The Impact of Social Media Engagement on Brand Extension Performance: The Mediating Role of Brand Equity in FMCG Brands of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

With the growth and rise of social media platforms, the way organizations interact with consumers and value their brands has changed. In the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, social media engagement has become a key strategic priority, playing a vital role in building consumer-brand connections and improving market results. The present study explores the effects of social media involvement on the performance of brand extension and the possibility of the brand equity as a mediator between involvement with social media and brand extension performance for Uttar Pradesh based FMCG consumers in India. A quantitative research design was used and the primary data were gathered from 487 FMCG consumers, who were asked to fill a structured questionnaire. Partial Least-Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 4 was used for testing the proposed hypotheses. The results show that social media engagement has significant effects on brand equity (β = 0.671, p<0.001) and brand extension performance (β = 0.247, p<0.001) respectively. Moreover, brand equity has a positive and strong influence on the brand extension performance (β = 0.548, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis further showed that brand equity partially mediated the relationship between social media engagement to brand extension performance (β = 0.368, p < 0.001). The findings reflect the value of engaging social media in enhancing ‘Brand Value' and in supporting successful brand extension programs. The study adds to the existing body of knowledge in the field of digital marketing and digital brand extension literature by developing and building a framework that combines social media engagement, brand equity and brand extension performance. Findings also offer some practical applications for FMCG managers who wish to use social media to build brand equity and to boost the effectiveness of brand extension strategies. This study found that the keywords Social Media Engagement, Brand Equity, Brand Extension Performance, FMCG Industry, Consumer Behaviour and PLS-SEM can be used to understand the consumer engagement in Social Media platform, brand equity, brand extension performance, the FMCG industry, consumer behaviour and PLS-SEM in Uttar Pradesh.