THE ROLE OF VISUAL BRANDING IN SHAPING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN SOCIAL MEDIA: A CASE STUDY OF PORTOPHOTO

Abstract

The digital era has made visual branding a crucial element in building customer engagement on social media, especially for photography brands whose main product is visual content. This study aims to analyze the influence of visual branding on customer engagement on Portophoto's social media, identify the most influential visual elements, and explain the mechanism of forming consumer engagement patterns. The study used a quantitative approach with a survey research design on 257 active Instagram Portophoto followers who were used as respondents through a total sampling technique. The characteristics of the respondents were dominated by the age group of 18-25 years old at 60.7% with a S1 education level of 49.8%. Data collection was conducted using a structured questionnaire adapted from the Visual Brand Identity and Customer Engagement Behavior scale with high reliability (α = 0.891 and 0.923). Data analysis used simple linear regression with SPSS software version 26. The results showed that visual branding had a positive and significant effect on customer engagement with a determination coefficient value of R² = 0.530 and a significance value of p = 0.000. The aesthetic dimension of content obtained the highest perception (mean = 4.35), while emotional engagement became the dominant dimension in consumer engagement patterns (mean = 4.18). These findings confirm that visual branding consistency is able to explain 53.0% of customer engagement variations, providing strategic implications for digital marketers to optimize aesthetic quality and visual composition to improve customer interaction on social media platforms.