Abstract:
Social media platforms have revolutionized the way human beings
communicate. The popularity of social media among hair transplant surgeons and
patients has increased in last years. Many plastic surgeons use it as a marketing tool
to attract and retain patients and to create a value for their brand as well.
This research is conducted on hair transplant market in Turkey. There is a rise
of hair transplant procedures in Turkey. Many medical tourists especially from Arab
countries chose Turkey as a medical destination for undergoing hair transplants
surgery. This study is focused on Facebook and Instagram as online platforms used
by medical tourist to get the information and decide the selection of hair transplant
clinic to undergo hair transplant surgery. Therefore, the goal of this study is to
examine and comprehend the impact of Facebook and Instagram on purchase
intention of hair transplant services. Three brands operating in hair transplant
industry have been selected which are all located in Istanbul city in Turkey
(Clinicexpert, Smile Hair Clinic & Serkan Aygın Clinic). The target population are
Arabs followers of the three brands on Facebook and Instagram. In this study, Brand
commitment, brand awareness, brand reputation, word of mouth components, were
treated as independent variables, contrаriwisе, purchase intention wаs trеаtеd аs
dеpеndеnt vаriаblе.
Due to the exploratory nature of the current topic, quantitative research was
done to obtain insightful information. An online survey using google form was
created in order to accomplish the research objective and test the hypotheses. The
survey was distributed to 400 users using online platforms. 249 responded and
willingly decided to participate in the study from the questionnaires, implying that
v
the response rate was 62.25%. The questionnaire was sent to Arab followers of the
three brands via Facebook and Instagram. Multilinear regression analysis was used to
test the hypotheses. The Statistical Package Analysis Sciences (SPSS) software
version 27.0 was used to analyze the data and verify the hypothesis. The final
findings revealed that brand commitment, word-of-mouth, and purchase intention are
positively impacted by engagement on Facebook or Instagram. The outcomes
demonstrated a positive relationship between dependent variables, brand
commitment, word-of-mouth, brand reputation and dependent variable, purchase
intention. However, results on brand awareness revealed that it has no significant
relationship with purchase intention.
The result of this study will allow readers who wish to operate in hair
transplant surgery business to better understand consumer’s behavior and provide the
key success factors which could act as a guideline to develop the right marketing
strategies. It can also help hair transplant surgeons maximize their influence on their
target audience by using social media effectively as a powerful marketing tool.
