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Exploring the Factors Influencing Millennials Intention-to-purchase of

Facebook Advertising in Bangladesh

Mollika Ghosh

Lecturer (Marketing), School of Business, Bangladesh Open University, Gazipur-1705

(e-mail id: mollikag.du@gmail.com, telephone no.: +8801799781487)

Abstract

This study investigates the factors influencing of Facebook advertising on millennials purchase

behavior focusing fashion accessories, photography and event management services in

Bangladesh. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative approach to collect data through

questionnaire based survey from 327 millennial Facebook users to determine their purchase

intention while interacting with Facebook advertising. This paper focuses theory of planned

behavior, theory of reasoned action developed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), hierarchy-of-

effects model by Lavidge and Steiner (1961) and builds on adapting previous models proposed

by several researchers on purchase intention. This paper presents a new conceptual model

adding two new constructs grasping Bangladeshi millennials interest with Facebook adverts.

Reliability and validity analysis, factor analysis, goodness of fit, analysis of variance and linear

regression analysis measure hypothesis, using SPSS 22. The result reveals, businesses should

carefully manage Facebook ads with personalized customer engagement and reward influencer

customers.

Keywords: Facebook advertising, intention-to-purchase, hierarchy of effects model,

Bangladesh, millennials, fashion accessory, photography and event management services

1. Introduction
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Worldwide 2.23 monthly active Facebook users until July, 2018; hosting over a half of the

world’s population in which 92% marketers agreed this is the best social media that cultivates

high engagement (Jolly, 2018; Wronski & Goldestruck, 2013). Millenials (born between 1982

and 1994) have been manifested to an outburst of online technological applications since

childhood (Duffett, 2015). 50% millennials log-in to Facebook waking up daily, revealing

how they influenced to this social site (McNair, 2018). This study focuses on Facebook

users in Bangladesh, where 38% deemed to be millennials (www.btrc.gov.bd, 2018). 137.2

million Internet enabled mobile connection results 83% of total till December 2017 in

Bangladesh, posing high demand to investigate online shopping behavior of these influential

populations (Mallick, 2018). Furthermore, Facebook revenue from advertising has grown by

$22 billion and total Facebook ad budget is 82.9% in 2018; 85% profits emerged from south-

Asian countries (Osman, 2018; McNair, 2018). This paper builds on previous research of Ajzen

and Fishbein (1980), Lavidge & Steiner (1961), Duffet (2015), Richard & Guppy (2014) and

Hosein (2011) adapted the theory of reasoned action (TRA), planned behavior (TPB) and

hierarchy of effects model with the aim of developing a model where Facebook advertising of

fashion accessory, photography and event management; influence purchase intention

representing new optimization of overall marketing communication efforts towards millennials.

This paper’s contributions mainly in the development of a model for Facebook advertising

blending the traditional marketing theory with new constructs based on millennials of

Bangladesh focusing mostly preferred fashion accessory, photography and event management.

Moreover this study derives prioritized factors and suggestions from noteworthy millennials in

the developing country context, for the improvement of Facebook ad; which is overlooked by

numerous academics previously.

1.1 Objectives of the study

Consequently, this empirical investigation seeks to expound upon the following research
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objectives. These are:

1. To investigate Facebook advertising have an effect on purchase intention of fashion

accessories, event management and photography among Bangladeshi millenials.

2. To identify the impact of Facebook advertising on purchasing behavior of millennials of

Bangladesh.

3. To prioritize the identified factors according to their influence on purchase intention.

4. To derive suggestions from the Facebook user perspective particularly millennials, how

Facebook advertising can be made more attractive, useful and get more attention from

the potential millennials.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Underpinning Theories

2.1.1 Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior (TRA and TPB)

Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1980) most influential models of theory of reasoned action (TRA) and

theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been practiced and experimented widely for predicting

the online behavior impacted by some independent variables by Facebook advertisement

(Hosein, 2011; Raza et.al., 2014; Ketabi et al., 2014). Friends, family members and colleague

are considered as positive influence individuals to buy online as subjective norms (Hasbullah,

2016). Ajzen & Fishbein (1980) proved that subjective norm is considered as perceived pressure

imposed by others with direct-indirect influence. This model enormously supported by

consumer behavior and social psychology associated literature which is adopted by marketing

academics affecting future purchase consideration (Ketabi et al., 2014; Raza et al., 2014;

Hosein, 2011). In this research paper, the investigation is whether the attitude, attention

(personal factors), Facebook advertisements information availability, influencer marketing and

boosting strategy (social factors) influence Bangladeshi millennials purchase intentions

dominating final volitional purchase behavior of fashion accessories, photography and event
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management services. These three specific areas are selected because these are most frequent

purchase products and services in Bangladesh based on researchers observations upon

Bangladeshi Facebook users.

2.1.2 Attitudes and Hierarchy of Response Model

The hierarchy of effects Model was created in 1961 by Robert J Lavidge and Gary A Steiner.

Several academics explored attitude changed due to general advertisings and Facebook ads

influence critically users brand attitude formation and shopping behavior (Duffet &

Wakeham, 2016; Chu, 2011). The adapted hierarchy response model proposes that

consumer experience a series of attitudinal stages from cognitive (awareness and

knowledge) to affective (liking and preference), and finally behavioral (intention-to-

purchase and purchase) in response to marketing communications (Chowdhury, 2016;

Duffet & Wakeham, 2016; Hudson & Hudson, 2013; Hassan et al, 2013; Yadav et. al,

2013; Smith 2013). At cognitive stage product contents, key benefits or brand attributes

engage Facebook users through awareness, information processing identifying personal

connection (Mansfield, 2014; Hubble, 2018). Emotional bonding with FB fan pages

shaping target users lifestyle-values at affective stage and blending of intellect and

emotions heading toward final adoption at conative stage differentiate brand showcasing

among rivals to feel and associate the brand with personal identity (Jolly, 2018; Mansfield,

2014, Carrillat et al., 2014; Hardwick et al., 2014).

However, theories by previous academics of different dimensions of purchase intentions

supports the theoretical foundation that millennials develop positive attitudes toward the

content and finally encouraged to purchase. The present scenario of many users of

Facebook indicates that, most millennials visit and curious about fan pages, participate

groups, share contents on news feed. Attitudes towards social media marketing
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communications have not been suitably measured in Bangladesh like developing countries in

terms of the hierarchy response models stages specifically for millennials. However prior

studies have not focused on Facebook advertised products purchase intentions on millennials

most evaluated lifestyle, photography, event management services in developing country

context. This research seeks to disclose whether Facebook advertising has a positive effect

on the top two levels of the communications of effect model cognitive and affective

(awareness, knowledge, liking and preference).

2.2 Facebook Advertisements’ Effectiveness and Millennials in Bangladesh

Millennials considered to 2.5 times more likely to be an adopter of technology than generations

past who influence the driving sales of present marketing environment in a prominent way

(Ledbetter, 2017). Millennials also referred as “Generation Y”, “Echo Boomers” (as they are the

children of “baby boomers” containing largest generation) and “Digital natives” who mostly

prefer to spend the adulthood having the latest technological devices and Internet related

activities in personal tech devices (Patel, 2018). 18-24 years of people age of Bangladesh are the

major Facebook users and out of the total 2.80 million Facebook users in Bangladesh, 1.37

million are young around 50% of total and 29% users’ aged 25-34 years

(www.socialbakers.com, 2018; Halim 2017). A recent research shows that 53% of millennial

households already have children and one in four of them are parents today

(www.millennialmarketing.com, 2018). So their pattern of living, life styles, favoring any

brands and viewpoints impact the nourishment of their children’s; thus it’s become critical to

analyze this gigantic population’s behavior.

Dhaka has been ranked second in terms of having the most active Facebook users in the world

according to Global Digital Statshot of Q2 report of 2017 more than 60% population counted as

millennials aged between 18 to 35 (Tarik, 2018). McNair (2018) reports to e-marketers that TV
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ad spending will drop to 0.5% and Facebook will generate $21.00 billion in ad revenues, up

16.9%; by 2019 Google and Facebook will have combined ad revenues greater that of TV ad

spending. 87.87% Facebook users in Bangladesh of total population use Internet only to access

Facebook (www.gs.statcounter.com, 2018; Rahman, 2015). By realizing recent purchasing

pattern of this huge number of young populations, the marketers of Bangladesh investigate the

millennials choice of brand purchasing mainly in online. Rehman et al. (2014) described that,

“Because of its popularity, businesses are placing their ads on Facebook for creating awareness

and influencing buying behavior”. One in five Facebook users had purchased products as a

result of advertisements and comments that they viewed on Facebook (Patel, 2018).

Facebook Pages were specifically engineered for businesses as public home to on-time publish

content and receive comments and feedback from fans and customers (Kolowich, 2017). Among

lots of online shopping portal Facebook is the best shopping medium providing trouble free

shopping experience (Zabeen et. al., 2013). 4G service in 2018 added significant attribute

regarding F-Commerce and 70% F-stores got familiarity.

No research, both in Bangladesh and internationally has examined empirically the relationship

among Bangladeshi millennial’s (who are the 25% share of Bangladeshi population and 0.8%

share of the World Internet users) attitude, interest, preference towards Facebook advertising in

fashion accessories, photography and event management. Therefore, marketers in Bangladesh

and globally should consider this study significantly.

3. Conceptual Model and Hypotheses

3.1 Attitude:

Purchase behavior is the totality of attitudes and intentions towards brand purchase acquiring

behavioral disposition which is relatively enduring proved by several academics (Ahmed, 2017;

Sinthamrong & Rompho, 2015; Duffet 2015; Raza et al, 2017). For this study, the Bangladeshi
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millennial’s attitude has a significant impact on their willingness and consideration to future

purchase which need to be researched critically for insightful result to savvy marketers. Three

factors namely ‘pleasure’, ‘arousal’ and ‘dominance’ affect consumers’ beliefs, feelings, and

behavioral intentions impacts attitudinal information (Rehman et al., 2014). However, attitude

of millennials in Bangladesh is considered to be as an effective independent variable as a filter,

that helps to scrutinize every considered products and services on Facebook podium. Therefore,

study hypotheses as:

H1: Attitudes of millennials in Bangladesh towards Facebook advertisement have strong

association with intention to purchase.

3.2 Attention:

Attention refers individuals processing of information in surrounding stimuli, involves in

cognitive psychology (Cherry, 2018). Numerous sights, sounds and sensations on the screen

having photos, audio, live video, GIF, Instagram and snapchat’s attractive contents capture

users’ attention during home page scrolling. This if any brand page or advertisement on

Facebook captures viewer’s sense; it also involves ignoring other competitors’ information and

stimuli that allows the winning marketers to “tune out” irrelevant information, sensations and

perceptions at the moment (Cherry, 2018; Sailer, 2018). DVRs, ad blockers, and mobile devices

armed to consumers to avoid ads on Facebook practicing customized choosing (Teixeira, 2015).

F-commerce marketers want to make an impact in eight seconds on advertised brands facing

incredible difficult challenge (Conran, 2014). In this fierce F-commerce market perfect tailoring

of ad message insists both academicians and discreet marketers to investigate more in this

regard that impact the adoption process. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that:

H2: Attention towards Facebook advertisement of millennials in Bangladesh has strong

association with intention to purchase.

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3.3 Information availability:

Facebook ad reporting ad revenue of $40 billion in 2017 and in 2018 90% FB ad revenue comes

from mobile based Facebook advertising from 1.15 billion daily active users where ease of

getting updated information is influential factor (Wagner, 2018). Information availability vitally

dominates consumer decision-making process moreover, 46% millennials themselves post

original photos and videos online by self creation (Song, 2018; www.millennialmarketing.com,

2018). Users can evaluate or seek out the best deal through Facebook via recommendations or

previous experience of friends or followers, compare prices, other convenient parameters; A/B

testing of Facebook power editor, lead generation, creativity, conversion measurement including

Facebook pixel (Glover, 2018). Thus it does appear that information availability of Facebook

pages and promotions as independent variable, influence millennials purchase intentions. So it is

realistic to hypothesis that:

H3: Information availability of Facebook advertisement towards millennials in Bangladesh has

strong association with intention to purchase.

3.4 Influencer Marketing:

Song (2018) notes that, “Influencer marketing is the process of identifying, researching,

engaging and supporting the people who create high-impact conversations with customers about

your brand, products or services.” Additionally, anyone who has positive feeling among his/her

follower, friends or liked by; can share opinion and content thus become an influencer (O’Neil,

2018; Yodel, 2017). Influencer marketing applies word-of-mouth to leverage influence among

friend and family, breaking online clutter, creating relevant customer dialogue and bringing trust

to the brands (Pollak, 2018; Drake, 2017). Presently peoples are submerged in highly social web

where, information travels like waves; and influencers are the wave makers as they have bunch

of followers (Wharton, 2018). In Nielsen research, a study found 92% consumers trust word-of-
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mouth recommendations above all advertising forms (Wagner, 2018). But having huge quantity

of followers is not appealing moreover desired quality is needed (Drake, 2017). Influence means

by advertising summing up three combination of “R”-reach, relevance and resonance (Zheng,

2018). Bevy of tools to navigate influencer marketing spheres for social reach, influential blogs,

automated research, engagement persuasion; such as, Klout and GroupHigh (Song, 2018). This

is true for popular photographer, lifestyle fashion products, event organizer also. However, prior

studies have not focused on this application for developing country context towards millennials

purchase intentions, thus it can be hypothesized that:

H4: Influencer marketing of Facebook advertisement towards millennials of Bangladesh has

strong association with intention to purchase.

3.5 Boosting strategy:

The millennials have dependence on Internet in such a way that, if they don’t know any answer

to a question, they simply “Google it” that shape engagement with purchase decisions (Fromm

& Lantos, 2014). Pickowicz (2017) says that “Boost Posts, is a type of Facebook Advertising

that allows companies to choose a post and have it distributed in the News Feed to anyone they

want, based on interests, demographics.” This reveals like; if any brand doesn’t have a

responsive online presence in today’s world it does not even exists in world. Aminul Hakim, the

president of Internet Service Provider’s Association of Bangladesh, says that, 88 GB of the

country’s total available 436 GB bandwidth is used for Facebook (www.dhakatribune.com,

2017). Facebook converts “cold audiences” to “warm audience” (Baranova, 2017). Facebook

pixel, optins, sales, enquiries are some available tools to track conversations resulted by boost

post (Patel, 2018). Logging on 8 times more daily, millennials encounter boost video posts from

3 million business covering 93% Bangladeshi marketers (Pickowicz, 2018; Vahl, 2014).

Weekdays than weekends and afternoons between 1p.m and 3p.m. tend to be the preferred times

to log on (Osman, 2018). Facebook demographics, carousal ads, offers and homepage ads, video
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ads, lead ads, custom audience remarketing strategies are some sorts of boosting approaches

applied by present fashion products and other event marketers (Sorokina, 2014; O’neil, 2018).

Millennials in Bangladesh have huge conversions presently in shaping dramatic change of

Facebook business (Tarik, 2018). After meticulous review of updated Facebook analysis,

boosting strategy is newly added to the model for the appropriate outcome influencing intention-

to-purchase which is previously overlooked by academics. Therefore,

H5: Facebook boosting strategy towards millennials of Bangladesh has strong association with

intention to purchase.

The above discussion thus leads to develop a conceptual model for the study:

Attitude

Attention

Intention to Purchase
Information availability

Influencer marketing

Boosting strategy

Figure 1: Conceptual research model for the study (Source: Author)

4. Methodology of the Study

A representative sample of young Facebook users from the population of university students,

service holder, entrepreneurs and job seekers from Dhaka, regions near Dhaka and major urban

cities considered as sampling frame; non-probability convenience sampling technique and

snowball sampling technique used to collect data. Among 28 questions, 27 close-ended

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questions measured by 5-point likert scale and 1 qualitative question to complete

approximately in 7 minutes and data collection is carried out during the month of June-August

2018. Among 377 responses, 327 responses are usable. To ensure internal consistency in the

measures, pilot study is conducted among 43 respondents ensuring validity and reliability. The

measurement items are evaluated by knowledgeable experts and colleagues to assure refinement

and modification.

5. Data analysis and findings of the study

In analyzing the questionnaire, means, frequencies and reliability are initially calculated using

statistical software as SPSS (version 22).

5.1 Sample Profile

Regarding Facebook advertisements influence of fashion accessories, photography and event

management services in Bangladesh, millennials purchase intentions determined from usable

327 sample responses considering response rate of 50% in Dhaka and outside urban areas of

Dhaka (See Appendix 1). The survey questionnaire captures background data from the

respondents aged 19-25 with 55.96%, 26-32 with 35.47% and 33-40 with 8.56% which

comprised more young respondents. There were more male respondents than females, with

69.11% being male and 30.89% females. In terms of occupation, students capture 50.76%

whereas 39.14% millennials involves service, only 8.56% in business and 1.53% to other

occupations. Among 327 respondents 66.06% are unmarried and other 33.94% as married

Facebook users. In terms of education, about 63.30% millennials are post-graduated, 35.78%

graduated and only 0.92% respondents didn’t complete up to graduation. Most millennial

respondents are students, showing income per month 47.09%, 29.37% with 20000-50000,

17.43% with 10000-20000 and only 6.12 % having more than 50000 per month income. 72.17%

respondents are from Dhaka indicate that high percent of millennial Facebook users are residing
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in this metropolitan capital city of Bangladesh whereas 17.74% to adjacent cites of Dhaka and

10.09% respondents are outside urban areas of the country.

5.2 The measurement model: Testing for internal consistency

Table 1 shows the result of the reliability statistics for the construct measures where all the

research variables meet the acceptable standard of 0.60 (Chetty & Datt, 2015; Vinerean et al.,

2013). These statistical results support the validity and reliability of the questionnaire and

signifying the goodness of data for this study.

Table 1 Reliability statistics for the construct measures

Construct/Latent Variable Scale Items Cronbach’s Alpha for the scale

Attitude 5 .693

Attention 5 .799

Information availability 5 .673

Influencer marketing 5 .724

Boosting strategy 7 .702

5.3 Factor analysis of model constructs

Factor analysis using principal component with varimax rotation attempts to discover the

unexplained and unobserved factors that influence the co-variation among multiple observations

(Hall, 2017).

Table 2 KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .949

Approx. Chi-Square 3398.008

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity df 351

Sig. .000
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Table 2 and 3 show the results of the validity and reliability analysis where (1) all research

variables exceed the minimum standard of Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin’s value of 0.55 indicating

sufficient correlations Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (x2=3398.008, p<0.01) (2) all research

variables has eigen values larger than 1 and total variance explained was 50.72% of the total

variance (3) the items for each variable exceed factor loadings of 0.55 on one factor and 0.3 or

lower the other factors (Williams, Onsman & Brown, 2010) and (4) all the research variables

meet the acceptable standard of 0.60 (Chetty & Datt, 2015; Vinerean et al., 2013). These

statistical results support the validity and reliability of the questionnaire and signifying the

goodness of data for this study.

Table 3 Rotated Component Matrixa

Component

1 2 3 4

Attitude_1 .674

Attitude_2 .702

Attitude_3 .612 .367

Attitude_4 .601

Attitude_5 .846

Attention_6 .687

Attention_7 .649

Attention_8 .631

Attention_9 .681

Attention_10 .643

Information availability_11 .675

Information availability_12 .883

Information availability_13 .623

Information availability_14 .700

Information availability_15 .718

InfluencerMarketing_16 .506

Influencer Marketing_17 .581

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Influencer Marketing_18 .586

Influencer Marketing_19 .609

Influencer Marketing_20 .584 .408

Boosting Strategy_21 .593

Boosting Strategy_22 .622

Boosting Strategy_23 .813

Boosting Strategy_24 .682

Boosting Strategy_25 .582

Boosting Strategy_26 .899

Boosting Strategy_27 .557

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax

with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations

5.4 Analysis of variance of model constructs

Table 4 Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: Intention_to_purchase

Source Type III Sum of df Mean Square F Sig.

Squares

Corrected Model 560.533a 6 93.422 22.786 .000

Intercept 4001.667 1 4001.667 976.016 .000

FB_ad_effect 62.000 4 15.500 3.780 .050

age_group 498.533 2 249.267 60.797 .000

Error 32.800 8 4.100

Total 4595.000 15

Corrected Total 593.333 14

a. R Squared = .945 (Adjusted R Squared = .903)

ANOVA defines information about the model by investigating how the Facebook

advertisements effect with three age groups of millennials in Bangladesh (independent variable)

variables interact with each other and the effects of interactions upon intention to purchase

(dependent variable). According to F test, “FB_ad_effect” and “age-group” have a statistically

significant effect on the dependent variable, “intention_to-purchase” in table 7.

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5.5 Multiple regression analysis, Statistical significance of correlations, hypothesis testing

and results

To determine how well the model fits and the coefficient of determination, there is a model

summary in table 8 that can be used to determine how well a regression model fits the data.

Table 5 Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the

Estimates

1 .646a .418 .367 .799

In this table R2=0.418, which explains 42% of the variability of purchase intentions (dependent

variable) by the variation in independent variables of Facebook advertising.

Table 6 Coefficients determined for the influential predictors for the dependent variable

Model Unstandardized Standardized t Sig. 95.0% Confidence Interval

Coefficients Coefficients for B
B Std. beta Lower bound Upper
Error bound

(Constant) 1.131 .259 4.367 .000 .621 1.640

Attitude_1 .336 .057 .317 5.903 .000 .224 .448

Attitude_2 .199 .055 .190 3.607 .000 .090 .308

Attitude_3 .178 .053 .180 3.345 .001 .073 .283

Attitude_5 -.009 .048 -.009 -.189 .850 -.103 .085

Attention_6 .127 .057 .129 2.218 .027 .014 .239

Attention_7 .169 .056 .168 3.000 .003 .058 .280

Attention_8 .167 .057 .167 2.906 .004 .054 .280

Attention_9 .127 .057 .128 2.217 .027 .014 .240

Attention_10 .143 .059 .142 2.421 .016 .027 .259

Information
.195 .049 .211 3.980 .000 .098 .291
availity_11
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Information
.167 .035 .222 4.804 .000 .098 .235
availity_12
Information
.080 .052 .082 1.526 .128 -.023 .183
availity_13
Information
.200 .055 .201 3.606 .000 .091 .309
availity_14
Information
.168 .058 .166 2.916 .004 .055 .282
availity_15
Influencer
.055 .052 .050 1.052 .294 -.048 .158
marketing_16
Influencer
.166 .052 .171 3.205 .001 .064 .267
marketing_17
Influencer
.190 .053 .199 3.617 .000 .087 .293
marketing_18
Influencer
.231 .051 .241 4.530 .000 .131 .332
marketing_19
Influencer
.117 .051 .123 2.284 .023 .016 .218
marketing_20
Boosting .195 .055 .193 3.574 .000 .088 .302
strategy_21
Boosting .124 .050 .136 2.493 .013 .026 .222
strategy_22
Boosting .113 .042 .132 2.709 .007 .031 .195
strategy_23
Boosting .138 .050 .149 2.736 .007 .039 .237
strategy_24
Boosting .130 .048 .144 2.711 .007 .036 .224
strategy_25
Boosting .055 .059 .044 .927 .355 -.061 .171
strategy_26
Boosting .082 .045 .097 1.849 .065 -.005 .170
strategy_27
a. Dependent Variable: I'm interested to buy a specific brand of fashion accessories, photography & event mgt
services by FB ad.

Table 6 displays the estimates for parameters included in the overall model and their individual

effects on the dependent variable, intention to purchase. Most notably, the millennials who

watch live videos, share contents, follow the fan pages, search information on the Facebook;

have a positive increase in purchase intentions influenced by Facebook advertisements of

fashion accessories, photography & event mgt service.

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Table 7 Multiple regression analysis results and hypothesis testing

Hypothesis Standardized t Sig. Supported

Coefficients

Beta P-value

H1: Attitudes of millennials in Bangladesh towards 0.220 3.787 0.000 Yes

Facebook ad will have a significant and positive
association with intention to purchase.
H2: Attention towards Facebook advertisement of 0.143 2.501 0.013 Yes
millennials in Bangladesh will have a significant and
positive association with intention to purchase.

H3: Information availability of Facebook advertisement 0.204 3.795 0.000 Yes

towards millennials in Bangladesh will have a significant
and positive association with intention to purchase.
H4: Influencer marketing of Facebook advertisement 0.147 2.639 0.009 Yes
towards millennials of Bangladesh will have a significant
and positive association with intention to purchase.
H5: Facebook boosting strategy towards millennials of 0.173 3.148 0.002 Yes
Bangladesh will have a significant and positive
association with intention to purchase.
As table 7 of multiple regression analysis results and hypothesis testing, attitudes and

information availability of millennials in Bangladesh towards Facebook advertisement of

fashion products and services of photography-event management has largest impact on

Bangladeshi millennials purchase intention with B-value of 0.220 and 0.204 (p-value=0.000 <

0.05,both). This clear that, there is a significant and positive association with intention to

purchase of millennials attitudes and Facebook advertisements information availability.

Boosting strategy having B-value= 0.173 (p-value= 0.002 < 0.05) is significantly influence

purchase intentions. Influencer marketing (B-value=0.147, p-value=0.009 <0.05) and

millennials attention (B-value=0.143, p-value=0.013 <0.05) towards Facebook advertisement

also significantly and positively effects purchase intentions of fashion accessories, photography

and event management services. Consequently, hypothesis 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are supported and

accepted; there is a significant and positive association of each of the independent variables with

purchase intentions.
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6. Discussion and conclusion

The above findings indicate that there is a positive and significant influence of Facebook

adverts on intention-to-purchase among Bangladeshi millennials attitudes. The investigation

moreover explored, millennials are willing to buy if the particular brand matched with their

lifestyles-interests and enriched with significant number of “likes”, “review comments”,

“shares”, “recommendations”, “check in” to stores followed by friends and family members,

colleagues on Facebook. In other words, peer and friends recommendations initiated on

Facebook create positive comparison than other mediums induce marketers to invest more to

social influence. Among 27 research questions of five independent variables, ‘live video’,

‘Query’, ‘interest’ and ‘understanding’ of Facebook promoted contents are the four components

perform as momentous playmakers on purchase intention on Facebook conduit of brand pages

revealed in this research by factor analysis and multiple regression. Unnecessary images, long-

irrelevant videos, fake advertisements, counterfeit fan pages mislead expectation, page

verification by Facebook authority is expected by millennials surveyed in this research.

More convenient payment system without hidden charge, quick response, variations of

product-service offerings; expected by millennials. Accuracy of delivery, differing quality,

edited images of of products and events deceive the user; thus more monitoring is expected.

6.1 Managerial Implication

More Favorable interaction with FB ad converts more purchase, thus attribution increases by

frequency of influencer marketing and boosting strategy of leading brands revealed by this

study. Both online and offline marketers should practice remarketing strategy to boost

conversions in real time Facebook based answering and queries to solve problems as daedal

requisite. The more marketers offer personalized contents, the more purchase intention

generates explored by this study. Marketing managers grow brand page, by page likes

multiplication but to draw attention diverting the preference towards purchase desires by
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Facebook ads, technorati, blogpulse and other search engines are tracking brand mentions by

users. Marketers in Bangladesh should be more practical to identify ‘talkers’ of Facebook users

who are happy and influential customers and nurture them publicly by mentioning top talkers

name on Facebook fan pages, recognizing them in any campaign. Millennials in Bangladesh are

convinced by Facebook ads in the means of viral campaigns mainly sales promotions tagged

with games, jokes, funny videos, free content and chance to meeting with desired celebrity

revealed by this study.

6.2 Conclusion and Recommendation: research implications

This study bridges the gap of understanding the most influential generation ever; millennials’

expectation and purchase intentions of Facbook advertisements mainly in Bangladesh of fashion

accessories, photography and event management services by implementing the modified theory

of reasoned action and planned behavior developed by Ajzen & Fishbein (1980) as well as

Lavidge & Steiner’s (1961) hierarchy-of-effects model. The major contribution of this

study is, two consumer oriented (attitude and attention) and three social variables

(information availability, influencer marketing and boosting strategy) specifically

developed and tested empirically that integrates a framework related to Facebook

advertisings influence on purchase intention for thriving generation of millennials in

developing country like Bangladesh, which is previously undiscovered by any academics

and marketing scholars. The present study is to be the first study that tested quantitatively and

qualitatively in the Facebook advertisement relating to behavioral outcome in Bangladesh. No

research however, has examined the attitudinal theories of Ajzen & Fishbein (1980) and

Lavidge & Steiner (1961) combinedly in advertisement effectiveness for millennials who are

mostly known as fickle generation ever, who are difficult to reach by interactive advertisement

stimulation except Facebook than other media. This study assists previous studies gaps of

Facebook advertisings influence on purchase intention in milennials by reducing academic-

 20 of 25

practitioner gap through developing new social variables adaptive to this competitive world to

attract consumers among more million ways in the developing country context both

quantitatively and qualitatively.

6.3 Limitations and Future Directions

In this research consumers purchase intention only explored from a modest part of this area

involves few limitations may be solved by future academics. Random samples of millennial

Facebook users utilized, limits the generalizability of the findings. Age and other

demographics in the different country context may explore unique dimensions. Other

emotion related variables; trust, commitment, use, privacy aspects of Facebook

advertisement leading intention-to-purchase would be examined except attitude and social

variables.

Notes:
Please see http://gs.statcounter.com/social-media-stats/all/bangladesh. [Accessed on 20 June,
2018]
Please see http://www.btrc.gov.bd/content/internet-subscribers-bangladesh-january-2018
[Accessed on 20 July, 2018]
Please see https://www.socialbakers.com/social-media-content./2018. [Accessed on 20 June,
2018]
Please see http://www.dhakatribune.com/feature/tech/2017/09/06/2-active-facebook-users-
bangladesh/. [Accessed on 20 August, 2018]
Please see http://www.millennialmarketing.com/who-are-millennials[Accessed on 23 August,
2018]
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Appendix 1- Demographic information of sample profile (327 subjects)

Demographic information Demographic information within category Percentage of sample

Age 19-25 55.96%

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26-32 35.47%

33-40 8.56%

Gender Male 69.11%

Female 30.89%

Occupation Business 8.56%

Service 39.14%

Student 50.76%

Others 1.53%

Marital Status Married 33.94%

Unmarried 66.06%

Education Graduation 35.78%

Post-graduation 63.30%

Others 0.92%

Income per Month Less than 10000 47.09%

10000-20000 17.43%

20000-50000 29.36%

More than 50000 6.12%

Residential Area Dhaka 72.17%

Near to Dhaka (i.e. Gazipur, Tangail, Manikganj, 17.74%

Narayanganj etc.)

Others (i.e. Mymensingh, Sylhet, Barishal,

Chattogram, Cumilla, Rajshahi etc.) 10.09%