AN ANALYTICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER PREFERENCE DYNAMICS FOR COMPARABLE PRODUCTS

Abstract

This research is about the impact of social media advertisement and consumer preference for similar products, which dynamically associates an advertisement strategy with the consumer buying decision through a digital environment. Social media has surfaced as one of the most important mediums wherein brands engage users through user-generated content, influencer endorsements, and targeted ads to their brand in an interactive and personalized manner. The study employs cross-sectional quantitative methodology and takes its data from a survey questionnaire administered to 1,612 respondents. Factor analysis and ANOVA were also employed to investigate the factors determining consumer preference dynamics as influenced by social media advertising. Thus, the study found that there is a relationship between social media advertisements and consumer preferences because consumers experience product differentiation after exposure to tailor-fit advertisements. These results suggest that for saturated markets, engagement by the consumer via content and community-driven interactions could have a potential for generating sales. The well adapted brands to the new medium also reap through higher visibility and loyalty to the customers through the same mediums widely being used for product information and validating choices. This enlightens on the mechanisms with which social media influences the consumer choice and gives practical insights into how marketers optimize the effort in this competitive field for advertisement. It opens and thus further opens up digital marketing rese\arch mechanisms through which social media advertising influences a choice.