The Relationship Between Brand Related UGC and CBBE : An Internet Meme Experiment

Abstract: Background: The modern day era of the Internet gave birth to the growing phenomenon of Internet memes (IM), a type of online user generated content (UGC) (Gangadharbatla, 2008). Now marketers have begun researching the relationship between UGC and consumer based brand equity (CBBE) (Christodoulides et.al, 2012; Rachna and Khajuria, 2017). The problem discussion presents the issue of the diminishing control of brand equity due to the rise of UGC and lack of research on how to manage its influence (Morrison et al., 2013). Leading to the purpose of this thesis, which is to determine the impact Internet memes have on consumer based brand equity. Literature: The review presents two leading contributors to the field, Aaker’s (1991) framework on the different dimensions of CBBE and Keller’s (1993) definition of the concept. In addition recent studies on UGC and brand equity provided the basis for hypothesis development. Method: This thesis assumed a deductive research approach, developing the hypothesis from current literature in the field. A quantitative study, that utilized an explanatory research approach, because it best suited the experimental design. As for the data collection method, surveys were considered (Saunders et al., 2016), which the authors designed as a self-completion questionnaire and pre-tested (Bryman and Bell, 2015). Convenience sampling was chosen to select participants (Hernon, 2004). Construct and content validity was used along with homogeneity and stability to control reliability and measure the quality of research instruments (Bryman and Bell, 2015). SPSS version 25 was used to conduct all statistical analyses. Results: Four hypotheses were developed, to measure the effect of the independent variable IM on each of the four CBBE dimensions. To summarize, three of the hypothesis (H1, H3 and H4) were rejected as the difference in the means are not significant enough and can be explained by chance. The effect on brand association (H2) was however found to be significant therefore H2 was accepted.