Page 562 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE BRAND
PASSION AND PURCHASE INTENTION OF PRO BAKERS ENTERPRISE

NOVIANI BINTI IBRAHIM, THOO AI CHIN

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

*Corresponding author: noviani@graduate.utm.my

Abstract

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, the new norm of retailing environment and consumer behavior has increased the usage of the Internet and social media
drastically. Therefore, social media communication is crucial in the current situation as this is the opportunity for retailers and marketers to
increase their brand passion and simultaneously trigger the purchase intention into consumers’ mind. However, new business such as Pro Bakers
Enterprise could not utilize well social media into their marketing strategy. Hence, this study aims to investigate the factors to drive purchase
intention of baking products. Further, the study also proposed social media communication strategies in order to increase the brand passion and
purchase intention of the bakery ingredients and tools. Conclusive research design was adopted to examine the relationships between firm-created
and user-generated social media communication, brand passion, and purchase intention. Judgmental sampling technique was employed by
selecting Facebook users who have intention to buy baking products and the sample size was 150. The data was collected using Google Form and
analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The study found that the effective use of firm-created social media
communication can develop the brand passion and consumers’ purchase intention of bakery ingredients and tools. The finding was used for the
intervention for Pro Bakers Enterprise and showed that posting regularly, posting various useful contents, and using relevant hashtags are the
most effective social media communication strategies. Clearly, brands should utilize social media communication to generate positive impact on
the emotional level of audiences to increase their brand passion and purchase intention. This study can provide bakery supply retailers better
insights in managing their social media and utilizing the social media in this rapid technological advancement era.

Keywords: Brand Passion, Purchase Intention, Firm-Created Content, User-Generated Content

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way how people function in their everyday lives. Almost all countries in the world impose
stay-at-home and self-isolation mandates to their people as initiatives to prevent the spreading of the Covid-19. For instance, New
Straits Time reported that Malaysians had been encouraged to self-lockdown proactively after the daily cases of Covid-19 within
the country taken off (Ismail, 2021). Staying at home is important to lessen the risk of the airborne transmission of Covid-19 from
an infected person to a non-infected person by getting rid of human contact with the public (Morawska et al., 2020).
Furthermore, many countries imposed temporary closures to non-essential services like retail stores and shopping centres
to restrict the free movement of people and slow the spread of Covid-19 (Tighe, 2021). The orders by the government have
restrained the economy to function normally and impacted the retail industry greatly. According to Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD), the sales of clothing retailers declined by 89.3% in April 2020. Another instance for worst
case, more than 75% of small businesses within the hospitality sector may not revive after the pandemic in the United States (USA)
and Europe (Goger & Loh, 2020). In Malaysia, at least 51,000 more retail shops might be shut down soon because of the Covid-
19 pandemic (Kamel, 2021). Meanwhile, some businesses such as grocery stores remain in good condition and have witnessed
growth because the businesses ae providing essential services and consumers were stocking up on goods and supplies (Tighe, 2021).
Clearly, in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, some retailers managed to thrive, while others could barely survive.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, retailing environment and consumer behavior have changed. Since majority of people
are forced to stay at their home following the law implemented by the government as an effort to reduce the spread of Covid-19,
thus, the usage of the Internet and social media are increasing. Globally, over 4.5 billion of people are using the Internet in early
2020, an increase of 7% from January 2019, while active social media users are over 3.8 billion people, an increase of 9% from
2019 (Kemp, 2020). As more people spend time on the Internet and social media, the number of consumers who turn to the Internet

541