Purchase decision and attitude towards digital marketing in users of a veterinary clinic: An empirical study in Peruvian market

Abstract

Veterinary clinics, like other service businesses, had to digitize their marketing channels in the face of COVID-19. Electronic media offer an agile and timely service system, which should be aligned with purchasing decisions, although there is still little academic literature on this field. This research aimed to confirm this relationship in users of a veterinary clinic in the city of Trujillo, northern Peru. A quantitative approach and a non-experimental cross-sectional design were adopted. A total of 224 clients of a veterinary clinic participated. An ordinal scale questionnaire was used for data collection, as well as inferential statistics. The main finding confirms the positive and moderate association between the constructs, i.e., although there is a link between the two, the variation in one does not predict exactly the level of change in the other. Likewise, the purchase decision is positively and moderately associated with the attitude towards social media marketing and content marketing, while there is a negative relationship with emailing. This work shows that, although digital marketing represents a key factor for businesses, not all actions are linked to the consumption decision, especially in businesses where the purchase experience is essential.