Modelling the significance of social media marketing activities, brand equity and loyalty to predict consumers’ willingness to pay premium price for portable tech gadgets

In order to sustain business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all industries have to adopt online technology and social media marketing activities (SMMAs). Globally, portable tech gadgets are rapidly expanding, but empirical studies on SMMAs in relation to portable tech gadgets in Malaysia have remained scarce. Therefore, this study examined the elements of SMMAs and their influence on brand equity in terms of brand awareness (BBA) and brand image (BBI) as well as brand loyalty (BRL) and willingness to pay premium price (WPP) among Malaysian consumers of portable tech gadgets users. Five components of SMMAs, namely entertainment (ENT), interactivity (INT), trendiness (TRE), customisation (CUS), and electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM), were examined to understand how SMMAs influence BBA, BBI, BRL, and…