SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS’ ATTRIBUTES ON FOLLOWERS’ PURCHASE INTENTION IN MALAYSIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v4i6.283Keywords:
brand awareness, influencer credibility, influencer endorsement, purchase intentionAbstract
Social media is a platform that connects people especially between the business organisation and customer. It became a marketing strategy to manage market shrinkage in diverse industries. This study aims to investigate the influence of brand awareness on purchase intention through the mediating role of influencers’ attributes (credibility and endorsement) among consumers in Selangor, Malaysia. This study was hinged on the Source Credibility Theory. Using a survey research method, a structured questionnaire was administered among 389 social media (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok) followers in Selangor with experience in purchasing products/services after watching or browsing social medias endorsed by an influencer. The findings revealed that majority of consumers’ purchase intention are moderately affected by the social media influencers. Further, the results show that brand awareness, influencers’ credibility, and influencers’ endorsement have a stronger influence on purchase intention. Besides, both influencers’ credibility and influencers’ endorsement have a mediation role on the relationship between brand awareness and purchase intention. This result indicates that a “credible” social media influencer that endorsed the specific product/service with social media post stated an '#sponsored' '#ad' have a positive effect towards the brand and purchase intention. It was recommended that companies should ascertain the credibility of social media influencers whose services would be employed in order to enhance positive perception about product promotion among the consumers.
References
Abraham, J.S.E., Floreto, S.J.L., Pagkalinawan, M.I.B., Etrata, A.E. (2022): Consumer perception on influencer marketing efforts of brands in the beauty and cosmetics industry. – International Journal of Social and Management Studies 3(2): 105-118.
Alalwan, A.A. (2018): Investigating the impact of social media advertising features on customer purchase intention. – International Journal of Information Management 42: 65-77.
Andreani, F., Gunawan, L., Haryono, S. (2021): Social media influencer, brand awareness, and purchase decision among generation Z in Surabaya. – Jurnal Manajemen Dan Kewirausahaan 23(1): 18-26.
Balaban, D., Mustățea, M. (2019): Users’ perspective on the credibility of social media influencers in Romania and Germany. – Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations 21(1): 31-46.
Bergkvist, L., Zhou, K.Q. (2016): Celebrity endorsements: a literature review and research agenda. – International Journal of Advertising 35(4): 642-663.
Chakraborty, U., Bhat, S. (2018): The effects of credible online reviews on brand equity dimensions and its consequence on consumer behavior. – Journal of Promotion Management 24(1): 57-82.
Deng, X., Li, M., Suh, A. (2020): Recommendation or advertisement? The influence of advertising-disclosure language with pictorial types on influencer credibility and consumers’ brand attitudes. – International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Cham: Springer International Publishing 14p.
Djafarova, E., Rushworth, C. (2017): Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. – Computers in Human Behavior 68: 1-7.
Doan, T. (2020): Factors affecting online purchase intention: a study of Vietnam online customers. – Management Science Letters 10(10): 2337-2342.
Dreifaldt, N., Drennan, T. (2019): Does your brand need online influencer marketing? It depends: a mixed method approach to country of origin, brand image, and online influencer marketing on consumers’ purchase intention online. – School of Business, Society & Engineering, Mälardalen University 57p.
Dwidienawati, D., Tjahjana, D., Abdinagoro, S.B., Gandasari, D., Munawaroh. (2020): Customer review or influencer endorsement: Which one influences purchase intention more? – Heliyon 6(11): 11p.
Geisser, S. (1975): The predictive sample reuse method with applications. – Journal of the American Statistical Association 70: 320-328.
Hair, J.F., Risher, J.J., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C.M. (2019): When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. – European Business Review 31(1): 2-24.
Henseler, J., Hubona, G., Ray, P.A. (2016): Using PLS path modeling in new technology research: updated guidelines. – Industrial Management and Data Systems 116(1): 2-20.
Hermanda, A., Sumarwan, U., Tinaprillia, N. (2019): The effect of social media influencer on brand image, self-concept, and purchase intention. – Journal of Consumer Sciences 4(2): 76-89.
Hovland, C.I., Weiss, W. (1951): The influence of source credibility on communication effectiveness. – Public Opinion Quarterly 15: 635-650.
Hoyer, D.W., MacInnis, J.D., Pieters, R. (2013): Consumer Behavior. – Mason, USA: Cengage Learning 560p.
Hsu, C.L., Lin, C.J., Chiang, H.S. (2013): The effects of blogger recommendations on customers’ online shopping intentions. – Internet Research 23(1): 69-88.
Hughes, C., Swaminathan, V., Brooks, G. (2019): Driving brand engagement through online social influencers: An empirical investigation of sponsored blogging campaigns. – Journal of Marketing 83(5): 22-39.
Jaitly, R.C., Gautam, O. (2021): Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement and brand perception. – International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising 15(2): 220-242.
Jiang, M. (2018): Consumer Resistance to Sponsored eWOM: the Roles of Influencer Credibility and Inferences of Influencer Motives. – Michigan State University 127p.
Khamis, S., Ang, L., Welling, R. (2017): Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of social media influencers. – Celebrity Studies 8(2): 191-208.
Khan, S.A. (2020): Effect of social media influencer marketing on consumers. – Journal of Promotion Management 21(1): 1847-1851.
Ki, C.W.C., Kim, Y.K. (2019): The mechanism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: the role of consumers’ desire to mimic. – Psychology & Marketing 36(10): 905-922.
Kurdi, B., Alshurideh, M., Akour, I., Tariq, E., AlHamad, A., Alzoubi, H. (2022): The effect of social media influencers’ characteristics on consumer intention and attitude toward Keto products purchase intention. – International Journal of Data and Network Science 6(4): 1135-1146.
Le, T.V., Alang, T., Tran, Q.T. (2021): How YouTube influencers impact customers’ purchase intention: an empirical study of cosmetic brands in Vietnam. – The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business 8(9): 101-111.
Lee, M., Lee, H.H. (2022): Do parasocial interactions and vicarious experiences in the beauty YouTube channels promote consumer purchase intention? – International Journal of Consumer Studies 46(1): 235-248.
Martensen, A., Sofia, B.S., Lauritsen, Z.A. (2018): How citizen influencers persuade their followers. – Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 22(3): 335-353.
Masuda, H., Han, S.H., Lee, J. (2022): Impacts of influencer attributes on purchase intentions in social media influencer marketing: mediating roles of characterisations. – Technological Forecasting and Social Change 174: 12p.
Muda, M., Hamzah, M.I. (2021): Should I suggest this YouTube clip? The impact of UGC source credibility on eWOM and purchase intention. – Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing 15(3): 441-459.
Mudassar, K., Talib, S., Cheema, S., Raza, M.S. (2013): The impact of service quality on customer satisfaction and the moderating role of word-of-mouth. – African Journal of Business Management 7(18): 1751-1764.
Müller, L., Mattke, J., Maier, C. (2018): #Sponsored #ad: Exploring the effect of influencer marketing on purchase intention. – In 24th Americas Conference on Information Systems, New Orleans 10p.
Nagori, A. (2020): Impact of influencer marketing on purchase intention with specific reference to health and beauty products. – International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts 8(3): 3157-3170.
Nurhandayani, A., Syarief, R., Najib, M. (2019): The impact of social media influencer and brand images to purchase intention. – Jurnal Aplikasi Manajemen 17(4): 650-661.
Nursyirwan, V.I., Ardaninggar, S.S. (2020): The factor analysis that influences the student purchase intention in Shopee E-commerce. – Economics and Accounting Journal 3(2): 118-129.
Oberlo Official Portal (2020): 10 Social media statistics you should know in 2021. – Oberlo Official Portal 21p.
Prema, D.T.K. (2020): Role of influencer marketing on social media. – Test Engineering & Management 8(1): 15277-15282.
Ramayah, T.J.F.H., Cheah, J., Chuah, F., Ting, H., Memon, M.A. (2018): Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using smartPLS 3.0. An updated guide and practical guide to statistical analysis. – Pearson Malaysia 149p.
Saima, Khan, M.A. (2020): Effect of social media influencer marketing on consumers’ purchase intention and the mediating role of credibility. – Journal of Promotion Management 27(4): 503-523.
Seno, C., Lukas, B. (2007): The equity effect of product endorsement by celebrities: a conceptual framework from a co-branding perspective. – European Journal of Marketing 41(1/2): 121-134.
Singh, T., Cullinane, J. (2010): Social networks and marketing: potential and pitfalls. – International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing 3(3): 202-220.
Stone, M. (1974): Cross-validatory choice and assessment of statistical predictions. – Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 36(2): 111-133.
Torres, P., Augusto, M., Matos, M. (2019): Antecedents and outcomes of digital influencer endorsement: an exploratory study. – Psychology & Marketing 36(12): 1267-1276.
Venciute, D., Mackeviciene, I., Kuslys, M., Correia, R.F. (2023): The role of influencer–follower congruence in the relationship between influencer marketing and purchase behaviour. – Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 75: 10p.
Wang, S.W., Scheinbaum, A.C. (2017): Trustworthiness trumps attractiveness and expertise: enhancing brand credibility through celebrity endorsement. – Journal of Advertising Research 7(1): 68-82.
Weismueller, J., Harrigan, P., Wang, S., Soutar, G.N. (2020): Influencer endorsements: how advertising disclosure and source credibility affect consumer purchase intention on social media. – Australasian Marketing Journal 28(4): 160-170.
