The Effect of Online Source Credibility of the Influencer on the Brand Equity and Consumer Purchase Intention in Social Media Marketing

Abstract

With the widespread use of internet as a result of advancing technology, businesses use various marketing channels and communication methods to reach their customers. One of these marketing channels is social media platforms. Brands or companies carry out product /brand promotion activities through social media tools by cooperating with the influencers. Consumers who use social media marketing devices, via influencers, can get information, generate contents, and share their ideas with other users about products and services. The spread of using influencers shapes the brand equity and purchase intentions rapidly and significantly. The main aim of this research is to analyse whether there is an influence of the online source credibility of the influencer on customer-based brand equity, and whether brand equity has an effect on purchase intention. Survey method has been used for this research. The universe of the research consists of social media users who are 18 years old and above. 900 participants as the sample have been surveyed online or face-to-face, and 812 of these participants have answered the questionnaire. The collected data have been analysed by using structural equation model. As a result of this research, it has been found out that attractiveness, credibility and online self-presentation which are the sub-dimensions of online source credibility have a positive effect on brand equity, and that another subdimension, competence doesn’t have a significant positive effect brand equity. Another result of this research is that brand equity has a positive influence on purchase intention.