Influence of Social Media Content on Consumer Purchase Intention: Mediation Effect of Brand Equity

Mersid Poturak,Sumeja Softić

doi:10.17015/ejbe.2019.023.02

Mersid Poturak, Sumeja Softić

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17015/ejbe.2019.023.02

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Abstract

Social media is forming an increasingly central part of how companies communicate their marketing strategies to their customers. This study aims to provide an empirical analysis of the impact social media communication has on brand equity and purchase intention using linear regression. Before conducting the analysis, a systematic literature review has been carried out in order to understand how the dimensions of social media create word of mouth i.e. electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on social media platforms and how this e-WOM further influences brand equity and customers’ purchase intention of domestic brands in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 300 data sets were collected through a standardized online survey and analyzed in SPSS with the conclusion that all the constructs identified in this research have a significantly high correlation and impact on a customer’s decision to buy a domestic product The results of the empirical study showed that both firmcreated and user-generated social media communication influence brand equity which creates of a fully mediated effect between e-WOM and the purchase intention.

Highlights

As the values of a brand depend largely on their customers’ perceptions, domestic companies need to face the challenges of the digital era and monitor and engage their target audiences on social media platforms. In light of such positive background, this study aims to fill the gap in the literature with respect to understanding the effects of Electronic word-of-mouth (e-Word of Mouth (WOM)), which is created of usergenerated and firm-created content on social media, towards consumers’ purchase intention, a topic of relevance as evidenced by many researchers, including Villanueva, Yoo, and Hanssens, (2008), Taylor (2013) and many other papers such as Christodoulides, Jevons and Bonhomme (2012), Smith, Fischer, and Yongjian (2012)
The goal of the following research was to investigate how effective social media communication is in the creation of Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) and its influence on the brand equity and purchase intention of customers
The hypotheses were inspired by various articles and theories in the sphere of marketing and in particular social media communication in which authors in one way or another bring together the influence of e-WOM and brand equity to measure their effect on customers’ purchase intention

Summary

Introduction

The fast paced integration of Internet as a marketing tool in recent years has had a huge impact on how brands chose to communicate with their customers. An increasing number of consumers are embracing the internet and spend more time searching for information, which largely affects their purchase intentions. Given such opportunities, firms and their brands have dived into social media marketing, which emerged as the most popular and effective tool of marketing and communication. Consumers are increasingly using social media sites to search for information and turning away from traditional media, such as television, radio, and magazines (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). This phenomenon has reduced marketers’ control of brand management (Berthon et al, 2007). The viral dissemination of information among the people through social media is much stronger than the traditional media such as TV, radio, and print advertisements (Keller, 2009)

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