Page 251 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

2022

FACTORS THAT DRIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTATION

FOR PURCHASE INTENTION OF TADIKA SANTALIA

GOH HUI CHIN, THOO AI CHIN

Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru

*Corresponding author: huichin@graduate.utm.my

ABSTRACT
Businesses nowadays are facing competitive dynamics. Thus, digital technology or digitalization is an integral part to increase businesses’
online presence. Tadika Santalia is a kindergarten that provides preschool services. Due to the Covid-19 pandemics, the kindergarten is facing
the problem of low purchase intention. This study aims to explore the factors that could increase the purchase intention of Tadika Santalia. A
proposed research framework was developed to identify the relationship between the social media marketing element (entertainment and
interaction), trust, perceived value and purchase intention. This study used a quantitative method with 200 respondents using purposive
sampling technique. A set of online questionnaires was distributed to the targeted respondents. This study found that there are positive and
significant relationships between the entertainment, interaction, trust, perceived value and purchase intention of a preschool service. Based on
the findings, an intervention was conducted by creating a Facebook page for Tadika Santalia to increase its online presence. The related content
was updated to the page during the intervention. Finally, the Facebook page successfully increased the consumer’s purchase intention of
Tadika Santalia. As a conclusion, this study has provided effective social media plans for Tadika Santalia to enhance trust, perceived value
and purchase intention.
Keywords: Social Media Marketing, Trust, Perceived Value, Purchase Intention

1.0 INTRODUCTION
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic that posed a serious threat to
mankind (World Health Organization, 2020). This declaration has directly led to dramatic changes all over the world. The
most obvious change is the forced lockdown enforcement in many countries. Adedoyin and Soykan (2020) stated that this
unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively forced the shutdown of numerous sectors around the world
including the educational sector. Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced in Malaysia starting from 18 March 2020. As
the complete lockdown was enforced, it left worldwide with no choice except to close their business temporarily to be safe.
This temporary closure involved many industries including preschool services.
Preschool is a formal education that serves as an early childhood education for children before they undergo
compulsory education at primary school. In Malaysia, preschool education is a program that provides a learning experience
for children from 4 to 6 years old (MOE - Pre-School Education Goals, 2021). The primary goal of preschools is to promote
the acquisition of fundamental skills such as socialization and personality development. This is an important step for children
to prepare for their primary schooling. According to the Ministry of Education in Malaysia, early education is a part of formal
education in Malaysia.

The temporary closure of preschool has brought some difficulties for parents who wish to choose a new preschool
for their children. In the study of Tahaa et al. (2019), several factors influence parents’ decision on which preschool they want
to enroll their children in such as the program offered, location, teachers’ quality and the school environment. Parents tend to
gather all the information available and put all the preschools’ attributes into consideration when comparing several preschools.
Alsauidi (2016) found that parents will consider size of a class, quality of instruction and student-teacher relationship when
considering the most suitable preschool for their children. In addition, Tahaa et al. (2019) proved that parents will normally
check and investigate the school environment before they choose a preschool for their children. Most parents will visit the
preschool first on their own before enrolling them in the preschool.

However, due to Covid-19, parents are restricted to visit the preschool on their own. This is because parents visiting
preschool are subject to strict compliance with standard operating procedures (SOP) (Nazari, 2020). This restriction directly
decreased purchase intention among parents as they could not visit the school to evaluate the preschool for their children.
Parents are forced to look for other alternatives while choosing the best preschool for their children. As such, online information
such as reading online comments and reviews is vital in decision making (Pütter, 2017). This means parents will also search
for online information to replace face-to-face visits to the preschool. Due to these critical situations, businesses need to pay
attention on their social media communication to increase their consumers’ purchase intention (Irshad and Ahmad, 2020) and
business competitiveness.

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