Customer Perception Analysis of the Social Business Branding of Online Taxi in Jakarta

Abstract

In recent years, social business branding - how a company brands itself as socially responsible - are beginning to become a popular method of branding for companies. Of these companies, online taxis are known as good examples of socially responsible companies, especially as a source of income for online taxi drivers. Online Taxis are transportation and logistics companies that provide services to connect customers and drivers through the use of mobile applications. This paper aims at understanding how Social Business Branding is perceived by customers of Online Taxi Companies. By inspecting the perception of a customer (CP) to a company’s brand image mediated by the company’s Social Business Branding and real life Social Impact that the company has. 121 responses were obtained via convenience sampling in Jakarta through online surveys. SEM-PLS was used to analyse the working hypotheses. It is found that Social Business Branding does moderately influence Customer Perception and does play a meditative effect between Perceived Social Impact and Customer Perception.        Additionally, Social Business Branding is found to greatly improve Perceived Social Impact. The results show that Social Business Branding is not a major influence on Customer Perception as other factors such as product and service quality are often prioritised and preferred. But Social Business Branding is useful to improve brand quality and loyalty. Which can be a powerful tool used to protect and differentiate the brand. A balance of both Social Business Branding and Product/Service Quality is recommended. This research might not be applicable to other companies and might prove differently in other populations. But contributes to the literature by showing that Jakartan consumers  are affected by how socially responsible a company is, which in turn affects their perception of a company’s brand image. Which might suggest the current surge in trend of companies conducting social business branding.