The effects of brand benefit and brand personality on the relationship between social media marketing activities and consumer purchase intention.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social media marketing activities and consumers' purchase intentions, as well as to investigate the mediator effect of brand benefit and mediation effect of brand personality on this reletionship. For this purpose, 425 participants aged between 18-45, who follow a clothing brand in at least one of their social media accounts and have used a product belonging to this brand, were included in the study. Social Media Marketing Activities Scale, Brand Benefits Scale, Brand Personality Scale and Brand Purchasing Intention Scale were used as measurement tools; Structural Equation Modeling and Multiple Group – Structural Equation Modeling methods were applied to test the proposed models. As a result of these analyzes, an increase in the social media marketing activities of a brand is associated with an increase in the consumer's intention to purchase the relevant brand. In addition, it was found that the brand personality partially mediates the formation of this relationship. Accordingly, the increase in social media marketing activities positively predicts the brand personality perception in the mind of the consumer, and this stronger positive personality perception increases the purchase intention of the relevant brand. In addition, it was determined that the brand benefit plays a mediator role in this positive relationship between social media marketing activities and consumer purchase intention. As the perception of benefit in the mind of the consumer regarding a brand increases, this positive relationship between the social media marketing activities of the relevant brand and the purchase intention becomes stronger; as the level of perceived benefit decreases, it was observed that the relationship between these two factors disappeares. The findings were discussed in accordance to the literature and in line with the results, various suggestions for marketing field applications and future studies were presented.