Abstract:
The wedding and floral industry is one of the fastest developing industries in Sri
Lanka. People nowadays want to seek services from event management
companies while being responsive to the brand equity of those firms. Customers
use interactive tools to express their thoughts and experiences. The study was
supported by the previously observed application gap. Accordingly, the primary
goal of this research is to determine the degreeto which word of mouth affects
brand equity in the Kandy District. The researchers conducted a systematic
literature review focused on previous research scholars' empiricalinvestigations,
and the four dimensions of the independent variable were labelled as positive
valence, negative valence, word of mouth content, and word of mouth intensity.
The dimensions of brand equity were defined as brand recognition, brand
association, brand loyalty, and perceived quality. The researchers circulated the
questionnaires through digital platforms for the primary data collection, and 384
responses were received. The Morgan Chart was used to determine the sample
size. The time horizon forthis study was cross-sectional, and it was a deductive
study. The reliability analysis was performed and Cronbach's alpha values were
above the threshold level. In this study, descriptive and inferential statistics were
evaluated. With the aid of the SPSS application, the hypotheses were tested
using correlation and regression analysis. One of the four hypotheses was
rejected. Based on the results of the multiple regression analysis, the word of
mouth content has the greatest impact on brand equity. The researchers
claim an application contribution of the study as marketers should pay close
attention to both firm-created and user-generated content, which falls under the
category of word of mouth. Since people want to trust what other people have
said, advertisers may use testimonials as a marketing tool to gain a significant
market share. The researchers propose analyzing the suitability of using
celebrities in advertising contents under word of mouth contact toincrease brand
equity as a research avenue for future studies.
