The effect of influencer credibility on brand trust and purchase intention: A study on Instagram

The number of social media users and users' access to different social media platforms are increasing day by day. For this reason, social media platforms have an increasing importance in the marketing strategies of businesses. In 2019, Instagram was one of the commonly used social media platforms in Turkey with more than 38 million users. Like other social media platforms, Instagram also has influencers that have a lot of followers and these influencers can affect their followers. Influencers cooperate with businesses and carry out brand/product promotion activities on their social media accounts. In this study, the effect of influencers' credibility on brand trust and purchase intention is investigated. In addition, differences in purchase intention according to participants' demographic characteristics, Instagram usage habits and the product category that is promoted by the influencer, are examined. The data is obtained from 408 participants using an online questionnaire, SPSS and AMOS programs are used in the analysis of the collected data. The results reveal that influencers' credibility has a significant and positive effect on both brand trust and purchase intention. In addition, it is determined that brand trust has a mediation effect on the relationship between influencers' credibility and purchase intention. Lastly, it is found that consumers' demographic profile, Instagram usage habits and product categories that influencers promote has effects on purchase intention of consumers.