Influence of Blogs: A Study of Young Consumers of J&K

Abstract

Introduction: Blogs are everywhere in today’s electronic media. They are considered as one of the well-known social media platform and a powerful marketing tool (Hsu & Tsou, 2011). They are listed on world wide web giving information about different products to the consumers and thus creating an impact on their purchase behaviour. In today’s digital world , blogging has been considered as one of the most recognizable and famous platform for recording and presenting information and reactions related to any particular events.( Hsu etal; 2013). These blogs act as an online journal providing information about anything and everything. In view of the above fact blogs are considered as the most powerful tool by the consumers to search for information about the product and thus influencing the purchase intention of people around worldwide (Schroeder,2014).
Purpose: The main purpose of the research is to analyse how blogs influence young consumers purchase behaviour and also identify different variables which have an impact on purchase attitude and intention. It also explores the influence of blogs on the mind of consumers to get the required information about the product they desire to purchase. The Indian consumers rely more on Internet for their shopping requirement therefore this study tries to find out how the power of blogs motivate and encourage Indian young consumers to search and shop online.
Design/ Methodology/ Approach: A data was collected from 200 young students belonging to different colleges in Jammu region .Equal representation of boys and girls were taken into consideration. The research questionnaire was developed using five point likert scale. To analyse the data various statistical tools such as independent t-test, anova, factor analysis , regression analysis has been used. The reliability of the data has been checked by using cronbach α values and validity has also been checked.
Research findings: The results of the study suggest that the young generation has a quite utility of blogs in getting information about the products they want to purchase. Thus suggesting that a strong relationship exists between consumer attitude and perceived usefulness, trust, information credibility and reputation. Most essentially, consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations is found to have significant influence on consumer purchase intention.
Theoretical contributions: This study provides a detailed view about the various factors that affect the consumer attitude towards blog. It has been found that the main factor contributing to consumer attitude towards blogger recommendations are Information credibility, followed by perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment and among them information credibility towards blogs is found to have a strong antecedents of consumer attitude and impact on purchase intention.
Research Implications: The present study confirms the influential power of blogs as a type of efficient integrated marketing tool. The study generates some implications for companies who are promoting their products and services through blogs.
Research limitation:. This study could explore more factors which has an impact on blogs and varied types of blogs can be included for further study.