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Do social media marketing variables positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and their purchase intentions?
Research proposal Nazar Mazur, 10285032
Business Studies
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Amsterdam First supervisor: Antoon Meulemans
2 Statement of originality
This document is written by Student Nazar Mazur who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.
3 Abstract
Methods of communication, marketing and business have shifted to a whole new level. The main reason for this shift is the introduction of computers, the Internet and e-commerce. Specifically, the emerging communication setup has transformed consumers from passive participants to active creators and influencers in marketing and has given consumers more power to influence the way their brands are managed. Social media marketing has taked over the role of traditional advertising. The purchase intention is influenced by the new way of marketing. The following research question needs to be answered: Do social media marketing variables positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and their purchase intentions? More specifically, word‐of‐mouth, social identity, emotional response and environmental response are tested to discover whether they positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and their product intentions. A formal survey research approach was used with a 12 question questionnaire. The research tested the hypothesis with a sample of 99 valid surveys. The hypotheses regarding the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention (H1), the word-of-mouth mediating effect (H2) and the environmental response mediating effect (H3) were supported, the rest of the hypotheses were not. The reasons for the changes in the social media marketing variables need to be understood better. According to the findings, not all variables have the outcome as suggested before. The main reason for these outcomes is that social media variables continue to change rapidly over time.
4 Table of contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Description of the topic 6
1.2 Fashion industry changes 7
1.3 Literature study 8
1.4 Literature gap and research question 8
1.5 Theoretical and practical relevance 9
1.6 Research design 10
2. Literature review 11
2.1 Social web marketing 11
2.1.1 Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 11
2.1.2 Social Media 11
2.1.3 The new way of marketing 12
2.1.4 Importance of social media marketing 13
2.1.5 T ypes of social media 14
2.1.5.1 Blogs 15
2.1.5.2 Microblogs 13
2.1.5.3 Media sharing websites 15
2.1.5.4 Forums and review websites 16
2.1.5.5 Social network websites 16
2.2 Purchase intention – Dependent Variable 16
2.3 Consumers’ attitude toward fashion brands – Independent Variable 17
2.4 Word-of-mouth – Mediating Variable 18
2.5 Social identity – Mediating Variable 20
2.6 Emotional Response – Mediating Variable 20
2.7 Environmental Response – Mediating Variable 21
5 3. Methodology 23 3.1 Design 23 3.2 Measurements 23 3.3 Data collection 27 3.4 Data analysis 27 4. Sample 26 4.1 Reliability scale 26 4.2 Descriptive statistics 28 4.3 Correlation analysis 28
4.4 Regression and moderation analysis 29
5. Discussion 33
5.1 Findings 33
5.1.1 Attitude – Independent Variable 33
5.1.2 Word-of-mouth – Moderating Variable 33
5.1.3 Social identity – Moderating Variable 34
5.1.4 Emotional Response – Moderating Variable 34 5.1.5 Environmental Response – Moderating Variable 35
5.2 Theoretical implications 35
5.3 Practical implications 35
5.4 Limitations and future research 36
6. Conclusion 36
7. References 38
6 1. Introduction
1.1 Description of the topic
Communication technology has revolutionized all aspects of daily life. The advent of the Internet, particularly Web 2.0, has created new ways to communicate, collaborate and share experiences and ideas about a product or service (Michaelidou, Siamagka &
Christodoulides, 2011). Beyond that, the social media revolution has altered the communication landscape and significantly impacted marketing communication.
Marketing is a multidimensional process made up of various strategies. However, a primary goal of any marketing strategy is to increase sales and profitability (Kim and Ko, 2011). By using social media, companies create value for customers and build strong and profitable customer relationships to gain value from customers in return. Social media activity from fashion brands is expected to have a positive influence on customers’ purchase intention. In addition, searching for and purchasing products and services online is already commonplace around the world (Rehman, Ilyas, Nawaz and Hyder, 2014).
~ Gucci updates its Facebook site as often as three times a day and is constantly tweeting on Twitter. ~
Kim and Ko (2011)
Michaelidou, Siamagka and Christodoulides (2011) show us that in 2009, social media was a popular online activity, with an average of 5:35 hours per person per day spent on it. The most frequently used websites were Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. Social media provide a platform for consumers to publicize and share their product
experiences and opinions (Chen, Fay and Wang, 2011; Michaelidou, Siamagka and
Christodoulides, 2011). According to Huttles et al. (2013), people today rely more on their social networks for making purchase decisions than ever before.
The emerging communication setup has transformed consumers from passive participants in marketing to active creators and influencers, which gives consumers more power than they had before to influence the management of the brands they buy (Huttler, Hautz, Dennhardt and Fuller, 2013). Product promotion is no longer limited to traditional promotion methods, such as mainstream print and electronic media.
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The decrease in sales related to the global downturn have created new challenges for fashion businesses, which are adjusting their marketing strategies to this new reality (Kim and Ko, 2012). Indeed, the recent entrance of numerous fashion brands into the market, followed by heated competition, signals unforeseen changes in the market; thus marketing products presents new challenges in this increasingly competitive environment. New
challenges present new opportunities for fashion companies to build brand legacy, value, and quality as well as strong customer relationships to achieve the companies’ goals (Creyer, 1997). Brands and customers these days are communicating with each other without any restriction in time, place, or medium, which means that old-fashioned one-way
communication is being replaced by interactive two-way direct communication (Kim and Ko, 2011). In this way, brands and customers are working together to create new products,
services, business models and values.
1.3 Literature review
It has been found that traditional advertising influences the relationship between attitude towards the brand and purchase intention. MacKenzie, Lutz and Belch (1986) show that attitudes towards advertisements work as a mediator between attitude towards the brand and purchase intentions.Different studies have confirmed that consumers’ attitude towards the brand determines their purchase intention. The attitude towards the brand can be influenced by providing the consumer with more product-related information or direct experience. Brands’ interaction with the customers will increase product knowledge, brand attitude and purchase intention (Li, Daugherty & Biocca, 2013).
The outcomes of social media activities are still disputed among fashion brands. The effects of social media marketing on consumers’ perceptions of products and brands as well as the impact on purchase decisions have yet to be well understood. With the increased use of social media in marketing communication for fashion brands, it has become necessary to empirically analyse the effects of social media marketing (Kim and Ko, 2012).
Rehman, Ilyas, Nawaz and Hyder (2014) researched emotional and environmental responses as important variables of social media marketing and their influence on buying behaviour. Emotional response can be defined as a response to some psychologically important event, real or imagined, past or anticipated (Stout and Leckenby, 1986). The feelings that occur in those situations may be motivators or organizers of behaviour and, therefore, have an impact on consumers’ responses to advertising (attitude). In this social media marketing method companies are trying to influence consumers’ feelings towards their
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brand and increase purchase intention (Rehman et al., 2014). Environmental response can be defined as a response to surrounding environmental conditions, such as social and ambient design (layout, functionality, symbols and artefacts), which affect consumers’ buying behaviour (Hsin Hsin Chang & Su Wen Chen, 2008). Environmental response is based on beliefs and norms that are constructed through individual perception.
Hoffman and Fador (2010) explain the usefulness, importance and influence of brand awareness, brand engagement and word-of-mouth on purchase intention. For example, K-Tec Blenders posted videos on social media websites to show the world how strong their blenders are by blending an iPhone. These video went viral and have been watched more than 100 million times. Sales and visits to the website increased significantly as a result.
Castronov and Huang (2012), on the other hand, have defined brand communities as a set of social relations among admirers of a brand and customer relationship as the most important social media variable that triggers consumers’ buying behaviour. Both of these articles emphasize the importance of different variables that need to be taken into account.
According to Workum (2011), adding social media channels to a marketing and communication strategy in a telecom environment doesn't alter consumers’ perception of the company. However, Workum believes this may change rapidly with the increasing
importance of social media. Workum’s findings contradict the above-mentioned researches, which confirm the importance of social media. However, Chen, Fay and Wang (2011) confirm the conclusion of Workum (2011) by explaining the relationship between marketing variables and consumer posting behaviour, which evolves over time because of the constantly changing population of Internet users. This explains the findings of the above-mentioned researches. So the research findings related to marketing variables change rapidly and can’t be pinned down for long periods.
1.4 Literature gap and the research question
Many blog writers and non-academic researchers are debating about social media marketing and purchase intention. In recent years, many people have been debating the use, benefits and consequences of implementing social media marketing as a strategy in fashion brands as well as in the telecom and car industries. These industries deal with customers and their purchase intentions, which can be influenced by social media marketing. As shown above, it is also necessary to deal with the different variables of social media marketing that affect purchase intention. The findings about the variables might differ from study to study, but the importance of most of them has been proven. Furthermore, the importance and
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influence of social media marketing variables change over time, as concluded by Workum (2011). The Internet continues to evolve, for example, in the area of mobile phones and 4G mobile internet, which influences communication methods. To stay up to date on the influence of these changes, social media marketing variables need to be researched more often.
As described before, consumers’ attitude towards the brand determines their purchase intention and can be influenced by marketing. However, how social media marketing can influence the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards the brand and their purchase intention has not been researched. As described above, consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands can be influenced by product-related information, and social media marketing can provide a lot of information easily and quickly. To measure and compare the influence of social media, we will compare the mediating effect of social media variables. This
information provides enough knowledge to formulate the following research question:
Do social media marketing variables positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and their purchase intentions?
1.5 Theoretical and practical relevance
The purpose of this study is to investigate how social media variables mediate the relation between consumers’ attitude toward fashion brands and the purchase decision process . The survey findings were used to compare the above-mentioned influences. From a theoretical standpoint the results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the
value-enhancing potential of social media campaigns and demonstrate how the perception of brands is influenced through this communication channel. As the fashion business environment is undergoing a rapid change, by using a survey and literature study this research will redefine the variables of fashion brands that affect their performance so as to help businesses choose the appropriate marketing strategy. This research will help managers realize that social media is a viable marketing instrument, which, if applied correctly, can have positive economic effects for the brand and the company. Moreover, the findings will enable fashion brands to forecast customer-purchasing behaviour as well as manage social media activity.
1.6 Research design
This study has adopted a quantitative approach to investigate the topic. By using a survey, a large amount of data was gathered and then analysed statistically. A survey has collected data
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about different purchase intentions, as well as background information of the recipients who were approached while shopping. First, was researched the relationships between consumers’ attitude toward fashion brands (independent variable) and purchase intentions (dependent variable). The next step was analysing the mediating effect of social media variables on the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The literature was studied, and the most important variables from previous researches was used in this research. The variables selected are word-of-mouth, emotional response, environmental response, social identity and brand awareness. Finally the survey outcomes were compared to find the differences and comparisons between the relationships of above-mentioned variables.
11 2. Literature review
2.1 Social Media Marketing 2.1.1. Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Methods of communication, marketing and running a business have changed significantly over the past 40 years. The main reason for these changes is the introduction of computers, the internet and e-commerce. This was the begin of Web 1.0; applications such as personal web pages, Encyclopedia Britannica Online and the idea of content publishing all belong to that era (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Things kept changing rapidly and a few years later Web 2.0 was introduced to the world. The main differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are:
1) The focus of power has moved from firms to the consumer
2) The focus of value production has moved from firms to the consumer 3) The focus of activity has moved from the desk to the consumer.
Figure 1. Overview of traditional and social media promotion techniques.
2.1.2 Social Media
Social media is any content that forms social networks on the internet, thus they build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0. Social media include a large number of tools used for online communication, such as instant messaging, text chat, forums, social bookmarking, wikis, blogs and social network services (Wigmo, 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). The explosive use of mobile phones, tablets, smart watches and mobile
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computing has increased the use of social media, since connectivity has become easier than ever before (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012).
The age of social media started in 2002, when Friendster was launched. Not long after that, in 2003, it was replaced by MySpace, which became the new leader in social networking sites (SNS). Later, around 2008, Facebook, the current leader of social media, was introduced to the world (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012)
2.1.3 The new way of marketing
The role of marketing hasn’t changed over time, but the way it is executed has changed drastically. In the old way of marketing, traditional media, such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines are one-way static show technologies (Saravanakumar and Sugantha Lakshmi, 2012). According to Mangold and Faulds (2009), consumers are turning away from these types of media. They prefer the “two-way” communication of social media, where they can set the rules, and where word-of-mouth makes or breaks a product. Marketing communication changes all tends to have one thing in common: a shift in power from firms to individuals and communities.
Wigmo (2010) argues that social media could be used for marketing. Using qualified
employees to manage the social media presence and dealing with both positive and negative feedback could achieve real benefits. However, Wigmo also mentions that if social media is not used correctly, it can backfire. For example; "United Breaks Guitars" is a trio of protest songs by Dave Carroll. It is a real-life experience of how his guitar was broken during a trip on a United Airlines plane in 2008, and the subsequent reaction from the airline. The songs became a YouTube and iTunes hit upon its release, and a public relations embarrassment for the airline. On the day the song was published in The Times of London, United Airlines' stock price fell 10%, costing stockholders about $180 million in value (Ayres, 2009).
There are positive examples as well, such as the ALS ice bucket challenge. This is an activity where people dump a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and collect donations for related research. The idea quickly gained so much momentum that the ALS Association made it an official charity effort. The campaign played a large role in helping the association raise $115 million. As of August 2014, it had resulted in 1.2 million related Facebook videos and 2.2 million Twitter mentions ( http://www.cio.com/article/2901047/social-media/12-standout-social-media-success-stories.html#slide2).
13 2.1.4. Importance of social media marketing
All kinds of firms are using social media these days to advertise and promote themselves. Firms have discovered social media marketing opportunities and its low costs
Figure 2. Overview of social media users per online source.
compared to traditional media marketing. However, decreasing marketing costs are not the only reason to use social media marketing. By applying a good social media marketing strategy firms can achieve different goals, such as better customer relationships, increasing profits, and collecting innovative ideas from customers to make their brand name more popular (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). The total number of firms using social media such as Facebook, Twitter and other online communities is continuing to grow. Mangold and Faulds (2009) researched the social media use of firms in 2010 compared to 2009.
Figure 3. Overview of firms’ participation on social media
Retweets by firms increased by 78%, the total amount of people following a firm rose by 241%, and the amount of Facebook firm accounts grew by 13%. McKinsey also found that 25% of firms use social media as their primary tool to fulfil their marketing goals. The main conclusion claims that social media as primary tool will heat 47% very soon, especially due
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to the success stories related to social media (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). For example, the Levi Strauss online deal led to interactions with 400 customers and there were 1600 people who showed up in one of their stores that day. This is an example of word-of mouth effect.
The main goal of marketing is to influence the purchase behaviour of the customer. Social media is an important part of that journey. Marketing managers should be aware of the interaction power of their customers, as in the example above. Vollmer and Precourt (2006) found that customers often use social media for finding information and making their purchase decisions. Foux (2008) confirms the above-mentioned findings by concluding that 70% of consumers nowadays perceive information on social media as more trustworthy than sponsored ads, especially those that come via traditional ways of marketing.
Mangold and Faulds (2009) conducted an interesting study about the information perceived by social media and what consumers are doing with it. Their main finding was that 49% of consumers make purchases based on the information provided by social media websites. The second important finding stated that 60% of people like to share information with other people through social media. The last outcome showed that word-of-mouth influence of sharing information on social media was more effective than news sites; the outcomes were 45% and 36%, respectively.
2.1.5. Types of social media
There are many different types of social media. Through Facebook,
Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, forums and blogs, people and companies can share information, pictures and videos. This information has in recent years become available to hundreds of millions of people around the globe. The content of this information is varied and can be shared with the world instantly (Michaelidou, Siamagka and Christodoulides, 2011).
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With social media, the problems of time and geographical location become less significant. Social media can be formed around friends, colleagues, religions, businesses, governments, family and more. There are differences between social media types, types of information and the ways of sharing it. This section will explain the most popular social media activities.
2.1.4.1. Blogs
Blogs can be described as short articles that are posted on websites and presented in the form of a journal. Most blogs are written by one person, but they are meant for all people who are interested in them. The variation of the content of those blogs can be enormous, from personal diaries to summaries of different kinds of information (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Blogs stay mostly archived on the websites where they are posted, so potential searchers can find them using a navigation panel. Readers can interact with the author and other people through a comments system, and they can also share blogs on other social media websites to increase the exposure of the blog (Cass, 2007). Since consumers interact in those comments, it’s important for firms to be involved in those channels and to respond if necessary (Wigmo, 2010). By doing it well, companies can provide better service, get useful product feedback, influence customers’ purchase decisions and more.
2.1.4.2. Microblogs
Microblogs are similar to blogs, but with a limited amount of words. Most microblogs contain a maximum of 140 characters. Because of this, people can post short updates more often than on normal blogs. Twitter is the most popular microblog website, with 288 million accounts around the globe (Wigmo, 2010). Nowadays, social media websites like Facebook and VK incorporate microblogs into their services. Due to their simplicity, people can share their stories quickly and as often as they want. Companies should be using Twitter as well. It gives the companies a possibility to interact with customers, announce offers or events, stay on top of what competitors are doing, provide internal updates, and build and maintain customer relationships (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012).
2.1.4.3 Media sharing websites
Online marketing is about providing useful information to the world and potential customers. Websites like YouTube, Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest allow companies and users all over the world to share pictures and videos for free. These websites also include
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features such as profiles and commenting. People and companies can interact and influence each other all the time (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012).
2.1.4.4 Forums and review websites.
Websites which are meant to leave the reviews about products, services and people. Forums have more broad content that can be shared and discussed. Both forums and websites allow users to discuss posted messages. Saravanakumar et al. (2012) demonstrate that forums and reviews websites increase awareness and are a good indicator of the intensity of
underlying word-of-mouth effect. Companies can influence conversations by applying a good strategy. Mangold and Faulds (2009) perfectly defined this form of media: “It describes a variety of new sources of online information that are created, initiated, circulated and used by consumers intent on educating each other about products, brands, services, personalities, and issues”.
2.1.4.5 Social network websites
Social networks are websites where people can create their own profile and build a network by connecting to friends and contacts. Profiles contain information about a user; other users can see pictures, videos, contact details, messages from other people and so on. Facebook is currently the largest social networking website, with 1.2 billion users. The exposure on Facebook is enormous and companies try to benefit from it by creating their own pages, which can be followed by users (Wigmo, 2010). According to Saravanakumar et al. (2012), Facebook is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.
2.2 Purchase intention – dependent variable
Purchase intention can be defined as a combination of willingness and possibility to buy a product, which can be realized in the future. Since this action is uncertain, companies create profiles to understand consumers’ purchase behaviour and try to influence it (Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt and Fuller, 2013). Hutter et al. (2013) show a strong connection between customer relationship and purchase intention, which can be influenced by attitude towards the brand or product. Kim and Ko (2012) also confirm the importance of variable attitude and its influence on purchase intention.
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Retailer brand awareness, store image and brand reputation are important factors for consumer purchase decisions. Popular retailers can break the ice more easily for new customers and build a good and trustworthy relationship with the new customers. (Yung-Shen Yen, 2014; Grewal, Baker and Krishnan, 1998). Such reputation can be perceived by positive exposure, such as having seen or heard about the brand through social media or another channels. This is also called recall; it’s a process that goes through the consumer’s memory. When they need a product, consumers will think about the retailers that they remember positively. By positively influencing memories, companies can increase the purchase intention of the customer (Yung-Shen Yen, 2014).
Past research has found that perceived value also influences recall and purchase intention (Grewal, Baker and Krishnan, 1998). Chu and Lu (2007) define perceived value as the net gain obtained by consumers from their consumption behaviour. They also found that the positive perceived value experience of a brand influences the ‘willingness-to-buy’ of the customer, so the positive perceived value increases the purchase intention as well (Ching-Wen Chu Hsi-Peng Lu, 2007). Creyer (1997) finds that consumers’ willingness-to-buy and purchase intention increase if they can reward the ethical behaviour of the company.
When consumers are interested in a product, trust is an important component and can influence purchase intention, especially in the online world. Mistrust or experiences with a particular company will reduce the purchase intention enormously (Heijden, Verhagen & Creemers, 2003). According to Heijden, Verhagen & Creemers (2003), consumers can avoid that negative trust effect of a company by using and relying on a control system that includes procedures and protocols that monitor and control the performance of a transaction.
2.3 Consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands– independent variable
Attitude can be described as an “individual’s internal favorable or unfavorable evaluation, emotional feeling, and action tendencies toward some object or idea” (Akar & Topcu, 2011). Attitude determines the purchase decisions of the customer–it makes them like or dislike the product. Laroche, Kim and Zhou (1996) show that attitude towards the brands can be influenced by direct experience or by exposure to more product-related information. Li, Daugherty & Biocca (2013) also confirm that social or real interactions with customers will increase product knowledge, brand attitude and purchase intention. Social media activities can provide customers with the information that they need to make a purchase decision. Favorable or unfavorable feelings can be evoked by traditional advertising
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the more likely that person is to use the product. On the other hand, the worse the attitude of a person is, the less likely that person is to buy the product (Akar & Topcu, 2011). By using social media marketing, organizations can increase brand awareness to influence customers’ attitude.
Spears and Singh (2004) found that attitude towards the brand and purchase intention are separate, but are strongly correlated with each other. This research also concluded that advertising and marketing have an enormous effect on this relationship. MacKenzie, Lutz and Belch (1996) presented the DMH model, which explains four important keys that affect the purchase intention of the customers:
Figure 5. Dual mediation hypothesis
This model shows that attitude towards advertising affects attitude towards the brand. These two dimensions can be influenced by advertising and brand recognition. As described before, social media marketing can provide information about the brand and products. It will affect cognitions, attitudes and purchase intention both directly and indirectly (see figure 5).
2.4 Word-of-mouth – mediating variable
Word-of-mouth (WOM) can be defined as the act of exchanging marketing
information among consumers (Shu-Chuan Chu, 2009). This type of communication has a role in influencing and forming consumer attitudes and purchase intentions (Reza and Samiei, 2012). For example, Shu-Chuan Chu (2009) showed that consumers who consulted product recommendations chose the recommended products twice as often as those who didn’t consult any recommendations. According to Shu-Chuan Chu (2009), “WOM is the most powerful source of information impacting consumers’ actual adoption of innovations and new products”. Katz and Lazarsfeld (1995) and Cheung, Lee, & Rabjohn (2008) confirm this statement by concluding that WOM has greater impact on consumer choice than traditional advertising, personal selling or ads. Trustworthiness and reliability are the main reasons that customers choose WOM over firm-generated communication (Prendergast and Ko, 2010).
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Word-of-mouth can be split into two parts: opinion seekers and opinion leaders. Opinion seekers are the people who need information or opinions from other consumers to make their final purchase decision. Opinion leaders share their product-related thoughts and opinions with other consumers through mass media (Shu-Chuan Chu, 2009). Opinion leaders can share information online and offline. Offline WOM is related to traditional ways of communication, like face-to-face conversation. The reachability can be high, but usually offline WOM passes through a chain or tree of correspondents. Conversely, online WOM has the ability to reach millions of people by using internet-based communication platforms, such as social media (Prendergast and Ko, 2010).
Figure 6. Offline and online network flows
Prendergast and Ko (2010) found that offline communication is losing its
effectiveness because of its lower reachability, accessibility, reliability and trustworthiness compared to online communication. For example, in South Korea, where social media use has increased to 80% of the population, traditional media has drastically declined as an information source (Sun-Jae Doh and Jang-Sun Hwang, 2009).
Because of its anonymous nature and wide range of content, the power of online WOM is expanding. Marketers shouldn’t avoid the increasing online consumer-to-consumer
communication, but should try to benefit from it. They need to be aware of online WOM communication threats and opportunities for businesses. Positive online WOM can lead to a brand switch, gaining new customers and profits, while unfair or bad service would increase negative WOM immediately (Maxham & Licata 1999). According to Sun-Jae Hoh and Jang-Sun Hwang (2009), negativety can increase credibility of the online word-of mouth message: “A single negative message itself can be harmful for product evaluation; however, one
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negative message in a 10-message set is not very harmful and even can be beneficial in the online WOM context”.
2.5 Social identity – mediating variable
Social identity theory (SIT) is a “Communicative theory of identity [that] suggests that a primary human tendency is to define one’s identity in large measure through actual or symbolic perceived affiliation with others who share similar experiences, perceptions, and values” (Slater, 2007). People have their own norms, values and beliefs that influence their behaviour towards a specific community and help them maintain a positive relationship with the group (Zeng, Huang and Dou, 2009). Those people can also adopt the norms, values and beliefs of other community members on the basis of their arguments. Social media provides various categories where people can be classified, and each community has its own
characteristics. Consumers can join communities that they prefer because of their lifestyle, religion, age, gender, etc. (Ashforth and Mael, 1989). For example, soccer fans can join a page of the team they support. For many people, sport represents self-identity; by joining the group, they can share information and experience the successes and failures of the team with the rest of the group (Madrigal, 2001). According to Ashforth and Mael (1989), “Group identification is seen as personally experiencing the successes and failures of the group”.
Zeng et al. (2009) found that online community members create their own characteristics by interacting and communicating with each other. Each community has different intentions and reacts differently to social media marketing (Zeng, Huang and Dou, 2009). Companies can promote their products or services by advertising and interacting with the right groups.
2.6 Emotional response – mediating variable
Every day people see many different ads on social media websites. Various emotions can occur in response to these ads, which lead to various actions: share, like or delete. As mentioned before, emotional response can be defined as a response to a psychologically important event, real or imagined, past or anticipated (Stout and Leckenby, 1986). The feelings that occur in those situations may be the motivators of behaviours that have an impact on consumers’ response to advertising.
Several studies have focused on emotional responses to advertising. The outcomes of those studies confirmed that emotions influence information processing through mood state and create positive or negative attitude towards the ad (Anastesiel and Chiosa, 2014). Hill
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and Mazis (1986) explain that the purpose of the advertisement is to create a pleasant attitude towards the brand by leaving the listener, viewer or reader in a positive emotional state after processing the ad. It is important that the ads are credible and have a convincing product demonstration, or else the ad would decrease the purchase intention (Hill and Mazis 1986).
Social media marketing these days is not only more salient, but also more vivid than ever before. This kind of advertising influences consumers’ emotions; it not only leads to purchase intention, but also increases brand name and advertising recall. Informative advertisements are also important in influencing consumers’ attitude towards brands and in creating emotional responses to advertisements (Rehman et al., 2014).
Anastesiel and Chiosa (2014) explain the emotional Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance theory in their article. Morris and Boone (1998) also highlight the importance of the PAD theory by explaining human emotions through three independent dimensions: “The arousal/non-arousal dimension constitutes a physiological continuum connoting a level of physical activity, mental alertness or frenzied excitement on one extreme; inactivity, mental unalertness. Dominance/submissiveness refers to the total power, control or influence versus the inability to influence a situation or a feeling of lack of control”.
2.7 Environmental response – mediating variable
Environmental response is based on beliefs and norms that are constructed through individual perception. Surrounding environmental conditions, such as design, social aspects and ambience (layout, functionality, symbols and artefacts), affect consumers’ buying behaviour (Hsin Hsin Chang Su Wen Chen, 2008).
Sevgin et al. (1999) explain these three factors (social aspects, design and ambience). Social factors can be defined as salespeople and other customers whom you can interact with, design factors are the way in which store furniture, machinery and equipment are arranged and ambient factors are the smells, sounds and lights. Consumers can gain information from or be inspired by these factors, which can increase purchase intention (Hsin Hsin Chang Su Wen Chen, 2008). The surrounding environments can also trigger customers to purchase products. For example, background workout music motivates customers to purchase new workout outfits, because they get the idea to go to the gym after shopping.
According to Adelaar et al. (2003), people often make purchases spontaneously and the above-mentioned factors influence these unplanned purchases. Sometimes consumers are confused about what to purchase, or they are looking for new information. Store environment or online (social media) environment can provide these consumers with what they are
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searching for (Morris & Boone, 1998).The environmental of Social media is a virtual world that cab provides information, pictures, videos and much more, which can influence the customers purchase intention.
2.8 Hypothesis overview and the model
H1: Positive consumer attitude towards the fashion brands will increase purchase intention in the fashion industry.
H2: High opinion seekers will positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention.
H3: Positive emotional response will positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention.
H4: Positive environmental response will positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention.
H5: Consumers who identify themselves with a community will have greater impact on the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. intention.
23 3. Methodology
This study adopts a quantitative approach for investigating the topic. A large amount of data was gathered and analyzed statistically. This chapter outlines the survey instrument used in this thesis, namely a questionnaire. First the research design–a survey–was discussed. This was followed by the measures used in the survey. These measures were selected to get an understanding of how recipients use social media, to see if this influences the need recognition of their decision making process. Next, the constructs used in the questionnaire to measure the independent variables and the dependent variable (purchase intentions) are explained. Finally, a description of the data collection method is given, as well as an overview of the analyses that will be conducted.
3.1 Design
For the purpose of this study, a formal survey research approach was used with a questionnaire. The twelve questions that were chosen were designed to provide an
understanding of how social media marketing variables affect customer purchase intention in the fashion industry. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire in which the independent, dependent and moderating variables were measured in the form of questions. The survey also collected personal background information of the recipients. The online survey and personal networks were used to gather large amounts of data. Gathering data was done online because the surveys needed a decent sample size in a small amount of time, and the Internet offers easy and cheap access to many recipients (Saunders et al., 2007). This method delivers diversified correspondents, which makes the results more reliable. Another important benefit of an online survey is the anonymity, which was created for the recipients who may therefore give less socially desirable answers (Saunders et al., 2007). The questionnaire is designed for people who can read and understand English; the questions are not available in other languages. The diversity of the branches where the data was collected is reduced to fashion industry only.
3.2 Measurements
Consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands – independent variable
Attitude towards the brand was assessed using four items based on constructs by Mitchell and Olson (1981). Attitude towards the brand was measured using a five-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. This scale is created to
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assess whether attitude towards the brand influences purchase intention, as has already been shown in academic studies.
Purchase intention - dependent variable
Purchase intention is a common effectiveness measure used to anticipate a response behaviour (Bearden, Lichtenstein & Teel 1984). This variable refers to the consumer’s
intention to buy a product after being affected by social media marketing variables (Summers, Belleau & Xu, 2006). Purchase intention was measured by following question: “I would like to try this brand”. Respondents could answer using a five-point Likert scale. The questions were based on Summers, Bakker and Churchill’s (1997) article.
Word-of-mouth – mediating variable
Opinion seeking was assessed to measure respondents’ engagement in online word-of-mouth activities on social media, and word-word-of-mouth influence on that individual’s purchase intentions. Shu-Chuan Chu’s (2009) opinion seeking scale was adopted. This scale was measured with a three-item scale. All of these items were measured by a five-point Likert scale.
Environmental response – mediating variable
The social media environment was measured using items from Sherman, Mathur and Smith (1997). These items were used to measure online store environment. In addition, two items were excluded from this measurement scale, because the content of these items was not related to the social media environment. Finally, a 12-item scale was used to measure the social media environment. The items were measured on five-point bipolar scale.
Emotional response – mediating variable
Emotional response towards social media marketing was measured using Anastasiei and Chiosa’s (2014) SEP (standardized emotional profile). A seven-item scale was used, measuring three dimensions: pleasure, arousal and domination. Respondents indicated their emotions using a five-point Likert scale.
Social identity – mediating variable
This variable measurement is based on PAD theory Zeng, Huang and Dou (2009). Social identity consists of three dimensions: evaluative social identity, cognitive social
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identity and affective social identity. Each of these dimensions consist of three items. Only three items were selected to measure social identity, the rest of the items was excluded from this measurement scale, because the content of these items was not related to the social media environment. These items were measured by a five-point Likert scale.
26 4. Sample
The questionnaire was created through the Qualtrics website. After that it was posted and shared on different social media websites and personal networks. The survey was available online for three days, at the end of which 145 surveys had been filled out. Unfortunately, only 99 (69%) of those surveys were useful. Fourteen (9%) surveys were discarded because the same answers were filled in, that is, there was no diversity in the answers. Thirty-two (22%) surveys were incomplete. From the final dataset, eight (8%) respondents didn’t have an account on social networking websites; they only filled out the demographic section of the survey.
Of the sample size of 99 individuals, 58 were male and 41 were female. The average age was 28 years (SD=10.00); the youngest participant was 16 and the oldest was 61. Most of the respondents were Dutch. The respondents’ educational levels were: 8% less than high school, 9% high school, 5% two-year degree, 53% bachelor degree and 24% master degree.
4.1 Reliability scale
Cronbach’s alpha is an estimate of internal consistency associated with the scores that can be derived from a scale or a composite score. Reliability is important because without it, it is impossible to have any validity associated with the scores of the scale. That’s why it is important to do a reliability analysis before starting the main analyses on the data, especially if the scores are combined together. Basically, Cronbach’s alpha helps determine whether it is reasonable to interpret scores that have been aggregated together.
As all the variables (independent, dependent and mediating) were measured with a scale, we can report a Cronbach’s alpha for all of them. The independent variable consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands has a Cronbach’s alpha of .838. The Cronbach’s alpha of the dependent variable, purchase intention, is .780. According to Peterson, it can be assumed that an alpha above .8 is good, between .6–.8 is reasonable and everything below .6 is bad and shouldn’t be used. By looking further at the alphas of the variables, we see that only the half of them are above .8. The alphas of word-of-mouth (.639), social identity (.686) and purchase intention (.780) are below .8, but still high enough to be used in further analysis. The alpha of purchase intention can be increased to .826 by deleting the “I would like to try this brand” question. By deleting “I can impress other members of the community of this brand” question, the social identity alpha can be increased to 0.687. Since the sample size (n) is small and there was only a small difference (0.001 between the original alpha of social identity and the alpha after deleting the question, it was decided to not delete the question of
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social identity from the survey. The same scenario was applied for environmental response with alpha of 0.838 (after deleting 0.839), emotional response with alpha of 0.846 (after deleting 0.864). Word-of-mouth and consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands are the only variables whose Cronbach’s alpha can’t be increased by deleting one of the questions,
because they’re already at their highest point.
WOM Cronbach's alpha: 0.639 1* 2*
I like to get information on the social media websites before I buy new
products 0.195 0.616
I feel more comfortable choosing products when I have gotten
information on a social networking site. 0.316 0.381
Information on social media websites stimulates me to buy fashion
product when I wasn't planning to. 0.200 0.609
Social identity 0.686
I am a valuable member of the community of this brand. 0.468 0.551 I can impress other members of the community of this brand. 0.120 0.687 My identity in the community is similar to that of other members in the
community of this brand. 0.222 0.649
My self-image is congruent with the community's image of this brand. 0.309 0.652
Emotional response 0.846 Spiritual 0.588 0.810 Loving 0.575 0.813 Friendly 0.745 0.805 Grateful 0.363 0.864 Interested 0.648 0.831 Excited 0.580 0.844 Entertained 0.779 0.799 Environmental response 0.831 Lively - Unlively 0.775 0.796 Cheerful - Depressing 0.813 0.797 Boring - Stimulating 0.667 0.826 Good - Bad 0.799 0.807 Negative - Positive 0.752 0.832 Large- Small 0.619 0.814 Roomy - Cramped 0.698 0.821 Colorful - Drab 0.882 0.816 Unattractive - Attractive 0.682 0.839 Dirty - Clean 0.567 0.828 Comfortable - Uncomfortable 0.695 0.820
Well-organized layout - Disorganized
layout 0.672 0.810
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1: Squared multiple correlation 2: Cronbach's alpha if iItem deleted:
Figure 7. Cronbach’s alpha table
Descriptive statistics
Table 2 shows the outcomes of the standard deviations and the mean scores of independent, dependent and moderating variables.
Variable Mean St. dev.
Purchase intention 7.16 2.535
Consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands 9.73 3.249
Word-of-mouth 10.07 2.403
Social identity 15.56 3.170
Emotional response 24.08 4.518
Environmental response 34.43 6.330
Figure 8. Descriptive statistics table
All variables except environmental response were measured using a five-point Likert scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. Only the environmental
response variable was measured on five-point bipolar l scale. So the “mean” score in the table is the average of all items within each variable.
Correlation analysis
The Pearson Correlation is a basic analysis, which is performed frequently. It is a useful statistic and forms the basis of a large number other more sophisticated statistics, such as multiple-regression and factor analysis (Rodgers and Nicewander, 1988). The Pearson Correlation is a linear correlation between two variables with the outcomes between -1 to 1, where -1 is a strong negative correlation, 0 is no correlation and 1 is a strong positive correlation (Rodgers and Nicewander, 1988). According Bonett and Wright (2000), rules of thumb are: Pearson (r) > .25 is interesting and Pearson (r) > .5 is strong.
fashion brands
The brand is good. 0.486 0.788
I like the brand very much. 0.733 0.728
I think the brand is pleasant. 0.512 0.826
I think the brand is of high quality. 0.607 0.828
Purchase intention 0.780
I would like to try this brand. 0.276 0.826
I would buy this brand if I happened to see it available to be purchased. 0.512 0.683
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The results of the correlation analyses are summarized in Table 3. All significant correlations (at the .01 level) are positively correlated. Word-of-mouth variable has positive correlation with social identity at the .05 significance level and negative correlation with purchase intention at the 0.01 sig. level. The rest of the variables have no correlation with word-of-mouth. The results show positive correlation between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands (independent variable) and environmental response at the 0.01 sig. level. The rest of the variables have no correlation with the independent variable. Purchase intention (dependent variable) has a negative correlation with word-of-mouth and a positive correlation with environmental response and consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands at the .01 sig. level.
Strong correlations (r > .5) were unfortunately not found, but there were interesting correlations (r > .25). Emotional response is correlated with social identity (r = .431, p < .01). Word-of-mouth is correlated with purchase intention (r = .270, p < .01). Environmental response is correlated with consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention (r = .305, p < .01 and r = .591 p < .01 respectively). Finally, consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands has positive correlation with purchase intention (r = .621, p < .01). This last finding is important and relevant for our hypotheses.
Figure 9. Correlation table
Regression and moderation analysis
This analysis was conducted to estimate the relationship among the variables. During regression analysis the focus is on the dependent variable (purchase intention) and one or more independent variables. This research has five independent and mediating variables: consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands, word-of-mouth, social identity, emotional response and environmental response. More specifically, a regression analysis helps to
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. WOM_variable - 2. SI_variable .238* - 3. EMR_variable .190 .431** - 4. ENR_variable -.068 -.132 .034 - 5. ATB_variable .135 .123 -.051 .305** - 6. PI_variable -.270** -.015 .040 .591** .621** -
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
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Figure 10. Simple relationship
Figure 11. Direct interaction (mediation)
understand how the dependent variable changes when any one of the mediating variables is varied, while the rest of the variables are fixed.
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Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess each component of the proposed mediation model. Hypothesis 1 suggests that positive consumer attitude towards fashion brands increase the purchase intention of the customer. The results of the regression analysis show a positive and significant relationship (β = .3426, p = .01).
Hypothesis 2 tests whether opinion-seeking consumers in fashion industry will positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. Consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands was positively and
significantly related to word-of-mouth (β = .1001, p = .05). It was also found that the
mediator word-of-mouth was positively and significantly associated with purchase intention (β = .2688, p = .01). Because both relationships were significant, the mediation analyses were tested using the bootstrapping method with bias-corrected confidence estimates (MacKienen, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004; Preacher & Hayes, 2004). In the present study, the 95% confidence interval of the indirect effects was obtained with 1000 bootstrap resamples
(Preacher & Hayes, 2008). The results of the mediation analysis confirmed the mediating role of word-of-mouth in the relation between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention (β = .0269, confidence interval = .0895 to 0.4519). In addition, the results indicated that the direct effect of consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands on purchase intention increased and remained significant (β =.3695, p = .01) when controlling for word-of-mouth, which suggests full mediation.
Hypothesis 3 predicts that social identity will positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. Although the relationship between the mediator social identity and consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands is positive, this relationship is not significant (β = .120, p = .43). The relationship between social identity and purchase intention was also tested. According to the results (β = -.053, p = .56), there is negative relationship between social identity and purchase intention. This negative relationship is not significant. As both relationships with the mediator are not significant, it can be assumed that social identity doesn’t mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention.
Hypothesis 4 predicts that positive emotional response will positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. A positive relation was found between the variables, but unfortunately this relationship was not significant (β = .0706, p = .45). The next step showed a negative relationship between
emotional response and purchase intention (β = -.0288, p = .65). As both relationships with the mediator, emotional response, are not significant, it can be assumed that environmental
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response doesn’t mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention.
The results of the regression analysis show significant support for hypothesis 5. First, it was found that consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands was positively and
significantly related to environmental response (β = .5944, p = .01). It was also found that the mediator environmental response was positively associated with purchase intention (β = 0.1254, p = .01). Because both relationships were significant, the mediation analysis was tested. The results of the mediation analysis confirmed the mediating role of environmental response in the relation between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention (β = .0745, confidence interval = .0745 to 0.1513). In addition, the results indicated that the direct effect of consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands on purchase intention became stronger and remained significant (β =.4681, p = .01) when controlling for environmental response, which suggests full mediation.
33 5. Discussion
The aim of this research was to investigate whether the social media marketing variables word-of-mouth, emotional response, environmental response and social identity have a mediating effect on the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. To answer this question, we have compounded different hypotheses, which we will explain in next section.
5.1 Findings
5.1.1 Consumers’ attitude towards the brand
Laroche, Kim and Zhou (1996) found that attitude towards the brand determines the purchase decisions of the customer; it makes them like or dislike the product. The better the attitude of a person towards the brand, the more likely that person is to use that brands’ product and vice versa (Akar a & Topçu, 2011). Spears and Singh (2004) found that attitude towards the brand and purchase intention are separate but are strongly correlated with each other. Hypothesis 1 predicted that positive consumers’ attitude towards the brand will increase the purchase intention. The correlation and regression analysis showed a strong correlation and positive relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. As expected from the literature, hypothesis 1 has been confirmed,
meaning that positive attitude towards the brand will increase the purchase intention of customers in the fashion industry.
5.1.2 Word-of-mouth
Hypothesis 2 predicted that opinion-seeking consumers in the fashion industry would positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. The results show that the word-of-mouth variable positively mediates this relationship. This relationship, however, is significant.
Word-of-mouth (WOM) can be defined as the act of exchanging marketing
information among consumers (Shu-Chuan Chu, 2009). This type of communication has a role in influencing and forming consumer attitudes and purchase intentions (Samiei, 2012). For example, the findings from Shu-Chuan Chu (2009) research showed that people who consulted product recommendations choose the recommended products twice as often as consumers who didn’t consult any recommendations. According to this literature we
formulated hypothesis 2, which predicted that consumers, who are seeking for an opinion in fashion industry, would positive mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude toward
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fashion brands and purchase intention. Results show that word-of-mouth variable positively mediate this relationship, which is significant. The findings match with the literature.
5.1.3 Social identity
People have their own norms, values and beliefs, which influence the way of behaving toward a specific community and maintain a positive relationship with the group (Zeng, Huang and Dou, 2009). “Group identification is seen as personally experiencing the
successes and failures of the group” (Ashforth and Mael, 1989). It has been research by Zeng et al. (2009) that online communities members create their own characteristics by interacting and communicating with each other. Each community has another intensions and react different to social media marketing (Zeng, Huang and Dou, 2009). Companies can promote their products or services by advertising and interacting with the right groups. The above-mentioned literature provided enough information to compose hypothesis 3, that consumers who identify themselves with a community will have greater impact on the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. The results contradict the literatures, as the test for mediation showed no significant effect.
6.1.4 Emotional response
Hill and Mazis (1986) explain the purpose of the advertisement is to create pleasant attitude toward the ad by leaving the listener, viewer or reader in a positive emotional state after processing an ad. It is important that those ads are credible and have a convincing product demonstration, if the ad is desirable it will increase the purchase intention (Hill and Mazis, 1986).
The social media marketing these days is not only salient, but also more vivid than before. This kind of advertising influence consumers’ emotions; that leads not only to purchase intention, but also increases brand name and advertising recall. Also informative advertisements are important in influencing consumers’ opinion toward brand and create emotional response about advertisements (Rehman et al., 2014). Hypothesis 4 predicted that positive emotional response will positively influence the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. Although a positive relationship was found between these variables, it was not significant. Contrary to what was predicted, this outcome provides sufficient information to conclude that no mediating effect is possible
35 6.1.5 Environmental response
Surrounding environmental conditions such as design, social and ambient (layout, functionality, symbols and artefacts) affect the consumers buying behaviour. (Hsin Hsin Chang Su Wen Chen, 2008). According to Adelaar et al. (2003), people often buy spontaneous and above-mentioned factors influence this unplanned purchase. If the
consumers’ attitude toward fashion brands is positive it can increase spontaneous purchase intention. Sometimes consumers are confused about what to purchase, or they just seeking for new information. Store environment or online (social media) environment can provide these consumers information where they are searching for (Morris & Boone, 1998). According to these literature in hypothesis 5 predicted that positive environmental response will positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. The results show that environmental response positively mediates this relationship. These results are significant and agree with the literature.
5.2 Theoretical implications
Social media marketing is an upcoming subject in the academic marketing field. The outcomes of social marketing activities are disputed among industries (Huttler, Hautz, Dennhardt and Fuller, 2013). Therefore, the effects of social media marketing on consumers’ perception of products and brands as well as the impact on purchase decisions needed to be better understood. This study examined the most important variables that according to the literature influence purchase intention through social networking sites.
The literature provided information about consumers’ attitude towards the brand and its moderating effect on purchase intention. There was no further information available about the mediation effect of social media marketing variables on the relationship of consumers’
attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention. The findings show that only word-of-mouth and environmental response positively mediate this relationship. The variables social identity and emotional response had no significance between independent, dependent and mediating variables. For these variables, a mediating effect is not possible.
5.3 Practical implications
The findings of this study have practical implications for social marketing media practices in the fashion industry. Since word-of-mouth and environmental response have a positive mediating effect on the relationship between consumers’ attitude towards fashion brands and purchase intention, managers need to be aware of the importance of
word-of-36
mouth and environmental response on social networking websites. A brand that has negative reviews will look dishonest and will be more likely to be passed over. It also applies for environmental response, which need to look clean and manifest. Of course, other brands will be considered as well, but a product with positive word-of-mouth and environmental
response will receive higher consumer preferences because it has better evaluations (Chi, Yeh, Yang, 2009; Macdonald and Sharp, 2003).
Managers should use social media marketing to provide information about their brand and products to customers. Doing so will affect the consumers’ cognitions, attitudes and purchase intention both directly and indirectly.
5.4 Limitations and future research
This research has some limitations. The collected data showed the results of a similar, one kind, group of respondents. Most of them were Dutch, around 20-30 years old and highly educated, so the general applicability of the findings is limited. An analysis of a more diverse group of respondents would provide more generalizable results.
Another limitation is the language barrier, as the questionnaire was in English. An option to choose different languages on the questionnaire would provide a more diverse target group and thus more generalizable results.
Word-of- mouth and social identity had Cronbach’s alphas of .639 and .686 respectively, which can be assumed as strong. But since these alphas were lower than the rest of the
variables, more word-of-mouth questions should be added to future surveys. Also, behaviours such as liking and sharing were not captured by the scales in this survey. Therefore, the findings could be more precise if appropriate scales are developed and tested. Future research can include new questions in their surveys and see if the Cronbach’s alpha, correlation and relationship with other variables will remain the same or change.
The survey was mostly conducted among Facebook users and a little through personal network contacts. Further research should study whether respondents from other social networking sites will provide the same or different results. If the outcomes will be the same, future research can focus on the effects of the similarities and differences of those social networking websites.
6. Conclusion
Brands and customers are communicating with each other without any restriction in time, place and medium so that old-fashioned one-way communication is changed to interactive
