The moderating effect of social media involvement and brand love on the consumer perceived values and purchasing intention of fast-fashion products

Abstract

The concept of “customer perceived value” has been evolving as an essential area within the marketing discipline for decades. Knowing what shapes consumer perception towards a product or service is vital for businesses (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001), especially for fashion products whose trends are ever-changing. Nevertheless, in the technology era, fashion consumers tend to use the spectrum of media platforms to search for information, to compare prices and exchange experiences amongst a common group. According to McKinsey and Company (2014), up to 35% of fashion consumers rely on online recommendations prior to making a purchasing decision. Given the challenges in this area of business, the aim of this study is to develop the multidimensional scale to measure consumer social media involvement. The measurement scale has been tested in the conceptual models by investigating the moderating effect of social media involvement influencing the relationships of customer perceived value and purchasing intention. The proposed scale is also examined within the customer perceived value dimensions against the key consequences. Moreover, the concept of brand love is incorporated within this study. Sometimes, people purchase brand not product itself and brand love construct is recently new concept and limited studies investigated into this area. Therefore, this study focuses on the moderating effect of social media involvement and brand love towards customer perceived value and purchasing intention for fast-fashion products. A quantitative research method was undertaken to collect research data. The self administered questionnaires were completed by Thai consumers at three particular department stores located in central Bangkok. The data analysis was then performed based on the returned, completed questionnaires of 630 respondents. Both exploratory and confirmatory analysis techniques were used to validate the measurement scale of the study. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the hypotheses of both direct and indirect relationships. The quantitative results show customer perceived value from multiple dimensions (social, emotional, price and quality) towards fast fashion products. It was found that there is a direct causal relationship between the customer perceived value and purchasing intention, influenced by the level of social media involvement and brand love. An individual who has a high level of social media involvement and brand love tends to perceive a greater consumption experience which lead to preceding the positive outcomes. Therefore, fashion retailers should consider these dimensions and maintain a favourable relationship to enhance the consumer perception experience. Moreover, utilising the advantages from social media to connect with customers should not be neglected. However, the results showed that not all dimensions were found to have a positive effect on consumer purchasing intention towards fast fashion products equally; hence, the fashion marketers should deliberately evaluate each dimension of desired customer perceived value prior to applying a particular strategic plan. Moreover, the findings of this study are of the greatest importance to consumer behaviour especially in the area of involvement by extending the further knowledge. Social media involvement measurement scale has been developed from the limitation of exising studies by incorporated multi-facet dimensions (affective, cognitive and behavioural involvement) in the way to capture the complex nature of involvement variables. Furthermore, the model framework demonstrated the motive force behind behavioural intention by investigating the moderating role of social media involvement and brand love within the fast fashion products.