The Impact of Social Media Marketing Activities on Consumer Inspiration, Food Pleasure, and Behavioral Intentions: Evidence from Dubai Chocolate

TL;DR

This study explores how social media marketing affects consumer emotions and behaviors related to Dubai chocolate in Türkiye.

Contribution

It reveals how digital marketing innovations influence emotional engagement and sustainable consumer behavior in the food sector.

Findings

Personalization and trendiness in marketing significantly boost consumer inspiration.

Food pleasure partially mediates the link between inspiration and willingness to pay more.

Entertainment and interaction in marketing do not significantly affect consumer inspiration.

Abstract

This study investigates how innovative social media marketing activities influence consumer inspiration, food pleasure, and behavioral intentions in the context of hedonic food consumption and digital marketing innovation. Data collected from 425 consumers who had tried Dubai chocolate products in Türkiye were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method with SmartPLS 4 software. The results indicate that personalization, trendiness, and advertisement dimensions significantly enhance consumer inspiration, whereas entertainment and interaction dimensions show no significant effects. Consumer inspiration positively influences repurchase intention, recommendation intention, willingness to pay more, and food pleasure. Furthermore, food pleasure exerts a significant positive effect on recommendations and willingness to pay more but not on repurchase intention. Mediation analysis revealed that food pleasure partially mediates the relationships between consumer inspiration, recommendation intention, and willingness to pay more, whereas no mediating effect was found for repurchase intention. These findings contribute to innovation and knowledge literature by demonstrating how digital marketing activities foster emotional engagement, enhance consumer experiences, and promote sustainable behavioral intentions in the hedonic food sector.

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