Social media influence on purchase intention

The influence of social media influence on the purchase intention. A survey of young adults regarding nestle products in Pakistan

Introduction 

Social media has redefined the decision-making process for consumer buying. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have become for discovery, evaluation, and recommendation. In Pakistan, young adults are highly active on the internet and are often exposed to influencer promotions. Accordingly, the impact of influencer marketing on the purchase decisions of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) can be powerful. Various factors such as way of presenting, self-experience and quality review of the product make it vital for consumer to decide to purchase. This paper examines the role of social media influencers in the purchase intentions of young people in Pakistan and focus on Nestlé products using a survey (Khan et al., 2022)

Rationale and Significance 

In the case of FMCG and food products, decisions are influenced by safety beliefs, brand loyalty, and habitual purchasing. The impact of influencer influence might not be reflected in the same way in the fashion or luxury industries. The insight into the real impact of influencers on purchase intent in Pakistan will assist companies in creating credible marketing strategies and provide insights into the shift in buying patterns by young people in the emerging markets. Various other factors that effects the sales such as product quality, brand perception and other believes make the people to buy the product (Sohail, 2021). Pakistan literature shows that Generation Z and Millennial adults are moving beyond televised advertisements to social media platforms including Instagram and Tik Tok to explore products. In the case of multinational companies such as Nestle, such a shift entails that the purchase intent is no longer influenced solely by the brand heritage and mass-media presence but, rather, it relies on the perceived promotion of relatable online individuals.

Literature Review 

Most studies in the area of influencer-purchase relationships have focused on developed markets and lifestyle products, and have limited research on Pakistan or FMCG/food brands. Based on the literature review, this study will be helpful to the body of digital marketing and consumer behaviour research, especially source-credibility models, by verifying the influence of influencers on purchase intention among Pakistani young adults toward another international FMCG brand (Muzamil et al., 2025)

The success of an influencer depends on the Model of Source Credibility that includes expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. In the Pakistani context, there is a high premium on trustworthiness and reliability over technical skills. The young adults are more likely to consider influencers as peers than remote celebrities, which spreads a sense of honestly which traditional advertisements do not. (Sharif et al., 2023). Any type of influencer content that carries a video about his/her day-in-the-life using Nestle products (Maggi, Nescafé, etc.) lacks a high-polished corporate effect and, hence, causes less strengthened consumer scepticism. Research results by Bahria University suggest that credibility is a critical centrally acting dimension; whether the influencer was perceived to be genuine, the purchase intention of the Pakistani young population increases significantly even in the context of already established household brands. (Akhtar, Xicang and Iqbal, 2017)

The main psychological process is known as par asocial interaction (PSI), which involves followers establishing unilateral affective relationships to the creators of the content. In young adults in cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, the path of an influencer generates a sense of friendship based on which the perceived risk of a product is reduced. (Subhani et al., 2024)

The subsequent purchase intention is often characterised by a need to gain social approval in case of an influencer recommending Nestle nutritional products, or by imitating the lifestyle of an influencer. Such emotional tethering is more effective at building repeat acquisition compared to temporary discount interventions since it identifies the brand as part of the digital identity of the consumer.(Tazeen and Mullick, 2023)

Besides the affective affiliation, the informational quality provided by the influencers takes on a functional dimension. The young population in Pakistan has a more pronounced health awareness and is more concerned with perceived usefulness, and this is a crucial construct in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) when applied to social commerce. (Khalid et al., 2023). Influencers who provide detailed evaluations of the nutritional value of Nestle products or the ease with which those products can be prepared, satisfy the informational requirements of the so called professional consumer. In the case of Nestle, which belongs to a delicate food and beverage industry, the ability of an influencer to clarify the ingredients or use of products can easily influence the doubts of young adults.

The power of endorsers of social media is generally accepted as a trigger in the formation of the intent to consumers, but the Match-Up Hypothesis is a constant. To make the endorsement effective, the personality of the influencer should be consistent with the brand Nestle (the focus on quality and well-being). A negative attitude towards a brand in the Pakistani market can be prompted by a conflict between a scandalous influencer and the image of Nestle, a family brand. This meltdown can dangerously undermine the brand image and consumer trust. (Kapoor and Banerjee, 2020)

In situations where the consumers already have a high trust level towards Nestle, then the role of the influencer might be playing the roles of a catalyst (or increase the already positive perceptions they already hold). In the case of the emerging product lines like the Nestle Fruita Vitals or its organic collections, the influencer becomes the key to the creation of the initial purchase intention. In such situations the endorsement will be the main channel where the consumers will be initially introduced to the value proposition of that product (Boyagoda and Weerasekera, 2024).

The existing literature regarding the Pakistani influencer market supports the fact that the growth is still very high but underlines that the brands should address cultural sensibilities and authenticity gap. It is only when these factors are taken care of that the influencer campaigns will be turned into measurable sales. (Rehman et al., 2024)

Research Aim:

This study aims to examine the effect of social media influencers on purchase intention among young adults regarding Nestlé products in Pakistan.

Research Objectives

• Determine how many times young adults listen to and engage with influencers who advertise Nestlé products.
• Determine the influence of features like credibility, expertise, attractiveness, and trustworthiness on perceptions of Nestlé products.
• Establish the interconnection between perceptions inspired by influencers (brand trust and perceived value) and purchase intention.

Research Question

What is the impact of social media influencers on the willingness of Pakistani young adults to purchase Nestlé products?

Part 2

Qualitative Research Approach and Detailed Plan. 

This study will use an exploratory qualitative design, with interview as the primary data collection method. Interview will be used because purchase intention is a personal, socially constructed construct. Interview can describe how they perceive the influencer’s message, which cues enhance or undermine trust, and how these perceptions relate to actual consideration of Nestlé products. It will be a cross-sectional design (carried out over a specified period of time) with some short (prompting) elements to ground the discussion in actual content.  (Ghanad, 2023)

The study will explore the various types of influencers, enabling them to define their followers and explain why they believe someone is a good influencer, rather than treating them as one group. Then, interview will be conducted to check the comprehensibility of the prompts and the language used in the items, as appropriate to the culture (e.g., the distinction between ads, paid partnerships, and informal product mentions). The interview guide will be adjusted as needed to reflect the flow of the conversation and participants’ comprehension..(Amad, Abbas and Adnan, 2025).

The language will be determined by each respondent comfort level, with interview conducted in English, as language may affect meaning and emotional depth. The sessions will be conducted online selected to be as comfortable as possible and to reduce barriers to participation. All the interview will take approximately 20 to 30 minutes, and participants will have sufficient time to discuss their personal experiences without losing the research direction.

To make conversations more productive, participants will also be asked to share an example of influencer content featuring a Nestlé product, or an FMCG piece that touches on a Nestlé product, when the latter cannot be found. The researcher will not determine the veracity of the material used; instead, it will serve as a reference point to understand what the participant observed, what appeared credible, what was persuasive, and what would affect their intention to buy. (Villamin et al., 2024)

Data Collection Instruments and Instances:

The primary instrument is an interview guide that helps extract extensive narratives and address all research areas. It is best to use interview, as we are seeking consistency in the exposure of influencers, trust indicators, customer perceptions, and intentions to purchase the product, while maintaining flexibility for unexpected yet essential topics such as family influence, price sensitivity, or brand scandals. The main tool will be an interview guide to evoke a detailed narrative and exhaust all the areas of the research. Interviews are the best since it is more consistent in exploring influencers, trust signals, customer perceptions, and purchase intentions and it is flexible to observe irregular yet important factors (Khoa, Hung and Brahmi, 2023). This online survey questionnaire begins with warm-up questions about the general use of social media, shifts to influencer engagement, and closes with a connection between influencer cues and Nestle-specific purchase intention. Follow-ups, such as the researcher’s prompts-

Can you give an example?, What made you feel that way, Can provide depth to responses.

The guide will consist of the following questions: 

What is your standard way of learning about new products on social media, and how does an influencer influence that process?, Consider an influencer: whom do you find credible?, Whenever you hear an influencer say Nestlé (a dairy product, beverage, or snack, etc.), what crosses your mind regarding quality, safety, or value? 

What was your experience when influenced content caused you to buy a product that you had not intended to purchase? , What do you consider to have been the most essential part of the post or video? Price, demonstration, personal story, comments, or discount code?   What would you think of an influencer who would cause you not to trust the recommendation of the influencer, and how would such an effect influence your purchase intention?  Lastly, are there any other forces, such as family preferences, availability, affordability, or previous experience with Nestlé, that interact with the influencer’s power? 

Data Analysis Techniques

The analysis process will consist of the following stages: familiarising with the interview, first coding, generating possible themes, comparing the themes with the dataset, defining and naming the themes, and creating a coherent story that answers the research question. The steps of analysis include the following: to begin with, the familiarisation with the interview; second, coding the data; third, generation of potential themes; fourth, comparison of the same with the data; fifth, definition and naming of the themes; and finally, the creation of a coherent storey to the research question. (Denny and Weckesser, 2022)

The coding method will be inductive and will enable the extraction of themes (e.g., authenticity cues, social proof through comments, health and safety assurance, or price sensitivity overriding influence). Nevertheless, the mindful concepts of dominator literature, such as credibility, trustworthiness, and perceived expertise, can be used to sensitise attention during coding without limiting emergent understanding (Denny and Weckesser, 2022). The end result will be the association of themes with a conceptual description of the influence of influencer content on the purchase intention of young adults for Nestlé products in Pakistan.

Sampling Considerations

The study will employ maximum variation sampling to ensure insights are more robust and diverse across gender, education level (undergraduates and graduates), and platform preference (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube). The participants will be aged 22 to 45 years and will be required to be conversant with Nestlé products, either through direct consumption or through household procurement. (Bekele and Ago, 2022)

Our strategy is 50-70 interview; however, it may be reduced if additional information is required to achieve thematic saturation. Selection procedures will occur through social media posts and university networks. The screening questions will be used to ensure that participants are regularly engaged with social media, are kept up to date with influencers, and are aware of Nestlé products. The selection process shall be ethical, i.e., no coercion, no volunteerism, and properly withdrawn.

Validity, Reliability, and Trustworthiness

Validity will be used to summarise the main points from the interview and to have the participants detect or refute them. Thick descriptions of the setting of the study, that is, Pakistani young social media usage, FMCG purchasing behaviour, and Nestlé brand, will provide transferability to the reader so it could assess applicability to other contexts. (Adler, 2022) Reliability is achieved through a straightforward procedure that includes interview recordings, records of corrections made after piloting, and an audit trail of coding and theme revision. It is not a statistical reliability test but a test of interpretive logic quality (Nha, 2021)

Delimiting Factors and Limitations.

The research study is based on interview. Social desirability or flawed memory can influence these responses. Participants can under document their influence and would rather consider themselves independent decision-makers. Individuals in the sample were significantly university- or urban-based. This limits the representation of rural youth and non-student young adults, thereby reducing generalizability. Third, the impact of influencer marketing varies by platform and is volatile.  A three-month window captures a snapshot rather than long-term trend changes. The choice of Nestlé further increases contextual clarity, but results could vary when local FMCG brands or premium segments are at stake. Interpretations of the researcher- irrespective of the fact that they are reflexively controlled- are still in the domain of qualitative meaning-making and should be regarded instead of being concealed (Lim, 2024).

Part 3

Research Philosophy and Its Impact on the Research Approach.

From this perspective, purchase intention is considered a quantifiable construct, as reflected in respondents’ attitudes and intended behaviour, whereas the effects of influencer marketing are measured through variables such as perceived credibility and trust.(Gamage, 2025). First, the research is deductive and bases its hypotheses on the available marketing theories and persuasion theories to develop testable hypotheses. Second, it focuses on standardisation, ensuring that all respondents receive the same questions and alternative answers for essential comparisons. Third, it aims for generalizability by gathering data from a large sample of young adults in Pakistan, enabling inferences that apply to the target population within a reasonable range.

Research Design and Detailed Quantitative Plan

The study will use a cross-sectional survey, which is an explanatory design. The method is an apt one for gauging attitudes and intentions at a given time and for testing relationships among variables in a given population. The explanatory aspect concerns whether influencer-related factors can statistically explain differences in purchase intention for Nestlé products. The study will target young adults in Pakistan aged 100 to 125, as this age bracket is highly active on social media and often engages with influencer content. The online questionnaire survey is going to be conducted online mainly to ensure that the costs are kept as low as possible, as well as expansion of geographical scope of operation, and more importantly, engagement of digitally oriented people, the category most connected to influencer marketing (Esmaeili, Sheydayi and Jamalabadi, 2025). The hypothesis will be tested in the conclusion to determine whether influences have significant effects on purchase intention and whether brand trust and perceived value serve as mediating variables, provided that the final model and sample size meet the requirements for mediation testing (Esmaeili, Sheydayi and Jamalabadi, 2025b).

Data Collection Instruments and Examples. 

A online questionnaire survey with closed-ended questions is used to measure the study, and most responses are measured on a five-point scale (1=Strongly Disagree to 5=Strongly Agree). Scaling is selected for its ability to provide quantifiable information on perceptions and attitudes, and it is the commonly applied measure in studies of consumer behaviour (Hendren et al., 2022). The questionnaire will be structured into four parts: 

• Demographics, age, gender, education levels, city/region, income proxy (optional), and the frequency with which the respondent purchases Nestlé products.
• Social-media and influencer-activity: on which platforms, and how many hours each, do they spend using the tool, do they have influencer followers, and how frequently they watch influencer product content, etc.
• Constructs (Multi-item scales): influencer credibility, influencer brand fit, reliability/par asocial connection, perceived value, brand trust.
• Outcome variable: Nestlé products purchase intention.

Sampling Considerations 

Purposive sampling will be used together with convenience sampling available within social networks and universities. This method is typical of consumer-intention studies, which, in a given segment, test theory-structured relationships (Cash et al., 2021). We will select respondents from different cities and provinces and make efforts to achieve gender balance to make our data more diverse. The screening questions will verify inclusion criteria, such as age bracket, active social media use, and Nestlé awareness or use of Nestlé products. 

In multiple-predictor regression models, stable estimates and subgroup comparisons are generally achieved with 100 to 125 responses. Fundamental mediation analysis is also allowed, especially when the user wishes to conduct reliability testing. The last target will focus on attaining sufficient statistical power, reducing sampling error, and remaining practical within the three-month schedule. 

Data Analysis Techniques 

The analysis will be carried out systematically, step by step. Then we will clean the dataset by filtering out incomplete or invalid responses. Then a summary of demographics, patterns of social-media use, and critical variables will be summarised using descriptive statistics. We shall examine normality, missing-data patterns, and outliers to determine whether transformations or robust methods are required. (Hossan, Mansor and Jaharuddin, 2023)

Second, reliability analyses will be conducted. We will calculate Cronbach’s alpha for each multi-item construct (e.g., credibility, brand trust, purchase intention). A value of 0.70 or higher indicates good internal consistency.

Third, validity checks will be carried out. To maintain content validity, we shall employ established scales and conduct a pilot test. Factor analysis will be used to analyse construct validity. To verify that items load on anticipated constructs, if we utilise SPSS, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) can be used, particularly given that the items were already adapted to a local setting.

Fourth and finally, based on the results of multiple regression analysis or structural equation modelling (SEM), hypothesis testing will utilise the outcomes from the final sample and the measurement model. Regression tests can be used to determine whether influencer credibility and brand fit predict purchase intention, while controlling for other demographics, given social media use.

Validity and Reliability Issues.

This proposal will address validity and reliability for several proposed measures. Multi-item scales and internal consistency testing will also be used in strengthening instrument reliability. To ensure content validity, items will be modified based on other research and will be relevant to the constructs under measurement. A pilot test will reveal any confusing language and ensure that the questions are culturally comprehensible to the Pakistani young adults. Construct validity will be assessed using factor analysis to ensure that items do not measure the same thing but somewhat different concepts (Duckett, 2021)

The online questionnaire survey will be split into sections of predictors and outcomes, use different item phrasing, and include attention checks to minimise common method bias. Social desirability bias can be reduced by promising anonymity and motivating participants to report the influencer effects honestly. Although the cross-sectional design does not allow for causal inference, the use of theory-based models and statistical controls increases the validity of the testing relationship.

Limitations and Practical Constraints

Several constraints should be recognised. To begin with, our online questionnaire survey, being cross-sectional, only measures intention at a single point in time and cannot establish causality. Second, additional influences on influencer exposure and intention to purchase that we could not measure may include household purchasing norms, product availability, or prior brand experience. It has a number of limitations that ought to be identified. Our online questionnaire is cross-sectional, which only captures intentions at one point in time and does not allow the establishment of causality. Household purchasing norms, product availability, or previous brand experience as other factors that might have an impact on influencer exposure and intent to purchase were not controlled.

Third, using online samples may exclude young adults with limited internet access, and convenience sampling may not accurately reflect the findings for all Pakistanis. Lastly, participants’ self-reports may be affected by social desirability or reluctance to report being affected. (Schultz et al., 2024)

Part 4

Conclusion:

A quantitative, cross-sectional survey will be the most appropriate for researching the influence of influencers on purchase intention over two months. It enables rapid data collection from a large, digitally responsive sample, which can be statistically analyzed to establish relationships among influencer credibility, brand trust, perceived value, and purchase intention. Surveys are less time-consuming than methods used in qualitative research, cover a broader population, and yield generalizable findings. They also assist with reliability and validity tests, including Cronbach’s alpha and factor analysis, within the project’s time frame.

At every stage of data collection and analysis, ethical concerns must be addressed. Informed consent should be made clear to participants, including the study’s purpose, whether participation is voluntary, and whether they can withdraw without being punished. Paramount is privacy and confidentiality: there is no need to gather a range of superfluous personal identifiers, and responses should be kept in a secure place with access restrictions. Since it involves a group of young adults, it is essential to ensure they are 18 years or older to avoid the need for parental consent.

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