Importance of Consumer Engagement in Enhancing Brand Equity : An Empirical Study on the Restaurant Industry of Islamabad

Abstract

The age of digital media, has enabled marketers to reach beyond the horizon in the achievement of their marketing goals. New platforms enabling ease in communication with the customers have opened doors for the marketers to apply and integrate different marketing concepts for the creation of greater value. This study has attempted to empirically investigate the influence of Consumer Engagement in enhancing brand equity in the restaurant Industry of Islamabad. These concepts have been researched upon separately by numerous researchers over the years, however integration of two has not been focused upon much in the particular field of research. Towards the end, the focus of this research remained on examining the relationship between dependent and independent variables and the role of the moderating variable. The study is based on empirical relationship between independent variable, being; Consumer Engagement, and dependent variable, being; Brand Equity and Age being the moderator. In other words, the focus of presents study was primarily to reinforce the argument that Consumer Engagement has a positive impact in enhancing the Brand Equity, when studied in the environment of Pakistan, specifically in the restaurant industry of Islamabad. Moreover, the other objective was to predict and explore the possibility, at an acceptable confidence level, that this link is moderated by age of the consumers of the said industry. The study has accordingly estimated a series of linear regression models to demonstrate variation in Brand Equity through the antecedents of Consumer Engagement; conscious attention, enthused participation and social connection. The method suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986) is employed on the cross-sectional data from 380 respondents within the twin cities. It is found that Consumer Engagement Positively affects brand Equity. Secondary data indicates that this relationship can healthily be maintained by adopting and integrating suitable models of engagement within the organizations. Moreover, strong information content is found suggesting that the equivalent causal link is moderated by age of the consumers. It is therefore sustained, as hypothesized, that the causal link between consumer engagement and brand equity is affected by age of the consumers. It is also observed that the positive. Finally, the present study has highlighted its contribution in view of the present field of inquiry. This is done alongside the acknowledgement of conceptual and methodological limitations as well as the directions for future research.