Young consumers insights on brand equity: effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image on brand equity among young consumers. Design/methodology/approach – Data from 200 young consumers were analysed using descriptive, correlation and multiple regression analysis via the Statistical Package for Social Sciences computer programme version 21. Findings – Empirical results via multiple regressions authenticated that brand awareness predominantly affects brand equity among young consumers. These young consumers get input and awareness of the particular product or brand from the social media. They can clearly recognize the particular product or brand in comparison to competing products or brands and know how it looks and its characteristics from the social media. Research limitations/implications – Respondents were randomly drawn from the population of the full time students in a public university in Malaysia. Consequently, they may not represent the entire population of Malaysia. Practical implications – Input regarding the effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image on brand equity among young consumers would help marketers and practitioners to formulate strategies to enhance their brand equity in order to obtain competitive advantage and business sustainability, particularly among young consumer markets. Originality/value – Empirical findings offer academic contributions to the existing body of knowledge of consumer behaviour as the sophisticated quantitative data analyses used will eventually allow future researchers to explicate the contribution of the current study to understand the importance of brand equity among young consumers in Malaysia