The effect of social media marketing on consumer behaviors: A study on Instagram users

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Instagram marketing on consumer purchasing attitudes and behaviors. Quantitative method was used in the research. The sample of the study consists of 393 individuals selected by convenience sampling method from the participants who have an Instagram account and actively use their Instagram account. The data collection tool was developed by adapting the scales used by Duffett (2017), Can (2017), İnce and Bozyiğit (2018). The Cronbach'a alfa of the Purchasing Attitude and Behavior Scale, involving 38 items and 6 factors, was calculated as 0.948 and the scale was found to be highly reliable. While ANOVA, t-test and LSD tests were used in data analysis, multiple regression analysis was used to test hypotheses. The 95% confidence interval (p<0.05) was used to evaluate the findings. Research findings showed that awareness, informativeness, entertainment and preference via Instagram marketing significantly and positively affected the purchase intention and these variables explained 61.5% of the variance in purchase intention (p=0.000). On the other hand, it was determined that awareness, entertainment and preference had a statistically significant and positive effect on purchasing behavior, and these variables explained 33.7% of the variance in purchasing behavior (p=0.000). Regression analysis indicated that purchasing attitude also affected the purchasing behavior significantly and positively (p=0.000). Therefore, all hypotheses except one were accepted. Demographic findings determined that purchasing attitudes and behaviors of the participants were significantly different in terms of age, gender and daily social media usage time. It was observed that the purchase intentions of the participants aged 18-25 were significantly higher than those aged 34-45 and aged 46-55 (p=0.001). It was observed that purchasing behaviors of the participants aged 46-55 were significantly lower than those aged 18-25 and aged 26-35 (p=0.002). According to gender, it was observed that female participants had higher purchasing intentions than males (p=0.02). Purchasing intentions and behaviors of those who use social media for 0-2 hours a day were significantly lower than users who spent 3-4 hours a day (p=0.001; p=0.026) and 5-6 hours a day (p=0.004; p=0.007), respectively, Findings were discussed and suggestions were made. Keywords: Purchase intention, purchase attitude, purchase behavior, Instagram marketing.