The Impact of Facebook Advertising and eWOM on Brand Awareness and Purchase Intention: Reference to the Fashion Retail Industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Social media has become a famous tool for integrating and interacting with a wide array of people and businesses in the virtual world. Due to the direct communication that social media marketing has made possible between businesses and their clients, it has given traditional marketing a fresh viewpoint. Compared with the traditional modes of communication, social media itself has been able to attract massive customer and business attraction due to its superiority. In light of such positive ground for social media, this study aims to examine the impact of Facebook advertising on brand awareness and purchase intention. In the Sri Lankan context, fashion retail companies extensively utilize social media platforms for marketing purposes, while customers actively use these platforms to gather information about products they intend to buy. However, only a limited number of researchers have kept an interest in the field in the Sri Lankan context. A form of explanatory research method was applied. The sample is 150 Facebook users selected among Sri Lankan state universities using the convenience sampling technique. The results highlighted that Facebook advertising, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) have a significant positive relationship with brand awareness and there is a significant positive relationship between brand awareness and purchase intention. Finally, this study showed that Facebook advertising and eWOM had an indirect but significant, positive relationship with purchase intention. The practical value of this research is illustrated by the fact that managers may use the findings to enhance their social media marketing initiatives, particularly those using Facebook fan pages, to increase their brand awareness. Additionally, research suggests that the cyber world plays a significant marketing role in contemporary marketing.