Is traditional media communication less effective than social media and personal selling for brand building? Empirical evidence from a cosmetics brand in Indonesia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Research model.

Table 1. Sample characteristics

Demographic characteristics	Category	Frequency	%
Gender	Female	302	100.0
Age group	Below 20 years old	57	18.9
	20–24 years old	236	78.1
	25 years old and more	9	3.0
Occupation	Student	267	88.4
	Employee	11	3.6
	Business owner	10	3.3
	Others	14	4.7
Residential city	Jakarta	302	100.0
Buying frequency	1–2 times per month	259	85.8
	3–4 times per month	26	8.6
	More than 5 times	17	5.6

Table 2. Convergent validity and reliability measurement

Constructs and items	Reference	Factor loadings
Traditional media communication (TMC) Cronbach’s alpha = 0.871, CR = 0.873, AVE = 0.701
I am satisfied with the traditional media campaigns of [brand], i.e. radio, TV, print advertisements (TMC1) The level of the traditional media campaigns of [brand] (i.e. radio, TV, print advertisements) meets my expectations (TMC2) Compared with the very good traditional media campaigns (i.e. radio, TV, print advertisements) of other brands, the traditional media campaigns of [brand] perform well (TMC3)	Tsiros et al. (2004), Bruhn et al. (2012), Morra et al. (2018)	0.834 0.858 0.826
Firm-created social media communication (FSMC) Cronbach’s alpha = 0.882, CR = 0.884, AVE = 0.722
I am satisfied with the company’s social media communications for [brand] (FSMC1) The level of the company’s social media communications for [brand] meets my expectations (FSMC2) This company’s social media communications for [brand] perform well, when compared with the social media communications of other companies (FSMC3)	Tsiros et al. (2004), Bruhn et al. (2012), Morra et al. (2018)	0.742 0.772 0.858
User-generated social media communication (USMC) Cronbach’s alpha = 0.910, CR = 0.915, AVE = 0.782
I am satisfied with the content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand] (USMC1) The level of the content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand] meets my expectations (USMC2) The content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand] performs well, when compared with other brands (USMC3)	Tsiros et al. (2004), Bruhn et al. (2012), Morra et al. (2018)	0.851 0.796 0.857
Personal selling communication (PSC) Cronbach’s alpha = 0.919, CR = 0.919, AVE = 0.793
I am satisfied with the company’s personal selling communications (i.e. interaction with sales promotion persons) given for [brand] (PSC1) The level of the company’s personal selling communications (i.e. interaction with sales promotion persons) for [brand] meets my expectations (PSC2) This company’s personal selling communications (i.e. interaction with sales promotion persons) for [brand] perform well, when compared with the social media communications of other companies (PSC3)	Modified from items used in FSMC	0.906 0.909 0.890
Brand attitude (BA) Cronbach’s alpha = 0.837, CR = 0.843, AVE = 0.643
I have a pleasant idea of [brand] (BA1) [Brand] has a good reputation (BA2) I associate positive characteristics with [brand] (BA3)	Bruhn et al. (2012)	0.761 0.765 0.609
Repurchase intention (PI) Cronbach’s alpha = 0.871, CR = 0.871, AVE = 0.695
It is possible that I will rebuy [brand] in the future (PI1) I will seriously consider repurchasing [brand] (PI2) It is highly likely that I will rebuy [brand] (PI3)	Modified from Grewal et al. (1998), Bruhn et al. (2012)	0.750 0.823 0.815

Table 3. Mean, SD, construct correlations, and discriminant validity

Construct	Mean	Standard Deviation	TMC	FSMC	USMC	PSC	BA	PI
TMC	3.5695	0.8441	0.837
FSMC	3.7826	0.8116	0.486	0.850
USMC	3.8311	0.8342	0.470	0.573	0.884
PSC	3.5342	0.8699	0.251	0.323	0.244	0.891
BA	3.9547	0.6941	0.344	0.532	0.454	0.431	0.802
PI	3.7528	0.8164	0.389	0.481	0.490	0.250	0.703	0.834

Note: diagonal values (bold) display the square root of AVE

Figure 2. LISREL output.

Table 4. Results of Standardized estimates of the structural model

Hypotheses	Path	Standardized Estimate (β)	p-value	Result
H1	TMC → BA	0.02	0.3947	Not supported
H2	FSMC → BA	0.38	0.0000	Supported
H3	USMC → BA	0.23	0.0007	Supported
H4	PSC → BA	0.21	0.0001	Supported
H5	BA → PI	0.83	0.0000	Supported

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