The influence of social media on the attitudes and purchase intention of customers by role of self-brand connection

Introduction: Due to the growth and spread of the Internet, the creation of Internet-based social media, and the commercialization capabilities of social media for businesses and brands, these social media are considered as a meeting point for customers and businesses. Meanwhile, the owners of brands and businesses prefer to use social media influencers so that the message of their products can reach the customers as quickly and effectively as possible. Social media influencers, depending on their characteristics, are usually active in a specific field, attract many users to their accounts and deliver product messages to customers using their unique and necessary characteristics. Therefore, this research seeks to determine the impact of social media influencers as a source of messages on the attitudes and purchase intentions of customers with the mediating role of self-brand connection.
Methodology: The current research is an applied and descriptive survey. The statistical population is the Iranian cosmetics consumers who have followed at least one influential person in the field of cosmetics on their Instagram accounts. The research data were collected using a questionnaire. The respondents who took the research questionnaire were 402 people. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by measuring the content validity or CVR and the content validity index or CVI. The reliability of the questionnaire was also evaluated through Cronbach's alpha method. At the end, the collected data were analyzed using the SPSS and Smart Pls software programs.
Results and discussion: The demographic investigation in this research was based on four questions about gender, age, marital status, and the amount of money the respondents spent on buying cosmetics per month. More than half of the research population was males, most of them were single, and they were from 20 to 30 years of age. Also, the highest amount spent on cosmetics by the respondents was 200 thousand Tomans per month. The testing of the hypotheses showed the influence of influencer characteristics (attractiveness, expertise, originality, homophily, interaction, trust, and perceived credibility) in social media on the attitudes (image satisfaction and advertising trust) and purchase intention of customers. In the end, we found that the attractiveness (beauty, stylishness, and being fashionable and sexual attractiveness) of the influencer does not affect image satisfaction (the audience's happiness from receiving, collecting, and viewing information about influencers and also interacting with them) and advertising trust. (based on the influencers' information and customers' trust in them) has effects. Expertise (experience, sufficient knowledge, and product recommendation skills of influencers) as another characteristic of an influencer affects image satisfaction but does not affect advertising trust. Originality (being original and creative of the influential person) does not affect image satisfaction and advertising trust. Homophily (having commonalities and similar values with an influential person) affects image satisfaction and does not affect advertising trust. Interaction (easy and quick communication with an influential person) does not affect image satisfaction and advertising trust. Trust (reliability and honesty) does not affect image satisfaction but affects advertising trust. Perceived credibility (that the influential person is reliable and can convince) affects image satisfaction and advertising trust. Also, customers' attitudes mean image satisfaction and advertising trust have effects on the self-brand connection (establishing a close relationship by customers with the brand included in the content sent by the influential person) and customers' purchase intention, and self-brand connection has an effect on purchase intention. Finally, the mediating role of self-brand connection between attitudinal effects and purchase intention was confirmed.
Conclusion: Influencers must always manage their image because the characteristics of their source affect consumer satisfaction and trust. In the contents that they publish, influencers should pay attention to the attractiveness of the image, the professionalism of the show, the needs of consumers, and the salience of possible similarities with consumers. This research confirmed that consumers' satisfaction with influencers and advertising trust can increase marketing efficiency. Influencers should consider the balance between personal content related to image building and marketing content related to promoting the brand. Too much advertising leads to a decrease in consumers' understanding of the influencer's image, which may lead to consumer loss. For brand managers, this study confirmed the role of influencers in brand marketing. Followers' trust in the influencer's brand content plays an important role in brand relationships and purchase intention. Therefore, brand managers can also consider increasing investment in influencer marketing. Specifically, brands can select influencers by assessing consumers' perceptions of the influencers' attractiveness, expertise, originality, homophily, interaction, trust, and perceived credibility This study also emphasized the importance of self-brand connection by consumers during the marketing process. In collaborating with influencers, brands should choose influencers that match the brand concept and require them to use realistic display methods and scenarios to highlight products or services. The research helps consumers to make better purchases in line with the correct understanding of advertising in social networks and knowing the characteristics of advertisers and their characteristics. This research serves as a reference on influencer management for social media platforms. According to the seven main characteristics of the source of influencers, social media companies can improve the quality of influencers on their platforms and lead and limit the behavior of influencers. As a result, the tendency of social media users to the operating system increases and companies can invest in potential influencers with a perspective to achieve sustainable influencer marketing development.