Brand Equity has been considered as the intervening variable among several antecedents to consequences. This study hypothesized the function of Brand Equity as a mediator between Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Brand Image, Perceived Quality and Brand Loyalty towards Word of Mouth. The results of the study stated that the Brand Equity fully mediated certain antecedents and partially mediated with others. The absence and subsistence of mediation for brand equity among the antecedents and consequences have been proved with respect to the Fashion Industry in India.

1. Advances In Management Vol. 10 (10) December (2017)
23
Case Study:
Mediation of Brand Equity on Word of Mouth:
A Study with Special Reference to Customers of
Fashion Products in India
Hamza V.K.1*
and Gupta Rahul2
1. Dept. of Business Administration, Aligarh Muslim University, Malappuram Centre, Aligarh, INDIA
2. Methodex Systems Pvt. Ltd., Bhopal, INDIA
*hamzavkng@gmail.com
Abstract
Brand Equity has been considered as the intervening
variable among several antecedents to consequences.
This study hypothesized the function of Brand Equity as
a mediator between Brand Awareness, Brand
Association, Brand Image, Perceived Quality and
Brand Loyalty towards Word of Mouth. The results of
the study stated that the Brand Equity fully mediated
certain antecedents and partially mediated with others.
The absence and subsistence of mediation for brand
equity among the antecedents and consequences have
been proved with respect to the Fashion Industry in
India.
Keywords: Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Brand
Image, Brand Loyalty, Perceived Quality, Brand Equity,
Word of Mouth.
Introduction
The advancement of e-commerce makes bombardment of
brands and customers are confused due to several brands.
Earlier, customers demand products, now shift to brand.
Customer demands specific brands instead of products so as
to get maximum value of their purchase. The term brand
become a researchable topic when Farquhar13
recognized
brand increases value to the product. Doyle11
reported brand
as the second most asset of a firm after its customers.
Simon and Sullivan46
exposed the financial perspective of
brands that valued as per the market value of the
organization.14
So, brand equity grabbed more attention to
the marketers as the customers demand shifted to brand than
products. The stiff competition in the market upholds the
research in various dimensions of brand equity that helps the
marketers to get more insight for designing marketing
strategy.
Research Problem
The commercial value generated through customer
perception towards the brand name constituted brand equity.
Several efforts have been taken by organization for increased
brand equity leading to recruitment of specialized brand
managers. It has been observed that despite of investing
billions, companies are unable to build brand equity or are
struggling to survive in the market. So, the research problem
is to critically evaluate the reasons of why the determinants
of brand equity after having billions invested are yet not been
able to achieve the desired results.
Global companies’ market capitalization depends upon the
intangible aspects that are the combination of intellectual
capital, goodwill and trust. If we check the financial
statement of well-known companies, it is understood that the
importance of brand equity as huge amount has been
invested to develop such intangible assets. So, the question
to be addressed through the study is the impact of various
antecedents of brand equity like brand association, brand
awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, perceived quality
towards word of mouth.
Severi and Ling44 deserved special thanks as they studied the
same antecedents in a different context and report in the
article titled “The Mediating Effects of Brand Association,
Brand Loyalty, Brand Image and Perceived Quality on
Brand Equity” which asked the researchers to conduct such
study in Indian context.
Objectives
The prime objective behind the study was to test the
mediation role of brand equity among the antecedents to
word of mouth. Several antecedents of brand equity such as
brand association, brand awareness, brand image, brand
loyalty, perceived quality towards the consequent variable
word of mouth have been tested through the study.
Hypothesis of the study
There are five hypotheses of the mediation role of brand
equity studied and stated as follows:
H1: Brand Equity mediates Brand Awareness to Word of
Mouth
H2: Brand Equity mediates Brand Association to Word of
Mouth
H3: Brand Equity mediates Brand Loyalty to Word of
Mouth
H4: Brand Equity mediates Brand Image to Word of Mouth
H5: Brand Equity mediates Perceived Quality to Word of
Mouth.
Brand Equity: The concept of brand equity has been
studied in various perspectives such as financial and
customer. The financial view of brand equity helps
organization to leverage its operations, expand market share,
increase the value of the firm and so on.46
The other
perspective concentrates on the response of the customer

2. Advances In Management Vol. 10 (10) December (2017)
24
towards a brand name.45 Brand equity refers to customer
perception having a global value that emancipated from a
brand name which relates to competition and influences
financial performance.40
The over involvement on building brand equity can be
justified for building competitive advantages in branding
which highlight the specific brand among the alternatives.
There are several determinants to brand equity but very few
have been researched academically. The influencers are
contextual and differ on the basis of product and customer.21
Brand Awareness: Brand awareness empowers customers
to perceive a brand from various product classifications and
help buyers in decision making. One of the vital activities
for building up the brand loyalty and brand equity is to build
up the consciousness of the brand. The significance of the
brand's awareness is found in its impact onto settling on a
choice on buy on the grounds that a higher mindfulness
implies a higher likelihood that the brand will be
incorporated into the gathering of brands contemplated at the
buy and the attention to the brand can impact the making of
relationship which make the picture of the brand at the
purchase point.37
The quality of a brand's soul in a shopper's psyche is
characterized as the awareness level and is considered as a
pre-requisite to the presence of a brand.16,35 Aaker and
Joachimsthaler2
indicated despite the fact that awareness is
regularly underestimated in marking and is viewed as a
deficient condition for measuring a brand's strength, as they
would like to think it firmly adds to brand equity.
Brand Association: Brand Association is a mental
association to the brand that helps to recall, instigates for
purchase and builds positive attitude towards the product. It
is a link between the brand and customers memory1
that
support the association among clients and brand.38
Brand
association can be a part of brand equity that has a
measurable feature to evaluate the effectiveness in the
market.41
Brand Loyalty: Customers continue to shop the same brand
despite of the new offering from competition if they are loyal
to a particular brand.1
It is a behavioural state that persuades
the customers to continue with the same product for a longer
time. The brand loyalty ensured satisfied customers and
competitors had to spend four times to acquire new
customers in the competitive business world.27
Brand Image: Keller36 stated the image about the product in
the customers’ mind constitute brand image. It is an
association of mind towards brand1
that developed among
general perceptions in a customer.43 There is a positive effect
on brand equity and brand trust. If there is a mismatch on the
brand image due to the actual performance of the product,
there is a tendency for switching33 that leads to loss of loyal
customers.
Perceived Quality: It is the customers’ perception towards
overall performance of the product compared to its
alternatives.17,19
It is a crucial element for decision making34
as customer shows a tendency to compare the alternative
before purchase.21,24
It addresses the competency of a
product to the extent it can meet the customers’
requirements.18
Word of Mouth: It is favorable or unfavorable comments of
consumers towards the experience with products or
services.22
Customer provides and shares information to
others through online platform31
and persuades potential
customers for speedy decision making.19
Word of mouth
strongly influences customer acquisitions and helps to retain
the customer for a longer period28,48
that ultimately leads to
increased customer base.
Sampling Design
The data were collected from Kerala and Uttar Pradesh on a
convenient basis from the customers of particular fashion
brand. Pilot studies with 30 respondents were conducted
before final data collections as the instrument were adapted
from international scales. A total of 100 respondents were
considered on a convenient basis and the questionnaire was
circulated for collection of final data. The validity and
reliability of the adapted instrument were ensured before
analyzing the data.
Instrument Validation: The instrument consists of seven
standardized scales such as Brand Equity, Brand
Awareness,4,50
Brand Loyalty, Brand Image, Brand
Association, Perceived Quality39 and Word of Mouth.19
Items in the scales were measured with 5 points ranging from
highly disagree to highly agree. As the scales were adapted
for the study, the reliability and validity have been ensured
before data collection.
Model Validation: The PLS Structural Equation Modeling
was used for validating the proposed model adapted from the
literature.44 The PLS-SEM can be executed with
comparatively smaller sampling despite of any distribution
of the population.8,21,28
Churchill10
assumed certain criteria
as benchmark for validating the model such as internal
consistency, AVE (average variance extracted), discriminant
validity and T value. The internal consistency would be
determined on the basis of composite reliability and
Cronbach’s alpha which should be higher than 0.7.5,6,42
The uni-dimentionality and convergent validity of the model
would be determined based on the AVE value and should be
greater than 0.5.3,8
Chin et al9
stated as “If the average
variance extracted in each of the latent variable is greater
than the square of the correlations between the two latent
variables together considered as discriminant validity”.
Henseler and Fassott30
point as PLS-SEM is executed as
distribution free modeling techniques and depends on the
inferences in the test statistic of the model directly.

3. Advances In Management Vol. 10 (10) December (2017)
25
The bootstrapping technique can be used to calculate the
standard errors of the model parameters.7,12
T value
generated through bootstrapping details the significance of
outer and inner path of the model and the standard value
should be greater than 1.96.49
Testing of Hypothesis - The Mediation Role of Brand
Equity: Mediation can be explained as “an intervening
variable is a demonstrative measure of the procedure through
which an independent variable is thought to affect a
dependent variable”.32
The researchers attempt to evaluate
the degree of the impact by the independent variable to the
outcome variable is straight or oblique, if brand equity is a
mediator. Sobel47
explained an estimated test of significance
of the mediator variable as a T statistic.
Hypothesis 1: Brand Equity mediates Brand Awareness to
Word of Mouth.
Diagram 1
Brand Awareness to Word of Mouth
Table 1
Mediation Among Brand Awareness to Word of Mouth
Items Coefficient T value
Brand awareness-
word of mouth
0.236 1.219
Brand awareness-word
of mouth (mediation)
0.169 1.047
Brand awareness –
brand equity
0.136
Brand equity –word of
mouth
0.401
SE-A 0.193
SE-B 0.097
Interpretation: “Before introducing the mediation in the
model, the direct path coefficient between independent
variable to dependent variable is 0.236 and the t- static is
1.219; after introducing the mediation variable in the model
the direct path coefficient has reduced to 0.169 and the t
static of the path has reduced to 1.047 which is lesser than
the 1.96, thus is insignificant. The Sobel value is also lesser
than 1.96.” So, the researchers concluded that brand equity
does not mediate brand awareness to word of mouth.
Hypothesis 2: Brand Equity mediates Brand Association to
Word of Mouth.
Diagram 2
Brand Association to Word of Mouth
Table 2
Mediation Among Brand Association to Word of Mouth
Items Coefficient T value
Brand association -
word of mouth
0.470 5.243
Brand association -
word of mouth
(mediation)
0.345 3.532
Brand association –
brand equity
0.434
Brand equity –word
of mouth
0.274
SE-A 0.085
SE-B 0.095
Interpretation: “Prior to introducing the mediation in the
model the direct path coefficient between independent
variable to dependent variable is 0.470 and the t- static is
5.243; after introducing the mediation variable in the model
the direct path coefficient has reduced to 0.345 and the t
static of the path has reduced to 3.532 which is greater than
the 1.96, thus significant. The Sobel value of 2.496 also
greater than the standard value.” So the researchers
concluded that brand equity does partially mediate brand
association to word of mouth.
Sobel Value47
: 0.69464409
Sobel Value47: 2.49691149

4. Advances In Management Vol. 10 (10) December (2017)
26
Hypothesis 3: Brand Equity mediates Brand Loyalty to
Word of Mouth.
Diagram 3
Brand Loyalty to Word of Mouth
Table 3
Mediation Among Brand Loyalty to Word of Mouth
Items Coefficient T value
Brand loyalty- word of
mouth
0.433 4.548
Brand loyalty -word of
mouth (mediation)
0.287 3.403
Brand loyalty – brand
equity
0.405
Brand equity –word of
mouth
0.328
SE-A 0.085
SE-B 0.084
Interpretation: “Before introducing the mediation in the
model the direct path coefficient between independent variable
to dependent variable is 0.433 and the t- static is 4.548 after
introducing the mediation variable in the model the direct path
coefficient has reduced to 0.287 and the t static of the path has
reduced to 3.403 which is greater than the 1.96, thus significant.
The Sobel test result shows a value of 3.020, which is greater
than the standard value. So, the researchers concluded that
brand equity does partially mediate brand loyalty to word of
mouth”.
Hypothesis 4: Brand Equity mediates Brand Image to Word of
Mouth.
Diagram 4
Brand Image to Word of Mouth
Table 4
Mediation Among Brand Image to Word of Mouth
Items Coefficient T value
Brand image- word
of mouth
0.466 6.191
Brand image -word
of mouth
(mediation)
0.356 3.921
Brand image – brand
equity
0.331
Brand equity –word
of mouth
0.307
SE-A 0.093
SE-B 0.108
Interpretation: “Before introducing the mediation in the
model the direct path coefficient between independent
variable to dependent variable is 0.466 and the t- static is
6.191; after introducing the mediation variable in the model
the direct path coefficient has reduced to 0.356 and the t
static of the path has reduced to 3.921, which is greater than
the 1.96, thus significant. The Sobel test results 2.221 which
is higher than the standard value”. So, the researchers
concluded that brand equity does partially mediates brand
image to word of mouth.
Hypothesis 5: Brand Equity mediates Perceived Quality to
Word of Mouth.
Sobel Value:47
3.02014034
Sobel Value:47
2.22112780

5. Advances In Management Vol. 10 (10) December (2017)
27
Diagram 5
Perceived Quality to Word of Mouth
Table 5
Mediation Among Perceived Quality to Word of Mouth
Items Coefficient T value
Perceived quality
- word of mouth
0.273 2.040
Perceived quality
-word of mouth
(mediation)
0.149 1.267
Perceived quality
– brand equity
0.254
Brand equity –
word of mouth
0.407
SE-A 0.111
SE-B 0.117
Interpretation- “Before introducing the mediation in the
model the direct path coefficient between independent
variable to dependent variable is 0.273 and the t- static is
2.040, after introducing the mediation variable in the model
the direct path coefficient has reduced to 0.149 and the t
static of the path has reduced to 1.267, which is lesser than
the 1.96, thus insignificant. The Sobel value is lesser than the
standard value of 1.96”. So, the researchers concluded that
brand equity does not mediate perceived quality to word of
mouth.
The testing of 5 hypothesis and validation of the proposed
model developed on the basis of literature review and
focused group discussion were tested with the help of partial
least square structural equation modeling. The first
hypothesis, Brand Equity mediates Brand Awareness to
Word of Mouth is found to be insignificant for the Fastrack
brand. The second hypothesis, Brand Equity mediates Brand
Association to Word of Mouth is established and partially
mediates for the Fastrack brand. The third hypothesis, Brand
Equity Mediates Brand Loyalty to Word of Mouth is found
to be significant as partial mediation for the Fastrack brand.
The fourth hypothesis, Brand Equity mediates Brand Image
to Word of Mouth is established to be significant for the
Fastrack brand. The fifth hypothesis, Brand Equity mediates
Perceived Quality to Word of Mouth is found to be
insignificant for the Fastrack brand.
Recommendations
✓ Brand awareness influences brand equity and through
the analysis it is clear that the brand awareness of brand
is not as expected to be. Thus, brand manager needs to
focus on brand awareness in order to build good brand
equity.
✓ Brand association is also a necessary element of brand
equity and through the analysis it is clear that the brand
is successful to associate the customers with their
product. But it needs to continuously consider and
formulate new strategies for the same.
✓ Brand loyalty is a crucial element of brand equity.
Companies mostly focus on this particular element
because if a company is able to get the loyal customers,
they can easily develop the market and increase the
revenue.
✓ Brand Image is acceptable, but it is not up to that mark
as it is expected to be. People associate with the brand
but the image of the same is not so good that will allow
them to be in the customer evoked set. Thus, Brand
Manager needs to have a proper focus on this element as
why it is not contributing much to the brand equity.
✓ Brand equity is crucial to generate the positive word of
mouth which is appreciable. It is recommended that the
brand manager should continuously look after their
brand equity so that the market share of the brand can be
increased.
Conclusion
Through the study, the researchers concluded that the brand
managers need to be more vigilant on the dynamic changes
of the market. It should adopt the market scenario by
investing monitory and non-monity efforts to build the brand
equity. Special attention should be given for enhancing
brand image, brand awareness, brand loyalty as well as the
perceived quality. It is also reminded for a close monitoring
of brand association towards brand equity as it enhances the
market share gradually.
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(Received 07th
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******