Effect of Digital Marketing on Consumer Based Brand Equity of Micro Enterprises in Nigeria

Micro enterprises in Nigeria lack brand equity in terms of customers awareness for distinct Nigerian micro enterprises brands, trust in perceived quality for micro enterprises products, loyalty and brand associations which limits their ability to perform well despite use of digital marketing. This study sought to ascertain the effect of digital marketing on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of micro enterprises in Nigeria with social media marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, web solutions marketing, search engine optimization and pay per click advertising as the independent variables of the study, while micro enterprises consumer-based brand equity was the dependent variable of the study. The study adopted survey research design with a sample of 400 respondents from a population of micro enterprises’ customers who were registered active internet users in the country. Factor Analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed in analyzing the primary data collected for the study from structured questionnaire in google forms electronic survey tool. The study found that social media and mobile marketing have positive but insignificant effect on the brand equity of micro enterprises while webs solutions has a negative but insignificant effect. Email, search engine optimization and pay-per-click on the other hand have positive significant effects on brand equity of micro enterprises in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that email, search engine optimization and pay-per-click usage can be continued, while social media, web solutions and mobile marketing should be improved to a point where their effects can be positive and significant. Keywords: Digital Marketing, Consumer Based Brand Equity, Micro Enterprises, Nigeria