THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TIKTOK AS A MEANS OF HEDONIC PRODUCT PROMOTION IN THE DIGITAL ERA: CASE STUDY IN INDONESIA

. Digital technology has developed rapidly nowadays, and affects all areas of life, including the business activities. Currently, many companies use the popularity of electronic social media to promote their products and brands. There are many types of social media that are popular among consumers, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X) and the last one is TikTok. Since 2016, social media users have had access to TikTok, a short video application originally devoted to music and created by Bytedance. Recently, TikTok has rapidly gained popularity among social media users. However, there has not been much social and business research into the effectiveness of TikTok in influencing consumer attitudes and behavior towards products and brands. on the other hand, the concern of the government, society and some consumers regarding the need to preserve the environment and consume environmentally friendly products is urgent. Therefore, a lot of research is needed that combines two things; The first is the effectiveness of social media in encouraging consumer buying behavior, and the second is consumer concern for consuming environmentally friendly and green products. This research aims to test whether promotional activities on TikTok social media can influence a consumer's brand trust and brand engagement; and do brand trust and brand engagement influence the intention to purchase environmentally friendly products? To answer the research hypothesis, this study employed the Purposive Sampling method with 283 participants, including students, alumni, and colleagues of Duta Wacana Christian University, to examine the effectiveness of TikTok as a means of promoting hedonic products in the digital era. This research using survey methods with questionnaire; and researcher using purposive random sampling as a sampling technique. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method was used to process the data and evaluate the research model and hypotheses. The SEM analysis and hypothesis testing results indicate that consumer activity on social media has a positive and significant effect on consumer trust in brands that are often promoted via social media. Additionally, the social media marketing variable has a positive and significant effect on the Brand Engagement variable. The study found that both the Brand Trust and Brand Engagement variables had a positive and significant impact on Purchase intention variable, indicating a desire to purchase a particular brand. The results suggest that consumers who wish to purchase products through TikTok are typically active on the platform and have a sense of trust and engagement with the brand.


Introduction
Since 2016, social media users have had access to a new short video application called TikTok, originally devoted to music, created by Bytedance, an information technology company located in China (Wang, 2021).TikTok allows users to communicate through short videos (Su et al, 2020), which convey authenticity and spontaneity and tend to generate excitement and enthusiasm (He et al, 2021).The use of video format has made it easier for viewers to understand the context and content of the message being conveyed.As a result, TikTok has quickly gained popularity among social media users.It is widely used to share short, practical, educational, and inspirational messages from various fields.However, it is not uncommon to find entertaining short videos on TikTok, such as those featuring scenes or messages that are unusual or comedic (Mudra, 2022).Recipients generally enjoy TikTok videos as they can be enlightening, inspiring, or humorous.
The latest trend in TikTok usage involves the creation of video content for marketing products and services.Influencers are presented with simple yet engaging scenarios to build brand awareness among TikTok viewers.The success of digital marketing on TikTok depends on the creativity and innovation of content creators (Genoveva, 2022).According to Hariyanto (2022), content creators rely on creativity and innovation to produce unique content that captures viewers' attention and retains it until the end of the video.The success of content creators in retaining viewers can make them familiar with the products presented, build trust, foster engagement between viewers and the promoted brands and products, and even generate the urge to share the video with their community network.TikTok's distinctiveness has enabled it to quickly attract a large number of viewers.As a result, many marketers have begun using the TikTok application as a promotional medium for their products.This includes the promotion of hedonic products, which provide pleasure (Durmaz et al, 2022), such as clothing, shoes, cell phones, and computers.The practice of using social media, especially TikTok for digital marketing of hedonic products, is interesting to study, because marketers of hedonic products continue to try to find the right promotional media, especially in entering today's digital marketing era.

Social Media Marketing
This study focuses on electronic social media, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube, Tiktok, and Instagram.These platforms are driven by user-generated content and have a significant impact on consumer buying and selling behaviour (Kapoor et al., 2018).Kim and Ko (2010) suggest that social media can influence brand reputation, and companies that do not engage in social media as part of their online promotion may lose consumers.Social media is considered a promising platform for conducting effective promotional activities (Popp and Woratschek, 2016;Harrigan et al., 2017).Kim and Ko (2012) identified the characteristics of social media marketing as entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and e-Wom.These five components will also be used as elements in this study, focusing on luxury fashion brands.

Brand Engagement
Brand engagement is defined by McKay (2017) as the level of consumer involvement in social media activities related to a brand.Consumer engagement provides valuable information and enables companies to develop brands that meet consumer needs (Kuvykaite and Piligrimiene, 2014).
Engagement can take various forms, such as liking, positive commenting, or sharing brandrelated content.If the brand produces compelling content that generates favourable impressions and attitudes towards the brand, it is more likely that consumers will continue to visit social media platforms where the brand advertises and interact with the brand's posts (Osei-Frimpong and McLean, 2018).This concept was first studied in the fields of psychology and organizational behaviour before being introduced to the marketing field several decades ago (Liu et al., 2018).Brand engagement is defined as the repeated interactions between customers and companies that foster emotional, psychological, or physical attachments between consumers and existing brands.

Brand trust
Brand trust refers to the willingness of consumers to believe in the actions and promises made by a company (brand) based on consumer expectations (Mayer et al., 1995).Brand trust is typically established through personal contact and face-to-face communication with consumers.However, in today's digital age, social media platforms provide an opportunity to build trust through posts and video recordings.
This concept is rooted in the culture of collectivism, which prioritises the good of the group over the well-being of the individual.As the interpersonal relationship between consumers and the company strengthens, trust is established, and the likelihood of the company offering a range of products for consumption increases (Fan et al., 2018).

Purchase Intention
Purchase intention refers to the likelihood of consumers buying a specific product in the future (Kim and Ko, 2010;Liu et al., 2019;Moslehpour et al., 2018;Wu et al., 2011).The decision to purchase a product or service is heavily influenced by the expected benefits.Consumers often seek information about a product or service by relying on personal experiences shared by others, such as friends, or from other sources, such as social media.They evaluate all the information before making a purchase.Zhang et al. (2017) investigated consumers' reliance on online purchasing activities and their use of social media platforms.
With those many explanations above, there is research framework with following hypotheses: H1: TikTok social media has a positive and significant effect on Brand Trust.
H2: TikTok social media has a positive and significant effect on brand engagement.
H3: Brand Trust has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention.
H4: Brand Engagement has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention.

Methods
The research design involves a survey that utilises a questionnaire.The research process commences with the researcher selecting a sample size of 30 individuals.The respondents are consumers who actively engage with the TikTok application.The sampling technique employed is purposive sampling.The questionnaire comprises two parts.The first part contains information about consumer profiles, including gender, age, monthly expenses, place of residence, and their behaviour when communicating via social media, particularly TikTok.The second part of the study comprises a questionnaire designed to test the research model mentioned above.After collecting responses from 30 individuals, validity and reliability tests were conducted to assess the questionnaire's content.Once the questionnaire passed these tests, it was distributed to 200-300 students using the Purposive Sampling method.Respondents completed the questionnaire in the form of a Google Form.Sources : Hair et.al., 2010;Hooper et. al., 2008 The research was conducted from March to November 2023 in the vicinity of Duta Wacana Christian University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.Once the desired number is reached, preliminary processing will be conducted to ensure that the questionnaires suitable for further processing The testing of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is carried out in two stages: goodnessof-fit testing and hypothesis testing.Several goodness of fit criteria have been developed to interpret a structural equation model: The table above shows that female respondents make up the majority of the survey at 60.4%.Additionally, many respondents are young, between the ages of 18 and 25, and are highly active on social media.They use TikTok for both entertainment and information.

Respondent profile:
To test the research hypothesis, the research model that has been created is then displayed using AMOS software in the form of the following diagram: Data was processed for research models by Structural Equation Models (SEM) using AMOS software.Some criteria for the goodness of fit results can be seen in Table 3 below: Therefore, all the figures presented above meet the criteria for SEM goodness of fit test.As a result, the model can be deemed fit with the theoretical model, allowing for the continuation of hypothesis testing.Table 5 displays the results of the variable relationship hypothesis test in the model.
Table 4 shows that all relationships between variables have probability values far below 0.05, indicating their significance.Specifically, the Activity variable (consumer activity on social media) has a positive and significant effect on the Trust variable (consumer trust in certain brands that are often promoted via social media).The variable measuring consumer activity on social media has a positive and significant impact on the variable measuring consumer engagement with brands that are often promoted via social media.Additionally, the variable measuring consumer trust in these brands has a positive and significant impact on the variable measuring the desire to purchase them.Brand Engagement, which refers to consumer involvement in emotions and actions towards certain brands, often promoted via social media, has a positive and significant effect on the Purchase variable, which is the desire to buy a certain brand.Therefore, brands that are frequently discussed on social media by consumers create a sense of trust in the brand and encourage engagement with the brand, such as commenting, criticizing, and assessing.Consumer engagement and trust in a brand can positively influence their intention to purchase.The study suggests that social media plays a crucial role in promoting brands of hedonic products by fostering feelings of trust and engagement among consumers.
Several studies show the same results as the research above.Research from Puspaningrum (2020) states that consistent social media marketing over a long period of time will encourage the formation of brand loyalty through strong brand trust.social media marketing has a positive and significant impact on increasing brand trust.Likewise, research from Haudi et al (2022) shows that intensive social media activity accompanied by good products will form brand trust in the brand, in addition to brand loyalty and brand equity.The same thing can also be seen in the conclusions of skincare consumer behavior research in Indonesia, which states that promoting skincare products via social media will create strong brand trust, a good brand image and ultimately purchase intention towards the product (Sanny, 2020).The role of strong brand trust will encourage purchase intention; This is proven by a number of studies on the relationship between these two variables.A study by Aydin et al. (2014) showed that national brands in Indonesia can increase consumer purchase intention by building brand trust in the long term.This reseacrh result shows that when brand trust is established, it can have a positive effect on brand and product purchase intention (Takaya, 2019).Brand trust was found to have a significant and positive impact on social media marketing and purchase intentions in the long term (Salhab 2023).
Intensive research shows that brand engagement will have a positive contribution to the brand, namely word of mouth and purchase intention (Santini et. al., 2020).Consumer satisfaction and positive emotions will encourage customer engagement with a brand, which then mediates between strong brand trust and commitment.Research from Aziz Ahmed (2023) on fashion clothing businesses states that customer brand engagement partially mediates the link between consumer brand identification and purchase intention.Additionally, this study reveals that customer brand engagement impacts the purchase intention of fashion clothing businesses.The relationship between engagement and purchase intention is also influenced by the brand expected value factor and the attitude towards attitude variable, with brand engagement formed by the role of source credibility (Foroughi et. al.).
From the discussion above, it appears that social media activities to promote products and brands will have an impact on brand trust and brand engagement; In the long term, this will encourage consumers' desire to buy the brand.

Conclusion
Several conclusions can be drawn from the data and processing results: Firstly, the consumer is a young female (aged 18-25) who is currently pursuing higher education.Secondly, the consumer uses TikTok for more than three hours for both information and entertainment.Finally, consumers who are active on TikTok media and have a sense of trust and involvement in the brand (engagement) are more likely to purchase products via the platform.The SEM analysis and hypothesis testing results indicate that consumer activity on social media has a positive and significant effect on consumer trust in brands that are often promoted via social media.Additionally, the Activity variable has a positive and significant effect on the Brand Engagement variable.The study found that both the Trust variable and Brand Engagement variable had a positive and significant impact on the Purchase variable, which refers to the desire to purchase a particular brand.

Suggestion
Examining the research roadmap conducted thus far, it is evident that social media has significantly impacted consumer behaviour across generations, including millennials and generation Z.This study proposes the use of TikTok as a promotional tool for businesses to advertise their products through a series of systematic promotional activities.By establishing trust and fostering engagement, TikTok can be an effective means of promoting products among young people.Similarly, social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook can influence consumer behaviour, including their attitudes and purchasing intentions.

Figure
Figure 1.Research ModelSource: systematised by the authors

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Figure 2. AMOS Model Source: Primary Data