Abstract:
“Big and small companies, individuals of all walks of life, major and minor events, concepts etc., nowadays lay their base on social network advertising to get recognized in the market” (Jothi, Neelamalar and Prasad, 2011: 235). Due to the use of social network
advertising amongst businesses operating in the 21st century, it is important for brand
managers to understand the ways in which consumers varying levels and states of
engagement with their social network pages/profiles relate to consumers purchase
intentions towards their brand and its products/services.Towards this end, the researcher aimed to describe the relationship between the cognitive and affective dimensions of consumer engagement and purchase intention in this study, using brands Instagram pages as the engagement focus. The researcher made use of a 15-item quantitative survey questionnaire for the purpose of collecting objective data reflecting respondents level of affective and cognitive dimensions of engagement, and their level of purchase intention. This data collection method was deemed fit for the study as the data which it collects could be analysed using descriptive statistics, which enable the researcher to describe the relationship between the respective concepts.The researcher found a positive and significant relationship between the affective dimension of consumer engagement and purchase intention. Conversely, no positive or significant relationship was found between the cognitive dimension of consumer engagement and purchase intention. This study expands on the existing research of consumer engagement and purchase intention by investigating and describing the relationship between consumer engagement and purchase intention in the context of South Africa.
