Cultivating domestic brand love through social media marketing activities: Insights from young consumers in an emerging market

Although substantial evidence demonstrates the considerable impact of brand love, further investigation is necessary to examine the primary elements that influence it, specifically in cultivating a love for domestic brands among young consumers in emerging markets. To fill this gap, we propose a conceptual model based on associative network memory theory. The model suggests that brand awareness and brand image may help explain the influence of social media marketing activities on brand love. We engaged 389 young consumers actively interacting with the social media accounts of Indonesian domestic brands to evaluate our model, analyzing the data using the PLS-SEM approach. The findings indicate that engaging in social media marketing activities has a substantial impact on increasing brand love among young consumers. We also clarify the significant importance of brand awareness and brand image in increasing the influence of social media marketing activities on brand love within the young consumer segment.