Page 997 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

5.0.2 : What are the social media marketing strategies to raise the brand awareness and brand image of Chop Kek Lian Seng?

Social media marketing strategies using interaction and brand engagement in Facebook were implemented to raise the brand awareness and
brand image of Chop Kek Lian Seng. The activities on a Facebook brand page could have huge impact on engagement. For example, users
like, comment, and share the brand post has shown 2 -way interaction between users and the brand. To engage customers, brands must post
content that meets their demands, such as they are hitting the like button or reacting to the brand's message. In terms of page marketing value,
the more likes a post receives, the more valuable it is (Sudarsan and Venkatesh, 2015). Therefore, Chop Kek Lian Seng engaged the Facebook
users such as posting attractive photos and videos of the varied choices of pastries. Further, creative contents included eating different kinds
of mooncakes and provided wishes of Mid-Autumn Festival and Chong Yang Festival were used to engage the users or customers.

On the other hand, the social media strategy such as publishing a post related to Chop Kek Lian Seng's brand history and brand
journey could engage with audiences by ask questions and encourage them to drop comments or react to the post. As shown in the Appendixes
1 to 5, Chop Kek Lian Seng had successfully used social media marketing strategies with attractive contents once a week to keep engaged
with their audience. The findings are aligned with previous study of Alhaddad (2015) that a variety of content, such as links, videos, and
photos is significant to raise brand awareness and image. In short, with plentiful content available, constant and regular posting, a brand may
stay in customers’ minds.

5.0.3 : Are the implemented social media marketing strategies effective in increasing the brand awareness and brand image of Chop
Kek Lian Seng?

As proven, follower, reach and engagement of Chop Kek Lian Seng’s Facebook page had increased significantly within 2 months. Page
followers of Chop Kek Lian Seng had increased 82 followers from September to October 2021. Moreover, page engagement increased from
693 in September to 802 in October 2021. In addition, the page had reached approximately 22000 Facebook users within 2 months. There is
a wider audience reach and many Facebook users know about the brand that could help to boost the interaction and engagement of Chop Kek
Lian Seng’s page. Besides, consistently publishing a post has led to higher engagement among users and the brand. Numerous feedbacks are
the greatest form of engagement that the shop received. This feedback can be utilized to further improve the Chop Kek Lian Seng’s products
and business. The increasing number of followers had boosted the popularity of the brand of Chop Kek Lian Seng. Consequently, on social
media, engagement with customers is valued to boost more sharing about the brand to other users and potential customers. Therefore, the
result of implemented marketing strategies are effective to increase the brand awareness and brand image of Chop Kek Lian Seng.

5.1 REASEARCH IMPLICATION

The result of this study showed that there are positive and significant relationships between social media interaction, customer brand
engagement, brand awareness, and brand image. The study has provided an opportunity for further empirical investigation on effectiveness
in increasing brand awareness and brand image. In this study, the finding adds to the existing literature by confirming the relationships in the
context of traditional pastry shops. The finding is supported by Cheung et al. (2020) to highlight that social media interaction may aid in the
development of strong and positive brand knowledge in customers' minds.

The result of this study showed that customer brand engagement is influenced by social media interaction, which in turn increases
brand awareness and image. The findings have provided a guideline to marketers to post more attractive content to generate higher interactive
relationships with their consumers. Besides, marketers may consider establishing and positioning their brand through highly interactive and
active use of their social media brand page. To improve the interactivity of the brand page, marketers could engage with users by asking
questions and encouraging them to drop comments or react to the brand post.

Based on the implemented marketing strategies, it showed that the strategies were effective in increasing the brand awareness and
brand image of Chop Kek Lian Seng. Companies can increase their brand awareness and brand image by utilizing social media interaction
for higher brand engagement. The social media interaction is significant to motivate consumers to interact for the growth of good brand
engagement. As a result, social media assists the brand in reaching a larger audience at a lesser cost.

For future researchers, the result of this study found that social media is one of the most essential platforms in delivering brand
information and building engagement with customers for increased brand awareness and brand image. As such, future researchers could plan
marketing interventions by actively interacting with their audiences and posting creative and attractive contents for them to hit their like,
comment, and share with others.

5.2 LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATION

In this study, several limitations are presented. Firstly, the study limits the generalizability. Even though the sample size of the study has met
the minimum requirement which is 165 but the result of the study is not generalized to the population. The small sample size is unable to
represent all individuals who are using social media platforms for interaction to buy pastry products in Malaysia. Therefore, it is
recommended a future study to increase sample size and use probability sampling approaches such as simple random sampling to achieve
more generalized results. Secondly, the study is limited by geographical locations. The study only collected data from Malaysia’s
respondents. Hence, it is recommended future studies to collect data from several countries and make a comparison between countries. This
is because different country of respondent may have different interaction and engagement toward a brand.

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