Digital Marketing: Examining Students’ Purchase Decision-Making in Private Universities

This study is to assess students’ decision in the selection of private universities in Padang City, West Sumatra Province. Specifically, this research investigates the predictors of the purchase decisions of students, the independent variable being digital marketing (X1), the mediating variable being brand trust, and purchase decision as the dependent variable (Y). 357 undergraduate students at Universitas Bung Hatta were included in the study population. Data were examined using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach as implemented in SmartPLS version 3.2.9. The research results show that, for students’ purchase preference, digital marketing has positive influence. In addition, brand trust mediates the effect of digital marketing on purchase decisions. These results indicate that proper strategic digital marketing tactics help trustworthiness of a brand, which, in turn, affects the choice of higher education institutions by the students.

Digital Marketing, Brand Trust, Purchase Decision, Undergraduate Students Universitas Bung Hatta.

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