Facebook advertisement plays a crucial role in providing emotional motivation to the customers;
Facebook advertisement plays a crucial role in providing emotional motivation to the customers; it facilitates them to develop an urge to purchase the advertised commodities. The advertisements made on Facebook tend to influence consumers towards liking the product and developing a positive attitude towards a particular brand (Li, H., Daugherty et al.,2001). According to Goldsmith & Lafferty (2002), consumers attitude towards the advertisement theory influences the consumer’s feelings towards ab particular brand; this, in turn, makes the consumers develop a purchase intention. The primary aim of the Facebook advertisement is to stimulate the consumer’s feelings towards purchasing a particular brand. Based on the traditional consumer behavior theory, consumer purchase behavior is distinct from the consumer’s attitude. The conventional consumer purchase theory denotes the gaining behavioral disposition (Swinyard &Smith, 1983), while consumer behavior denotes the emotional response; it is greatly affected by three key factors; arousal, dominance, and pleasure. The three concepts are commonly defined as follow; “Pleasure is the state where people feel happy and good,” “Dominance is the state of feeling that depends on person to person” and “Dominance is the state of feeling in which are in control or free to act in particular situations” (Adelaar et al., 2003). Hence the Facebook as a type of social commerce affects consumer behavior both psychologically and socially.
Facebook advertisements tend to establish likeness towards a particular brand amongst the consumers; it, in turn, influence consumer purchasing behavior (Goldsmith & Lafferty, 2002). The other aspect of Facebook advertisement that influence consumer purchasing behavior is the creation of the emotional response, emotional response refers to the ability of the consumer to remember every brand advertisement (Goldsmith & Lafferty, 2002). The emotional response created by Facebook advertisement influences the consumer’s tendency to purchase products regularly. Research indicates that informative advertisement is the most useful form of advertisement and helps influence the minds of consumers towards a particular brand; it also helps in the creation of an emotional response. Bezijian et al. (2008) noted that there exists a positive correlation amid verbal, visual, and text force of the media and the emotional response.
Environmental Response
Based on the attitude theory, environmental attitude is founded on norms and beliefs that are built via individual perception. Individual perception denotes to the opinion rather than the view. Environment (for instance, background music, the outlook of a company) has a significant impact on influencing consumer purchasing behavior (Ouwersloot, 2001). The Facebook advertisement containing the features of the company, such as the outlook, tend to have a significant influence on consumer purchases. Consumers will tend to opt for products offered by companies with unique features compared to the products offered by companies that do not display their company outlooks. According to past researches, consumers can acquire experience from the adjacent environment.
Influence of YouTube on Consumer Purchases
As a form of social commerce, research indicates that it influences sixty-four percent (64%) of consumer purchases. YouTube has altered the way people conduct purchases of various commodities; it has a robust effect on consumer purchases. YouTube, as an advertisement platform, helps the consumer develop a superior strategy while conducting the purchases (Dehghani et al.,2016). For instance, customers feel influenced to purchase commodities that a high number of reviews, and the comments. According to the Q2 2014 YouTube Report, sixty-two percent of the beauty commodities buyers were influenced by the advertisements found in the YouTube platform. Consumers were influenced to purchase the products with a high number of comments, reviews, likes, and the ones that were shared most by the past consumers (Pace, 2008). Also, research indicates that sixty-two percent of the Smartphone purchasers were reported to have purchased the commodities as a result of the view videos left by the consumers in the past (Lee & Watkins, 2016). YouTube is reported to be the most powerful platform towards enhancing consumer purchases; it influences around 64% of the purchases made by the consumers (Mir & Ur REHMAN, 2013). Hence, YouTube is termed as the most prominent platform on consumer purchases amongst the social commerce platforms.
Effect of Instagram on Consumer Purchases
Research has shown that Instagram, as a form of social commerce, tends to have a significant impact on consumer purchases. Past studies indicate that posting a brand on Instagram tends to have a significant positive effect on the way audiences regard the brand. Research showed that consumers recognize brands on Instagram as more relevant (74%), popular (78%), entertaining (76%), creative (77%), and committed to establishing a community (72%). The brand content attracts potential buyers through the purchaser’s journey (Phua et al., 2017). Instagram helps the purchasers to discover the latest brands in the market through influencer profiles, hashtags, and explore products through the use of the posts from comments and brand accounts. The relevant information derived from Instagram by the consumers tend to influence their purchase behavior; it helps them decide on whether to purchase a particular commodity or not (Maharani, Pradana & Wijaksana, 2016). Whenever consumers are pleased with a specific brand, they tend to purchase through the Instagram platform (Phua et al., 2017). The content of the brand posted on Instagram tends to derive purchase action from the purchasers (Korotina, A., & Jargalsaikhan, 2016). Research indicates that eighty-seven percent (87%) Instagram participants claimed to have to make a purchasing decision after viewing the commodity on Instagram. The brand reviews, comments, and commendations tend to influence the purchasing decision in various stages of their decision-making process. Instagram helps trigger the mind of the customer towards purchasing a particular commodity. Some of the purchases made by multiple consumers are as a result of the reviews attached to the commodity. This is a good indication that Instagram, as a form of social commerce, has a great tendency to enhancing consumer purchases. Social commerce has a positive effect on consumers’ purchases. Seventy-two percent (72%) of the people using Instagram reported having made a purchasing decision based on the reviews and comments they acquire from Instagram (Che et al., 2017). Research indicates that celebrity tends to have a negligent influence on consumer purchases on Instagram. Brand advocates and Fans help bring the most engagement of the purchaser (8.0%), while celebrities only attract 1.6% of the purchasers (Pookulamgara et al., 2018). Hence, form the past research studies, it is realistic to conclude that Instagram tends to have a significant influence on consumer purchases. It tends to have a positive impact on the purchases made by consumers.