Determinants of consumer perceived trustworthiness in digital advertising of food and beverage

Abstract

The advertising industry has been moving toward digital advertising with the help of internet penetration across the world. Importantly, consumers today are exposed to digital advertising with social media advertising becoming one of the most vital channels to get in touch with the consumers. However, consumer trust in social media is reported to be low although trust is not a static concept but changes over time. Hence, this research aimed to study the relationship between social media advertising and consumer perceived trustworthiness among social media users in Malaysia. Consumers’ perceived trustworthiness is examined through five dimensions of social media advertising namely personalization, electronic word- of-mouth, interactivity, informativeness, and trendiness. The research employed a quantitative research method and resulted in 415 valid respondents. The statistical results indicated that all dimensions of social media advertising have a significant relationship with consumer perceived trustworthiness. In particular, informativeness, personalization, and electronic word-of-mouth were found to have a stronger association with consumer perceived trustworthiness. These findings added to the existing marketing literature and provided valuable insights for marketers on the ways to enhance consumer perceived trustworthiness through various dimensions of social media advertising. Practically, this study will help the food and beverage industry to understand dominant factors that create consumer trustworthiness while designing their social media marketing interventions to maximize the effect of advertising to survive in a fast-changing and competitive business environment.