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

Abstract This study empirically examines the effects of four types of media communication (traditional media advertising, firm-created social media, user-generated social media, and personal selling) on brand attitude. The effect of brand attitude on rerepurchase intention was also tested. The research applied a survey method to collect the data. For this purpose, judgmental sampling was used and 302 female respondents who use cosmetic products of a certain brand were gathered. Then, the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that firm-created social media communication, user-generated social media communication, and personal selling have positive effects on brand attitude. However, traditional media communication does not influence brand attitude significantly. This study also corroborates the effect of brand attitude on repurchase intention. The research complements the previous studies that investigate only several media by examining comprehensively four types of media communication representing two poles: mass media (traditional advertising) versus personalized media (firm-created social media, user-generated social media, and personal selling); and non-interactive (traditional advertising) versus interactive media (firm-created social media, user-generated social media, and personal selling). The findings also provide guidelines for companies when planning and deciding the media communication for their promotion. These guidelines enable companies to target their communication activities more effectively.