Abstract

Influence of Social Media Marketing Activities on Consumer Purchase Decisions: An Empirical Study with Reference to Mysuru City

Dhamayanthi P T, Manjula M L

Volume: 14 Issue: 4 2024

Abstract:

Social media has moved from being a supporting promotional channel to the place where many Indian consumers first meet a brand, compare offers and listen to other buyers. This study examines how five social media marketing activities — entertainment, interactivity, trendiness, customisation and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) — are associated with the purchase decisions of consumers in Mysuru city. Primary data were collected from 220 social media users, selected by convenience-cum-purposive sampling from among consumers who had already purchased a product after seeing it on social media, through a structured questionnaire, and analysed using percentage analysis, descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlation, multiple regression, one-way ANOVA with post-hoc tests and chi-square test. All five activities showed a significant positive correlation with purchase decision. Together they explained 40.2 per cent of the variation in purchase decision (R² = 0.402), with eWOM emerging as the strongest predictor, followed by entertainment and trendiness, while interactivity and customisation were not significant once the other factors were controlled. Purchase decision differed significantly across age groups, but platform preference was independent of gender. The results suggest that marketers in tier-II cities may gain more from authentic customer reviews and engaging content than from heavily personalised messaging, although the cross-sectional design supports association rather than causation.

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