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and communicating their brand information to consumers. In fact, the most commonly benefits using social media for marketing is increased
exposure. There is billion of users become as a possible audience of your brand. Not only that, but it also increases traffic, lead and loyalty
audience by using social media (Prunty, 2021).

Several studies showed that social media interaction has a significant role to influence brand awareness and brand image (Seo and
Park, 2018; Fortezza and Pencarelli, 2015; Bilgin, 2018). Young consumers feel familiar after they have seen the product or brand on social
media (Sasmita and Suki, 2015). As such, many companies use social media as a platform to connect and interact with brand information,
such as sharing and updating content, collecting feedback, and accessing to consumers’ preferences. The social media interaction helps in
managing relationships with customers, building customer brand engagement (CBE) and increasing brands awareness and brand image (De
and Carlson, 2014; Thoring, 2011).

According to Vuong (2021), Gallup customer database showed that 50% of customers said they were satisfied with a particular
brand. However, merely 38% of customer said they were engaged with the brand. This means that engaging with customers is more important
than just satisfying customer needs. Brand is a public-facing part of the business or organization. Therefore, it is important to consider what
the customer thinks of it. Many companies do not take this into consideration, which may have negative consequences such as p oor sales
and weak growth (Myers, 2021). Chop Kek Lian Seng as the case study of the research is facing issues of brand awareness and brand image
due to inactive presence in social media.

1.1 CASE DESCRIPTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT

Chop Kian Lai Seng is one of the well-known Chinese (Hokkien) pastry shops in Batu Pahat for the past 80 years. The shop is
offering different types of pastries such as bean paste pastry (Tau Sar Peah), wife cake (Lao Po Bing), horse hoof biscuit (Beh Teh Saw), etc.
The shop was opened in 1949 by Tan Kai Teck when he was 20 years old. After 10 years of operating, the shop was handed over to his son,
Tan Lai Seng, when he was about 20 years old. Till now, the shop is managed by the third generation, Tan Chin Hock (son of Tan Lai Seng).
He began as a kitchen helper when he was 20 years old. Now, he is the owner of the shop and employs 7 workers. Due to Covid-19, the sales
of their biscuits and pastries are affected seriously.

One of the challenges faced by Chop Kek Lian Seng include low brand awareness in Malaysia and the problem has led to low sales
on Shopee platform. Brand is vital to customer’s purchase decision making in marketing (Cui et al., 2019). A positive brand image can have
a significant impact on customers' purchase intentions and sales. Brand awareness may drive customers to further evaluate the product before
they consider purchasingthe product (Valentini et al., 2018). Therefore, businesses need to ensure that they communicate with the appropriate
target market in promoting their brand for better awareness (Chakraborty, 2019). In fact, consumers experience the brand in many ways, one
way is through social media marketing campaigns which they can actively engage with consumers, interact with the brand and increase the
page views for their brand for increased brand awareness (Hutter et al., 2018). Valentini et al. (2018) found that it is good to raise brand
awareness by using push communication in advertising and participating in any event or sponsored event. It may increase the brand
appearance and awareness in the public. The most effective driver that affects brand awareness is customer engagement because it can
maximize awareness during participation and interaction (Shojaee and Azman, 2013). Due to low brand awareness with limited social media
brand engagement about Chop Kek Lian Seng, the pastry shop is not popular in Malaysia.

In addition, firms can use social media effectively since majority of the customers nowadays are using social media as their primary
communication platforms to interact (Shamsudin and Razak, 2019). As proven, many companies make their brand image on social media
and launch consumer-engagement activities such as sharing product information and providing promotions discounts and advertisements
(Bilgin, 2018). Prior studies found that social media interaction helps to build a brand recognition and increase customer brand engagement
(Ismail, 2017; Cheung et al., 2020; Seo and Park, 2018). In short, it is recommended that companies to use social media platforms to increase
their customer brand engagement and strengthen their customer relationships (De and Carlson, 2014; Dessart et al., 2015). Since social media
marketing is effective for a company brand, this study investigates the factors that drive the brand awareness and brand of a pastry shop.
Further, social media brand engagement strategies are conducted for Chop Kek Lian Seng to build their brand awareness and brand image.

1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study posed three major research questions as follows:

RQ1: What are the factors that influence brand awareness and brand image of a pastry shop?
RQ2: What are the social media brand engagement strategies to raise the brand awareness and brand image of Chop Kek Lian Seng?
RQ3: Are the implemented social media brand engagement strategies able to increase the brand awareness and brand image of Chop Kek
Lian Seng?

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

There are three research objectives are formulated in below:

RO1: To identify the factors that influence brand awareness and brand image of a pastry shop.

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