The Impact of the Social Media Marketing on Consumer Purchase Intention: Special Reference to Facebook Users in Sri Lankan Cosmetics Industry

Abstract

Today, almost all the companies irrespective of their size, scale, or scope are using social media platforms to reach their target audience. Main reasons of using social media are to make awareness of the brands and educate the target audience on the products. Among the social media platforms Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are the most popular social media platforms in the world which are used for social media marketing. Using these are cost effective and productive according to literature. However, in this industry the players commonly use traditional communication channels and tools where they must allocate a huge portion of their budget for this purpose. Therefore, in this study tend to fill the that gap in the literature in the context of Facebook marketing for cosmetic brands. Thus, through literature, it was identified that there is an impact on user generated communication and firm generated communication on the brand equity. Further, literature suggests that brand equity has an impact on purchase intention. And this study conducted through the 384 female and male users in the western province (Colombo, Gampaha, Kaluthara). All the respondents have already liked a Facebook page of any Cosmetics (25 Brands) brand. Data analysis was conducted through SPSS and regression analysis was used for hypotheses testing. Data reveals that the social media marketing has positive relationship with the consumers purchase intention. These findings can be used by the cosmetic brands of Sri Lanka to improve their marketing strategies in Facebook.