Consumer Brand Relationship (CBR) in SMM Context: Does It Matter for SMEs e-Brand Equity?

The growing research stream of consumer brand relationship (CBR) indicates that brands can build strong relationships with consumers. However, the study on how CBR in the digital branding context toward SMEs brand equity building is still very limited. Digital branding approach in this study is focused on customer’s perception of social media marketing (SMM) activities in SMEs brand building effort. Existing research in SMM activities and CBR context is largely concerned with global businesses or larger companies and research focusing on SMEs is still lacking. Thus, aim of this study is to investigate the role of CBR in SMM activities toward SMEs e-brand equity building. The electronic survey method was administered on 500 respondents. However, only 300 samples were retrieved for analysis, using the PLS-SEM. Findings revealed the remarkable role of the CBR in SMEs. Thus, it suggests that the CBR strategy should not be exempted when dealing with digital branding methods (such as SMM activities) when explaining the SMEs e-brand equity.