Impact of Social Media Marketing for Purchase Intention of Organic Food: with Special Reference to the Mediating Effect of Customer Attitudes

Abstract

Social media has become the most popular communication channel where large amounts of information flows are exchanged between users. The information shared on social media has been perceived as more reliable than traditional media. This situation is similar to the organic foods market as well. The demand for organic food is recently increasing due to greater consumer awareness of the nutritional value and food protection for health care. Consumers’ purchasing intention is the most influential factor affecting the actual purchase of organic food. Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of social media marketing on organic food’s purchase intention and how social media marketing change consumer attitudes about organic food. This study was conducted quantitatively; it has used a structured questionnaire to gather primary data from the sample. The sample was selected using the convenience sampling technique. To empirically test the hypothesized relationships between the variables, a model consisted of those variables was developed based on the literature review. The results suggest that the attitudes mediate the relationship between social media marketing and organic food purchase intention. The recommendation and insights for strategies have been provided via the study that can be used by organic food manufacturers based on their business situation to maximize benefits for their business.