Analyzing the impact of viral marketing on brand equity dimensions in Egypt’s home appliances sector: A customer and legal perspective

The reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, whom they try to impress, especially the millennials. Hence, this study intends to study the perceptions of millennials towards brand activism, so that the findings from the study can help the brand managers to steer their brands into the troubled waters of brand activism. The methodology followed is HTAB (Hypothesize, Test, Action, Business), a popular analysis framework given by Ken Black in his book titled “Business Statistics: Contemporary Decision Making (6th ed.)” A sample comprising of 286 respondents was collected. The final data had 286 observations and 45 features across seven categories.

It was found that millennials prefer to buy a brand if it supports a cause or purpose and they stop buying if brand behaves unethically. It was also observed that there is no gender difference amongst the millennials towards their perceptions concerning brand activism. Moreover, millennials across different income categories have similar perceptions of brand activism. It was also substantiated that the emotional tie of the millennials with the brand existing for a cause goes beyond price shifts and brands taking a political stance, cherry-picking of issues and being disruptive prompts and creates profound backlash for the brands.

The study aims to evaluate the impact of selected factors of viral campaigns on Millennials customers’ consumer behavior. This goal was achieved in two steps: in the first step, the authors determined the impact of selected attributes on purchasing behavior in general, and in the second step, they compared the impact of the selected research campaigns – the guerrilla campaign of the company 4KA and the viral campaign of the company ABSOLUT. The inputs to the analyses were obtained through answers from 360 respondents, which completed the questionnaire on a sample of Millennials customers generation (1975–2000) – social generation, which collaborate and cooperate, expect technology to simply work for adventure and passionate about values (Smith, Nichols, 2015). The survey part of the questionnaire consisted of 8 attributes (Novelty, Relevance, Aesthetics, Clarity, Humor, Emotion arousal, Surprise, Design, Purchase intention). Data were collected based on participants’ availability and their will to participate in the questionnaire and quota selection. The PLS PM method was used to assess the impact, and the bootstrap-based parametric method was used to assess the difference in the impact. One of the most important findings is that attributes such as Novelty, Relevance, Humor, and Surprise significantly affect purchasing behavior. Concerning the company 4KA, significant impacts were seen in Relevance and Surprise, and with the company ABSOLUT, significant impacts were seen in Relevance, Humor, and Surprise. When analyzing the difference in the impact, there were no significant differences between the campaigns.

Acknowledgment
This article is one of the partial outputs under the scientific research grant VEGA 1/0694/20, VEGA 1/0609/19.

Previous studies have demonstrated varying associations between fundamental components of brand equity within diverse sectors. The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of Aaker’s brand equity model’s dimensions (brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand association) on brand equity in the context of toy brands in Malaysia. The study employs a quantitative-based correlation design within a non-controlled setting, using a cross-sectional approach with individuals as the unit of analysis. The population consists of respondents from the general public aged 18 and above, as they are valid buyers of toys. Data collection was conducted using a non-probability sampling method. The questionnaire was sent to the targeted respondents using online Google Form links. A comprehensive dataset from 384 respondents was gathered for descriptive analysis of the demographic profile. Hypothesis testing was performed using regression analysis. The findings indicate that, except for brand associations, the remaining three factors – perceived quality (Beta = .377, p < .001), brand loyalty (Beta = .338, p < .001), and brand awareness (Beta = .221, p < .01) – exhibit a statistically significant positive correlation with the brand equity of children’s toy brands in Malaysia.

Acknowledgment
The authors thank INTI International University, Malaysia, for providing financial support to publish this paper.