The effect of communicating via organic and paid social media, on Instagram, on customers’ intention to visit stores

Abstract

My master thesis studies the effect of different types of communication on Instagram on a consumer’s willingness to visit the physical store. The types of communication that are investigated are paid and organic. The difference in the response to the type of communication between the fashion industry and electronic industry are also investigated. The objective of this thesis is to recommend to companies which type of communication on Instagram they should use and how differently should be used based on the industry. This research offers insights into a topic that has not been extensively investigated by academicians. The research in this master’s thesis is conducted via an online survey that was answered by 188 respondents. Each respondent based on their answer to a selection question were assigned to different scenarios and were invited to imagine to be in a particular situation and indicate their willingness to visit the store. There were two different types of communication and two
industries, which resulted in 4 different scenarios to which respondents have been assigned to only one out of four. The results indicate that in general consumers are most likely to visit the store when the communication on Instagram is organic, meaning that customers already follow the brand page.
A combination of the type of communication and the industry results in consumers being more likely to visit the store when the communication about fashion brands is via organic and communication about electronic is via paid communication.

Date of Award	16 Oct 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Saeid Vafainia (Supervisor)