Social Media Marketing and Purchase Intention in Consumer Durables: Examining the Mediating Ef ects of Brand Perception and Consumer Trust

ABSTRACT
This paper assesses the impact that social media marketing makes on brand association, customer confidence, as
well as purchase intention in the market of consumer durable goods. The aim is to grasp how marketers should
design engagement strategies targeting online consumers. Purposive sampling was employed to gather
information from 145 social media users who had used social media for buying consumer durables in the last one
year. The study’s results suggest that marketing activities on social media greatly boost brand association and
trust which, in turn, leads to stronger purchase intentions and actual buying behavior. The study details how brand
perception and credibility mediate consumers’ decisions. The strategic implication is that brands need to improve
their efforts in social media marketing to build trust with engagement, hence increase conversion rates. This is a
unique contribution because it fills a gap identified in the reviewed literature, specifically the association of social
media brand association, trust, as well as consumptions of durable goods in the online marketplace.