The Impact of Social Media Marketing on The Purchase Intention of Environmentally Sustainable Cosmetic Products: The Role of Brand Trust as the Mediator (With Special Reference to Badulla District)

Abstract

The Social media platforms emerged as a result of new technology and „social media marketing‟ is attracting the attention of business world as a prominent method of reaching a wider customer base. Social media marketing impacts on the purchasing intention of the customers and the role of brand trust is playing a vital role in the online business enviornemnt. However, in an enviornemnt where the customers tend to reflect a paradigm shift towards purchasing the environmentally sustainable products, the investigation of the impact of social media marketing on the purchase intention of environmentally sustainable cosmetic products or the role of brand trust in there, seems an area that is not discussed widely. Therefore, this study intended to investigate the impact of social media marketing on the purchase intention of environmentally sustainable cosmetic products with the mediation effect of brand trust. For this study both primary and secondary data were used and the primary data were collected online from 200 respondents by using a structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by using IBM SPSS statistics 25.0 and Smart PLS software. The findings of the study revealed that the social media marketing has a significant impact on the purchase intention of environmentally sustainable cosmetic products and is partially mediated by the brand trust. This study recommends, the managers and the marketers to focus more on offering some additional support to the consumers through their social media page designs and producing environmentally sustainable cosmetic products by utilizing more organic ingredients within the production process. Further, the future reaseachers are encouraged to investigate the respective area of study considering larger sample sizes with different other social media marketing dimensions in order to have more reliable output. Keywords: Social Media Marketing; Brand Trust; Purchase Intention; Environmentally Sustainable Cosmetic Products