The impact of social media marketing activities on brand equity in the banking sector in Bangladesh: the mediating role of brand love and brand trust

Purpose This research aims to explore the impact of social media marketing (SMM) activities on brand equity (BE) in the banking sector in Bangladesh. Moreover, brand love and brand trust are examined as a mediator of SMM activities and BE. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from a total of 289 banking customers in Bangladesh through a structured questionnaire and the hypotheses were examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings The results validated that SMM activities have no significant influence on BE directly. Furthermore, brand love fully mediates the linkage between SMM activities and BE. Likewise, brand trust was found to have a partial mediation effect on SMM activities and BE. Research limitations/implications This study was based on a specific sector in…