The effect of influencer marketing practices on brand equivalence and purchasing intention in food shopping

The role of internet in the lives of consumers is increasing with the technological developments. Social networks provide easy and fast access to large masses this situation provides an important advantage for businesses. The ability of consumers to communicate their demands and opinions to businesses via social media platforms and knowing that their views, will be taken into account reveal the effect of these platforms on consumer purchasing behaviors. In order to increase the awareness of a brand, to increase the demand for theirs products and to be able to talk about their names for a long time, they can use people who are with high followers -they are known as "influential"- as a marketing strategy. Generally that "influentials" would be in close-minded with brands. Businesses are getting advantage of the power of social media in implementing this strategy. In the literature, people referred to as social media influencers, opinion leaders and phenomena are referred to as "influential" in this study. It reveals the effect of marketing practices on brand equivalence elements and purchasing intention by sharing the recommendations of the influential with the products or services they have tried. And among the aims of this study are the analysis of consumers and the power of influencers. The data obtained using the survey method were analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 package program. The survey was created via Google Forms and the data was obtained from online channels. With the results of the research, it was found that the level of being influenced by their influential person shares and the attitude towards their influential shares have a significant effect on brand equity. Another finding points out that brand awareness, brand association and perceived quality have a positive effect on purchase intention. However, a significant effect of brand loyalty on purchase intention could not be determined.