Relationship of Social Media Marketing and Purchase Intention with the help of Mediating Variable - Brand Trust

Abstract

Marketing has seen a paradigm shift in terms of direct communication with customers due to the growing use of social media by businesses. This study focuses on the influence of social media marketing (SMM) on purchase intention (PI) through mediation of brand trust (BT). This study is based on the application of quantitative methodology whereby the data on SMM, BT, and PI is collected from 380 undergraduate BS students studying in public and private universities in Pakistan through a questionnaire. Scales have been employed from past literature to measure the variables SMM, BT, and PI. Reliability test, correlation, regression, and mediation analysis have been conducted on the data. It has been concluded that social media marketing has a positive impact on both purchase intention and brand trust. Additionally, the brand trust partly mediates the relationship between social media marketing and purchase intention.