer is said to be dissatisfied with the product (). Social media marketing largely influences consumers’ expectations, which in turn affects their level of satisfaction with the advertised product. A study conducted by Kim and Park (2017) shows that product ratings and reviews left by previous customers is a description of their level of satisfaction with a product which helps future customers to anticipate their experience with these products. Analogously, Ramanathan et al. (2017) argue that product reviews and ratings are a top source of information for consumers which helps anticipate their experience with a product. The findings of this study agree with previous studies in that the current study reveals that most of the consumers review product ratings and review prior to purchasing a product and the products ratings and reviews largely affect their purchase decisions. According to Agnihorti et al. (2016), positive reviews left by previous customers encourage future consumers to purchase a given product as they show that a product will meet the need for which it is purchased. This study agrees to the findings of the study conducted by Agnihorti et al. (2016) in that most of the respondents indicated that they use the comments and product ratings left by previous customers to anticipate their experience with a particular product. When asked if social media marketing informs their anticipated experience with an advertised product which affects their level of satisfaction with the product, the respondents agreed, which implies that social media marketing influences customer satisfaction by helping customers anticipate their experience with a particular product based on how other consumers have rated and reviewed the product. This agrees to the findings of a study conducted by Gautam and Sharma (2017) which reveals that customers in the fashion industry access social media platforms to routinely share their views on a given store or brand and their experiences with specific brand which influenced the expectations of other customers in terms of brand choice. Therefore, we can conclude that products reviews and ratings left by previous customers of social media is a major source of information for consumers seeking to purchase a product and this information helps customers anticipate their experience with that particular product which eventually affects their level of satisfaction. This finding confirms the hypothesis that previous customers’ feedback on satisfaction expressed through product reviews and ratings on social media informs the expectations of future customers which eventually affects customer satisfaction.

5.4 Social media marketing and customer trust

Customer trust is reflected through a consumer’s confidence in an organization or its products which significantly affects the customer’s willingness to engage with the organization and its products (Tatar and Eren-Erdogmus 2016). Without customer trust, it is very difficult for an organization to have loyal customers given that the customers have no confidence in the organization thus would not risk buying its products and expecting to find satisfaction in the products. Therefore, customer trust can be said to mediate the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty. In the context of social media marketing, the credibility of the social media content significantly affects customer trust and their purchase decision: customers will not make a purchase if they confidence in the advertising message (Iankova et al. 2019). Informed by previous literature, this study established that the source of information posted on social media platforms affects how consumers perceive the information in terms of credibility and therefore set out to investigate which among user-generated content and firm-generated content is more credible in the social media marketing context. Ninety one percent (91%) of the respondents found consumer-generated information more credible while 9% of the respondents found firm-generated content to be more credible. When asked to explain their responses, some respondents indicated that user-generated content is more credible given that it is based on the experiences of previous customers as compared to their anticipated experience. Others indicated that user-generated content is more credible as it depicts authenticity. Therefore, this study can conclude that user-generated content is more credible which concurs with previous research. For example, Choi and Lee (2017) argue that user generated content leverages the highly experiential aspects of customers’ knowledge and information. In the same vein, Flanagin and Metzger (2013) argue that customers have first-hand knowledge and experience with a given product thus their marketing information is more credible. Despite user-generated content been perceived as the most credible source of information in the purchase decision-making process, some respondents were concerned with the rising number of social media influencers who are making it difficult to trust information posted by consumers in the social networking sites. In their perspective, the rise of social media influencers is lowering the credibility of user-generated content as these influencers are hired by organisations to drive sales. In existing literature, some researchers have explored the effect of social media influencers on the credibility of user-generated content. A study conducted by Neilsen (2013) reveals that consumers have higher trust in influencers they follow and online reviews made by these influencers as these influencers are considered experts. Nonetheless, the study laments that consumers would trust influencers on the basis of being attractive and likeable as opposed to being authentic and expert. In essence, consumers are more likely to believe content posted by influencers they know and like as opposed to that posted by authentic and expert influencers that they do not know. The findings of another study conducted by Tolson (2010) agree to those of this study that new forms of sponsored content are gaining ground whereby organisations are collaborating with social media influencers to endorse their products and shape the attitudes of consumers through social media. In the same vein, Uzunoglu and Misci Kip (2014) argue that blogs and video blogs produced by social media influencers are becoming increasingly popular as a brand communication channel given their ability to reach mass audiences but the credibility of the information in these channels is questionable. In agreement, Tolson (2010) argues that the content generated by non-journalists or amateurs is perceived to be more authentic than that posted by professional social media influencers due to its spontaneity and freshness. The credibility of the amateurs can also be attributed to the authenticity of ordinary people as compared to political elites and big brands (Scott 2015). The sponsored content could at times take the form of authentic opinions and experiences of the influencer thus becoming confusing to the consumers and in this case, consumers should consider the transparency of the sponsored content before relying on it to make purchase decisions (van Reijmersdal et al. 2016). Therefore, the rise of social media influencers is posing a significant threat to the credibility of user-generated content.

Despite the established credibility of user-generated content, some of the respondents found firm-generated content more credible as organisations are sure of the problem their products are solving and the extent to which the product is accurate thus their marketing messages are authentic. Previous literature partially concurs with this finding. For example, Kim and Johnson (2016) establish that firm-generated content has a greater ability to provide information that addresses the needs of consumers and the extent to which its relates to their products but the study also notes that the trustworthiness of firm-generated content is questionable in that the messages emphasise the positive aspects of the product while ignoring the negative aspects so as to attract and enhance the perceptions of consumers. In agreement, (Chari et al. (2016) assert that customers tend to doubt and resist persuasion by firm-generated content because organisations overstate product benefits while omitting or concealing weakness or problems in order to persuade consumers. Further, Choi and Lee (2017) reveal that organisations typically describe their products which lower the credibility of such information. Therefore, the findings of this study generally agrees with previous research revealing that user-generated content is more credible as compared to firm-generated content but the rise of social media influencers is threatening the credibility of user-generated content. Having established that user-generated content is more credible than firm-generated content, the study then sought to establish is trust in social media content affects consumer decision making. Most of the respondents indicated they mostly relied on user-generated content when making purchase decisions while others indicated they sometimes relied on firm-generated content when making purchase decisions. Choi and Lee (2017) argue that consumers rely of user-generated content when making purchase decisions as fellow consumers have knowledge and experience with the product and therefore they accurately express tell what the product can attain through their experience. In support, Chari et al. (2016) argue that user-generated content is based on consumers’ experience with a particular product thus more reliable in the purchase decision making process. Further, Goh et al. (2013) argues that user-generated content is informed by consumers’ experience with a product thus a more reliable source of information to those making purchase decisions. This confirms the third hypothesis: customer-generated content has a positive effect on customer trust and customer loyalty.

5.5 Social media marketing and customer loyalty

Customer engagement via social media remains a relatively new concept but it has received a lot of attention in literature. Many organisations including the House of CB actively use social media to increase customers’ engagement with their brand. However, only a few researchers have focussed on the effects of social media engagement on customer behaviour and particularly on customer loyalty. Therefore among the objectives of this study was to investigate the relationship between social media engagement and customer loyalty. In order to attain this objective, the study focuses on the relationships between consuming social media content (passive engagement), contributing to social media content (active engagement), and customer loyalty (both affective and conative). The results of the study indicate that the participants that are engaged with the House of CB via social media platforms have a consumptive behaviour on social media as opposed to a contributive behaviour; that is, they prefer to read content posted by the House of CB and other consumers instead of interacting with the company and other consumers. The majority of the participants seemed to prefer passive over active behaviour as they majorly used social media content to help in making purchase decisions rather than posting content to help others in the purchase decision making process. This is in line with previous findings (van Asperen et al. 2018; Men and Tsai 2013; and Romero et al. 2011). This might explain why most of the respondents disagreed to the statement that they have a higher likelihood of making suggestions to the House of CB while a significant number of the respondents indicated they were not sure they would defend the House of CB on social media; reason being, they passively engage with the House of CB as opposed to actively engaging with the House of CB. All the respondents use social media but only a small part of them (18%) has ever engaged with the House of CB. Nonetheless, a majority of the respondents (81%) have intentions to purchase from the case company in the future which implies the respondents have a low likelihood of engaging with the case company at the present but have a higher likelihood of engaging with the House of CB on social media in the future. A study conducted by van Asperen et al. (2018) showed that in general, more than half of the customers do not engage with organisations and brands on social media, which is evident in this study as most of the respondents do not engage with the House of CB on social media but instead uses social media as a source of information when making purchase decisions. Another study conducted by Baird and Parasnis (2011) reveals that consumers mainly use social media to connect with family and friends instead of companies but in some cases, they use social media to find product reviews when making purchase decisions, which is very clear in this study. Despite the idea that consumes could use social media to connect to specific brands in order to enhance social status, many brands do not receive consumer’s attention on social media given firm-generated content is deemed less authentic. Instead, consumers end up connecting with fellow consumers on social media in order to understand the experiences fellow consumers have had with a specific brand and eventually, they end up socializing rather than engaging with a company (Fournier and Avery 2011). Among the attributes of customer loyalty adopted in this study were the likelihood to make the House of CB the first priority, the likelihood to share opinion about the House of CB and its products, the likelihood of making suggestions to the House of CB, the likelihood of rebuying products provided by the House of CB, the likelihood of recommending the House of CB’s social media sites to friends, and the likelihood of defending the House of CB. A majority of the respondents (47%) were not sure they would make the House of CB their first priority, 49% of the respondents had a higher likelihood of sharing opinions about the House of CB, 35% were not sure they would make suggestions to the House of CB, 45% had a higher likelihood of rebuying from the House of CB, 41% had a very high likelihood of recommending the social sites of the House of CB to friends, while 37% were not sure they would defend the House of CB on social media. Affective loyalty, being the positive attitude that a customer has towards a brand based on cumulative satisfaction, makes customers prefer a particular brand over other available in the market. Customers who show affective loyalty to a given organisation or brand have preference to that particular company or brand and therefore they have a higher likelihood of making that organisation their first priority. In this study, most of the respondents were not sure they would make the House of CB and its products their first priority which means that score low on affective loyalty. A study conducted by Gamma (2016) reveals that affective loyalty addresses a lower level of customer loyalty and is subject to change which implies that the House of CB stands a chance of gaining more loyal customers if it would succeed in making its products the most favourable in the market. However, Tatar and Eren-Erdogmus (2016) argue that effective loyalty is an attachment to a brand or an organisation which results in repetitive purchases; this implies that for the House of CB to benefit with customers that repetitively purchase its products, it has to first work on affective loyalty which means doing everything possible to make its products the mots preferred in the market. Nonetheless, a study conducted by van Asperen et al. (2018) shows that a higher level of passive engagement positively influences affective loyalty towards an organisation. The findings of this study shows that most of the respondents are passively engaging with the House of CB and from van Asperen’s perspective, House of CB could in the future have more customers with affective loyalty by virtue of passive engagement.

Conative loyalty relates to a consumer’s behavioural commitment to repurchase products or services offered to a specific company (Novotova 2018). In addition, conative loyalty relates to a consumer’s behavioural intention, desire or willingness to act towards a particular brand which can be seen as commitment to a given brand. In this study, a majority of the respondents had a higher likelihood of sharing opinions about the House of CB, some would make suggestions to the House of CB, 45% had a higher likelihood of rebuying from the House of CB, and 41% had a very high likelihood of recommending the social sites of the House of CB to friends. With this kind of behaviour, it is evident that most of the respondents are committed to the House of CB and even if not all would repetitively purchase from the company, a majority have the willingness to act in a favourable way towards the House of CB. This is a high score on conative loyalty, which promotes loyalty to the company. A study conducted by van Asperen et al. (2018) shows that higher levels of passive social media engagement do not influence intentions to actively show loyalty behaviour such as spreading positive word of mouth or revisiting a company. Thus, in line with expectations, passive consumers have much affection towards a company and have high rebuy intentions. Overall, this study shows there is a positive relationship between passive social media engagement and conative loyalty, but no other significant relationships (i.e. between active social media engagement and conative loyalty, and between both passive and active social media engagement and affective loyalty).

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Conclusion

Social media marketing has received a lot of attention in literature (Zhang and Li 2019; Iankova et al. 2019; van Asperen et al. 2018; Iankova et al. 2019; Novotová 2018; and Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş 2016 among others). Originally, social media was used for socialisation purposes (Men and Tsai 2013) but today, many organisations actively use social media to increase customer engagement with their brands hoping to benefit with loyal customers (Mangold and Faulds 2009). Despite the attention given to social media marketing, the problem that prompted this study was scarcity of literature on the effect of social media marketing on consumer behaviour and in particular on customer loyalty (van Asperen et al. 2018; Shu and Scott 2014; and Hudson and Thal 2013). This study explores the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty focusing on the House of CB. More specifically, the study focuses on the relationships between social media content (passive and active content), customer trust, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty (affective and conative loyalty). The expectations of the study were:

Social media marketing would positively affect customer loyalty

Firm-generated content would have positive effect on customer trust and customer loyalty

User-generated content would have positive effect on customer trust and customer loyalty

Social media engagement (active) would have positive effect on both affective and conative customer loyalty

As per expectations, the findings of the study reveal there is a positive relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty. However, the relationship above is affected by various factors one of them being the source of the content posted on social media platforms. Contrary to expectations, the findings reveal that firm-generated content has a negative relationship with customer trust and given the mediating role of customer trust in the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty, firm-generated content is likely to have a negative effect on customer loyalty. Firm-generated content overstates the benefits of a product while overlooking its weaknesses which lowers its credibility (Chari et al. 2016). Additionally, firm generated content typically describes a product without incorporating the experience of those who have used it before, which makes it less authentic (Choi and Lee 2017). The study therefore concludes that firm-generated content is less authentic thus has a lower likelihood of enhancing customer loyalty. In line with the expectations, user-generated content was positively relation to customer trust and customer loyalty. The study establishes that user-generated content is informed by customers’ experience with a product thus more authentic. However, the study also establishes that the credibility of user-generated content is diminishing with the rise of use of social media influencers. The study also expected that active social media engagement would have a positive effect on both affective and conative customer loyalty. However, the study only establishes a positive relationship between passive social media engagement and conative loyalty but no other significant relationships between active social media engagement and conative loyalty, and between active and passive social media engagement and affective customer loyalty. This is contrary to the findings of a study conducted by van Asperen et al. (2018) which establishes there is a positive relationship between passive social media engagement and affective loyalty.

6.2 Limitations and Implications for future Research

This study has a few limitations. Based on the reviewed literature, this study hypothesised that social media engagement influences customer loyalty but this relationship could be reverse. A study conducted by Asperen et al. (2018) reveals that customer loyalty positively influences social media engagement in that customers that are loyal to a particular brand spend more time consuming information related to that brand on social media and they more actively contribute to that brand’s social pages. However, this study was only able to confirm the relationship between social media engagement and customer loyalty but not the effect of customer loyalty of social media engagement. Therefore, future research is recommended to investigate the direction of the relationship between customer engagement and social media engagement. Furthermore, since this study contained only a small sample with consumers that are not engaged with the social media activities of the case company, future research with a larger sample might shed more light on the relationship between social media engagement and customer loyalty and vice versa. This study expected that social media marketing influences customer satisfaction which in turn influences customer loyalty. The findings of the study partially met this expectation: user-generated content helps consumers anticipate their experience with a particular product which in turn determines the extent to which they are satisfied with the brand after purchasing and consuming. However, the study does not determine if firm-generated content affects customer satisfaction and the effect this could have on customer loyalty. Future research with a sample comprising people actively engaging with the case company would shed more light on the effect of firm-generated content on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. This study expected that user-generated content has a positive effect on customer trust and customer loyalty. The findings meet this expectation but raise a question on the effect of social media influencers on the credibility of user-generated content. The study hints that social media influencers lower the credibility of user-generated content but given that this was not a point of major concern, nothing much is established. Therefore, future research should investigate the effect of social media influencers on the credibility of user-generated content and the extent to which this would affect social media marketing. Another limitation relates to the generalisability of the study findings. The study has a sample of 128 respondents which cannot be a representative of all consumers or even those in the fashion industry. This implies that the findings of this study cannot be generalised to the fashion industry which underscores the need to future research to have a much bigger sample. Additionally, not all the respondents were aware of the case company and a majority had never purchased from the case company, which means they were not the best sources of information. However, given the effects of the Corona Pandemic (lockdown in particular), it was not possible to approach the company for a list of its customers. Therefore, this study assumed that by being consumers and social media users, the sample had the knowledge required to answer the research question. For more accurate results, future research should consider a sample that knows the case company and are actively engaged with it. It is also recommended that future research use mixed methods for more insight into the relationship between social media marketing and customer satisfaction, and may provide answers to more questions such as why customers prefer to passively engage with brands on social media rather that actively engage. Despite these limitations, the study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between social media marketing and customer loyalty as well as the role of customer trust, customer satisfaction, and social media engagement in this relationship. Therefore, we can conclude that companies using social media marketing and maintaining social media engagement may increase customers’ level of loyalty.

6.3 Implications for Practitioners

The study establishes that social media marketing enhances customer loyalty through customer trust, customer satisfaction and customer engagement on the social media. Therefore, it is recommended that the case company and other companies in the fashion industry should continue or increase their efforts on social media. The study establishes that passive engagement is positively related to conative customer loyalty and therefore the case company and other companies in the fashion industry should provide as much information as possible on its social media platforms so that customer can have enough information about the company and its products. However, previous literature shows that active social media engagement has a positive relationship with affective customer loyalty and therefore, it is recommended that the case company and other firms in the fashion industry should embrace interactive social media sites. These companies should continue to offer interaction opportunities on social media for their customers and potential customers to share their ideas and comments which could drive more traffic to the social media pages as well as drive sales. Although creating opportunities for consumers to interact on social media will not increase their levels of conative loyalty, it is likely that their affective loyalty will increase through watching the online activities which will be beneficial for the firms. The study also establishes that consumers find user-generated content more credible as compared to firm-generated content. However, some consumers rely of firm-generated content or information posted by their known or liked social media influencers therefore these two sources are still significant. Therefore, it is recommended that the case company and other firms in the fashion industry should use lots of user-generated content to market their products but also incorporate firm-generated content and sponsored content to appeal to the preferences of various customer segments. Nonetheless, practitioners should recognise that consumers are cautious of sponsored content and should therefore use its sparingly or in a way that appears authentic rather than persuasive. The study further established that among the reasons consumers find firm-generated content less authentic is the fact that it majorly describes a product without incorporating information on how that product works. It is therefore recommended that practitioners should include product reviews in the advertising messages or at least the outcome that consumers should expect. This would not only promote customer satisfaction (through anticipated experience) but also drive customer loyalty as consumers would look forward to repurchasing products as the company would be deemed to be very credible. For this to be attained, the company must ensure the minimum benefits are explained in the advertising message so that after consumption, consumers experience more than they expected. It also means that practitioners should stop overstating the benefits of their products but instead focus on what customers should expect should it negative or positive. The findings provide evidence that for the case company and other firms in the fashion industry to employ social media marketing, it is important to optimise online effectiveness and engage with customers both actively and passively; this will result in increased levels of customer loyalty.

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