EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER MARKETING ON CONSUMER’S PURCHASE INTENTION: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF CREDIBILITY

Abstract

Purpose - Social media influencer marketing is one ofthe growing social media marketing types, which is becoming popular among many people and companies. Even major brands across the world have stepped the bandwagon of getting endorsed by the influencers. Being a relatively newer term, there hasn’t been much research done on social media influencer marketing and how it affects a consumer’s purchase intention. Brands are using this form of marketing as it has proven beneficial in creating awareness but not a lot ofresearch has been done as to how much it affects the intentions of customers to buy sponsored brands. We tried to integrate a model breaking social media influencers’ characteristics into several variables and testing its relationship with consumer purchase intention with the mediation ofcredibility ofthe influencer. Methodology & Design -To test the model, data was collected from 233 regular social media users who also followed at least one social media influencer on social media. Subsequently, the data was analyzed using Smart PLS Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings - the findings supported the relation between credibility of the influencer with purchase intention. It also supported the mediation of credibility with purchase intention for all the influencer characteristics (expertise, trustworthiness, entertainment value, information quality, likability) except for expertise of the influencer. In addition, all the characteristics except likability were found to be not significant with purchase intention, and all characteristics in relation with credibility were supported. consumer’s Limitations — The limited time to collect the data, which also led to collection oflimited data were the major limitations ofthis study, the data collection was limited to Karachi and only a few respondents from other cities, such as Islamabad, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi. Due to this, the study cannot be generalized on a national level. A limitation ofusing questionnaire as the only source of data collection was also faced by the researcher, neglecting interviews, and focus groups as a data collection method. Recommendations - Social media influences are recommended to work on those characteristics that have shown to increase their credibility among consumers. Subsequently, brands are recommended to target those influences who possess such qualities so their product or service could reach the audience through credible sources because the study showed positive relation between credibility of an influencer and the consumer’s purchase intention.