THE USAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE BRAND AWARENESS TOWARDS PURCHASE DECISION: THE CASE OF CAFÉ IN JAKARTA

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between social media’s ease of use, social media advertising, social media’s usefulness, and brand awareness towards purchase decisions in the culinary industry. Design/Methodology/Approach: A total of 268 responses were used in this study with a requirement that people who had bought food in the café in Jakarta for the last 6 months before the pandemic of COVID-19 started. Structural equation modeling was applied for the analysis. Before conducting the hypothesis testing, data were tested for its construct validity (convergence and discriminant validity) and reliability (Composite Reliability). The strength of the relationship (R-square) was also tested. Findings: This study revealed that brand awareness directly affects customer purchasing decisions. Furthermore, social media's ease of use and social media advertising significantly influenced brand awareness, but social media’s usefulness did not influence brand awareness. Originality/Value: This is the first study to find out the purchase decision is influenced by brand awareness through social media’s ease of use, social media advertising, and social media’s usefulness especially in the café industry in Jakarta.