AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FOOD BLOGGER INFLUENCE ON COFFEE SHOP BRAND IMAGE AND CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION IN DELAPAN GRAM

In recent years, food blogging has become a popular medium for sharing thoughts, feelings, opinions, and ideas. However, its impact on the beverage industry has not been widely studied. This study aims to examine the effect of food blogger promotion on brand image and purchasing decisions partially. This study took samples at the Delapan Gram Coffee Shop. The research method used in this research is the quantitative method. While the independent research variable is food blogger promotion (X), and the dependent variable is brand image (Y1) and purchase decision (Y2). The data analysis method used in this study is multiple linear regression analysis using the SPSS program. This study found that food blogger promotion partially influences the brand image and purchasing decisions. However, brand image has a higher contribution to purchasing decisions than food blogger promotion. The practical implication of this research is as a reference for entrepreneurs, especially coffee shops, regarding the role of food bloggers in increasing sales. Meanwhile, the limitation in this study is that the sample scope is limited to one company. This study expects further research related to other factors that may have a greater influence on purchasing decisions.


INTRODUCTION
The food and beverage industry market segment in Indonesia is predicted to continue to grow to reach USD 3.221 million in 2024. This phenomenon is significantly influenced by digital business, especially social media, which can build engagement with customers. Today, these channels have become more convenient and important and can offer a combination of word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) which have traditionally been recognized as an effective strategy (Goodrich & De Mooij, 2014;Ismagilova et al., 2019;E.-J. Seo & Park, 2018;Tseng et al., 2015). Social media marketing is also believed to be able to increase consumer brand awareness and their social circle (Bun & Alversia, 2020). On the other hand, the brand image in the food and beverage industry has also succeeded in influencing consumer behavior. Therefore, a good understanding of this issue is becoming increasingly important.
Image has also been shown to significantly influence the intention to consume food and drinks (S. Seo et al., 2017;Tu & Chang, 2012), even to buying decisions. The consumer decision-making process can be described as the stages that consumers go through in making the final purchase decision (Hanaysha, 2018;Widyastuti & Said, 2017).
In recent years, blogging has become a popular medium for sharing thoughts, feelings, opinions, and ideas. This phenomenon has also provided space for everyone (even ordinary people) to have a "voice". Consequently, nowadays anyone can create a network to share ideas, trends, and information (Godinez & Salomon, 2019). Various studies have shown how blog (ger) s influence various fields, such as politics, journalism, public relations, and even tourism (H.-H. M. Lee et al., 2013).
One of the blogging segments that have the largest network is food blogging which consists of "foodies" or those with an interest in gourmet cooking, recipe writing, and photography (Godinez & Salomon, 2019). Currently, food bloggers have become an occupation that is able to develop partnerships with certain food or restaurant companies, or even with small-scale industries (home industries). Therefore, food blogs are believed to be effective advertisements. In fact, the perceptions and recommendations of food bloggers have a significant effect on consumer intentions to follow these recommendations (Godinez & Salomon, 2019;Sokolova & Kefi, 2020).
The credibility of the food blogger endorsement can influence the brand image which is also related to customer behavior (Bun & Alversia, 2020;Fiorentino, 2019). This means that customer trust and loyalty towards bloggers provide opportunities for culinary businesses to reach consumers more efficiently. One of the factors that make bloggers generally more trusted is because the concepts, techniques, and packaging of the information they provide are very "real", "humble", "family-oriented", and "sincere". Their aspirations are considered capable of representing the thoughts of customers (Lepkowska-White & Kortright, 2018).
Today's industries that often use food bloggers are coffee shops (Nadiri & Gunay, 2013;Tu & Chang, 2012). (Susanty & Kenny, 2015) note that cafes and coffee shops are terms used by business establishments based on serving coffee and other hot drinks. As the name suggests, they focus on providing coffee and tea in addition to snacks. The original coffee shop was first established in Italy in 1645. Then, spread to England and other countries in 1652. Today, coffee shops have become a necessity and a habit of modern society. This place is frequented by a variety of people ranging from professionals and executives to teenagers. Coffee shops not only sell items on their menus but also an atmosphere that makes people feel comfortable (Susanty & Kenny, 2015). (W. S. Lee et al., 2018) noted several attributes that are often used as indicators of consumer satisfaction, including a comfortable atmosphere, friendly employees, satisfying wireless internet, and a compelling coffee aroma.
The interesting issue about this indicator is the role of the food blogger, which seems to have not been considered. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of food blogger promotion on brand image and purchasing decisions partially. This study took samples at the Delapan Gram Coffee Shop, which uses food blogger services as a promotional tool on their Instagram social media @delapangram with several followers of 1,500 people and several hashtags of approximately 400 hashtags. The practical implication of this research is as a reference for entrepreneurs, especially coffee shops, regarding the role of food bloggers in increasing sales. Meanwhile, the limitation in this study is that the sample scope is limited to one company.

Food Blogger
Sharing food is one of the oldest cultures that have been applied for a long time by human civilization. They often share recipes, knowledge, culture, and technology. One of the first printed cookbooks which also influenced the development of cookbooks in western Europe in the mid-16th century, published in 1485 in Nureemberg. Since then, various recipes have been shared over various media such as radio, television, and now online media. Nowadays, food bloggers that have been developing since the early 2000s have increased in terms of quantity and quality (Lofgren, 2013). They use social media to share reviews, photos, and even videos (Coates et al., 2020;Puspita & Hendrayati, 2020).
Food bloggers express their thoughts on their interest in the culinary world in certain ways and concepts to reach the targeted market. They can have more than one personality or theme and use this identity as a platform to express their values, beliefs, and opinions. The ability to influence the audience or followers is one indicator of their credibility. (King & Paramita, 2016) note that the indicators of a food blogger, foodstagram, or endorser consist of visibility, credibility, attractiveness, and strength. They explain that visibility is more related to a person's level of popularity, which can be seen from the popularity of endorsers in society as potential customers or viewers. Meanwhile, credibility is related to an endorser's product knowledge of the product to be advertised and also knowledge to give trust to customers. The attractiveness of the endorser includes friendliness, physical appearance, and work. Physical attractiveness can be seen from physical appearance and outward appearance. Attraction is made up of three elements: sameness, intimacy, and liking. Strength is the endorser's ability to persuade or influence customer behavior in selecting products. Customers will consider the advantages of a product, not only because of the quality of the product but also because of negative or positive reviews from bloggers. These four indicators are used as research variables.
blogger is a blogger who specializes in food or culinary content, including making reviews about food ingredients and food recipes. This review is believed to influence a company's brand image and consumer perceptions or behavior. (Kotler & Keller, 2009) state that consumer perceptions and beliefs are determined by the experiences they have felt and summarized in their memories. The dimensions of the brand image used in this study include strength, favorability, and uniqueness (Kotler et al., 2007). The strength of brand association is popularity which is designed through a good communication strategy using various promotion media. While favorability is a combination of qualities that distinguish a product and a positive image in the minds of consumers. Uniqueness is an added value for a brand or product in the minds of consumers because of its differences from competitors. These three indicators are then used as research variables.
Based on these arguments, the study proposes the following hypothesis: H1: How is the influence of food blogger promotion on brand image

Food Blogger Promotion dan Consumer Purchase Decision
Amus states that currently, the culinary industry needs to pay more attention to the food bloggers' potential as first adopters and influencers in the digital media (Novita, 2015). This is because most readers tend to be attracted by the content presented by these bloggers and those who have a strong influence on their readers or followers. Some of the content that is generally discussed is food recipes; information and recommendations about food or beverage; information about restaurant places; restaurant decoration and atmosphere; prices; service; food quality; and photos of places and food. This content is believed to be able to encourage consumer purchase decisions of a product. (Armstrong et al., 2014) explain that purchasing decisions can be grouped into need recognition, information search, evaluations of alternatives, purchase decisions, and post-purchase behavior. Meanwhile, the factors of decision-making include cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors (Kotler & Keller, 2009). The purchase decision indicators used in this study include product selection, brand, purchase channel, purchase time, and payment method (Kotler & Keller, 2009).
Based on this discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed: H2: How is the influence of food blogger promotion on consumer purchasing decisions

METHODOLOGY A.
Survey development This type of research is descriptive verification. While the methods used in this research are survey methods and quantitative methods (Sugiyono, 2016). The data collection method uses a survey method with a questionnaire designed to get answers from respondents (Sekaran and Bougie, 2013: 147). The unit of analysis (Sugiono, 2010) used in this study were individuals or visitors at the Eight Delapan Coffee Shop. While the independent variable of this study (Sugiyono, 2003) is food blogger promotion (X) and the dependent variable is a brand image (Y1) and purchase decision (Y2) at Eight Gram Coffee Shops. These variables are then used in designing a questionnaire with several indicators, as in The population involved in this study were visitors who came to the Delapan Gram Coffee Shop. Meanwhile, to determine the sample, this study adopted the Rao Purba formula (Ghozali, 2011), as follows: = ² 4( )² Where: n = Number of samples Z = level of confidence required Moe = Margin of error, the maximum error rate is 10% With a confidence level of 95% or Z = 1.96 and Moe = 10%, then n = 96.0496 or made into 100.

B. Data collection
The data collection technique was carried out using a survey method with a questionnaire (self-report). The questionnaire is used to obtain data on respondents' responses regarding the indicators of the constructs developed in the study.

C. Data analysis
The data analysis method used in this study is multiple linear regression analysis using the SPSS program (Ghozali, 2011)  The respondents' distribution based on age is almost the same, namely 51% male and 49% female. Respondents were dominated by a young age, namely between 20-30 years of 73.5%. When viewed from the average expenditure per month, the largest percentage was 44%, amounting to 1,500,000-3,499,000. The majority of respondents, 62%, agreed, and 31% strongly agreed that they actively use social media. So, it can be concluded from these data that most respondents are generation Y and Z, which directly describe the visitor segment of the Delapan Gram Coffee Shop.

Questionnaire validity and reliability test result
The validity test is used to measure the validity of a questionnaire. The number of statements in each variable is a food blogger promotion of 8 (eight) statements, 6 (six) brand image, and 10 (ten) purchase decisions. The statement items were tested for validity from the data collected from 100 respondents had a value of r count > r table (0.1966). Therefore, all statement items in this study are valid. Meanwhile, to determine the reliability level of a questionnaire, a reliability test was carried out. The results of the reliability test can be seen in table 3. below.  Table 3. It can be seen that each variable has a Cronbach's alpha value of or above 0,6, so it can be concluded that the measuring instrument in this study is reliable.

Classic assumption test
The classic assumption test used in this study is the normality and heteroscedasticity test. From the normality test results, the variable brand image and purchase decision have a normal distribution. There is no variance inequality from the residuals of one observation to another in the heteroscedasticity test so that this data can be continued in the regression analysis.

Correlation analysis results
The results of the correlation analysis can be seen in the table 4. The correlation of food blogger's promotion to the brand image is included in the moderate criteria from these data. The correlation of promotion variables through food bloggers to purchasing decisions is in the low criteria.

Regression test results
The regression test was carried out twice by examining the influence of the food blogger promotion variable on brand image and the influence of the food blogger promotion variable on purchasing decisions. The regression test results can be seen in the Table 5. From the table 5 above, the effect of food blogger's promotion on the brand image has the equation Y = 13.757 + 0.282 (X). While the effect of promotion through food bloggers on purchasing decisions has the equation Y = 24,235 + 0.410 (X). In general, from the two regression results, the purchasing decision variable increases along with the increase in the promotion variable through the food blogger and brand image.

The results of the t-test and the F-test
The t-test results show that the hypothesis is accepted because the significance value of the X-Y1 variable is 0.000 <0.05, which means that food blogger promotion affects brand image. Likewise, the significance value of the X-Y2 variable is 0.000 <0.05, which means that food blogger promotion affects purchasing decisions. The t-test results of the effect of brand image on purchasing decisions also provide significant Y1-Y2 of 0.000 <0.05. Also, the F test results on the Table 5 stated that food blogger promotion and brand image simultaneously influence purchasing decisions.

Determination coefficient test results
The coefficient of determination test results shows that food blogger promotion to the brand image is 20.5%. The contribution of food blogger promotion to purchasing decisions is 15.2%. Meanwhile, the contribution of the brand image variable to purchasing decisions was 63.3%. While the contribution of food blogger promotion and brand image simultaneously contributes 63.4% to purchasing decisions. In comparison, the rest is influenced by other variables not discussed in this study.

Characteristics of respondents
Suppose from the results of the survey data. In that case, the respondents' Profile, the majority of visitors to the Delapan Gram Coffee Shop are young people who are dominated by generation Z, then generation Y or millennials. (Howe & Setiawan et al., 2018) state that generation Z are born between 1995-2010, while generation Y was born in 1980-1995. Others discussed by Brightermonday which said that millennials are divided into two, namely younger millennials aged 18-24 years and older millennials 25-38 years. Different ages have different levels of technological development. The research results show that younger millennials tend to look for information online before purchasing. Younger millennials tend to be controlled by technology in making decisions, but not by older millennials born in the late '80s and early '90s, even though they are techsavvy. The majority of respondents are active social media users, and Instagram is still the most used social media. The respondent's character illustrates that their tendency to search for information includes before visiting the Delapan Gram Coffee Shop, a rustic and homey design depicted in Instagram posts.

The influence of food blogger promotion on brand image
Based on the research results, food blogger promotion influences brand image. The indicator that shows the highest value is attractiveness, where customers like the food blogger content in terms of photography and the information provided. These results reinforce Bun and Seo's findings (Bun & Alversia, 2020;S. Seo et al., 2017), which states that the brand image formed from the marketing mix affects purchasing decisions. In the t-test results, the brand image on purchasing decisions also shows a positive influence because it increases the consumer's memory of a product or place. The contribution value of a brand image is more significant than food blogger promotion on purchasing decisions. Research conducted by (Wachyuni & Priyambodo, 2020) also states that celebrities' food product reviews on Instagram have a positive image impact and affect restaurant product purchasing decisions. Due to the habit of food bloggers who express themselves in photos, videos, and captions, they have gradually created a trend on social media. The image that is formed is a catalyst for consumers to make purchasing decisions. From this research, it can be concluded that promotion through social media can increase a place's brand image, especially among consumers among the millennial generation who tend to depend on the internet for information searches (Wiweka, Wachyuni, Rini, et al., 2019).
Today, thanks to advances in technology, everyone has the opportunity and the power to convey their "influence" through social media. Even today, in the culinary industry sector, the role of celebrities or food bloggers is almost difficult to distinguish. This is because the indicators of their influence effectiveness have become increasingly biased and have shifted as a "new currency". That is, at this time, their influence is more judged by the quantity of views, likes, or even subscribers. The quality of the review substance of culinary products is no longer the focus of consumers or audiences. "Packaging" in expressing ideas has played a very significant role than the substance of the assessment itself. Finally, be it celebrities, food bloggers, budding influencers, or even anyone, have the same opportunity to attract audiences to their content. The best reviews, at the moment, are at least more determined by how large the quantity of their "new currency" is.

The influence of food blogger promotion on purchasing decisions
Food blogger promotion has a direct influence on purchasing decisions based on the results of the t-test. These results were similar to previous research conducted by (Kusumaningrum et al., 2019) which states that food blogger content affects healthy food selection. This study also supports Prasetyo and Kusumawati's research (Prasetyo & Kusumawati, 2018), which states that eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth marketing) significantly affects purchasing decisions. Linked to the article, (Hilmiawan & Kusdibyo, 2019) state that eWOM affects attitudes and intentions for culinary tours. This finding is interesting because social media has become one of the primary sources of seeking information believed to be true in this digital era. One of the advantages over reviews on social media is that they are presented in an audio-visual form that allows consumers to get more precise information.
This method also does not mean replacing conventional marketing such as advertising. On the contrary, this phenomenon has diversified new marketing channels that have their own advantages and market segments. This means that all these marketing methods can complement each other, especially considering the characteristics of the market that have shifted greatly with the influence of technological advances (Damanik et al., 2019;Wiweka, Wachyuni, Simawang, et al., 2019). Therefore, many marketers continue to use conventional methods and also explore new marketing methods by involving influencers. Several studies have also reviewed and compared the two marketing methods, both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness (Wachyuni et al., 2018;Wachyuni & Wiweka, 2020). In the end, the strategy chosen is highly dependent on the targeted market segment.

CONCLUSIONS
From the results of this study, it can be concluded that food blogger promotion has a partial effect on brand image and purchasing decisions. However, brand image has a higher contribution to purchasing decisions than food blogger promotion. This finding explains that food blogger promotion will directly increase brand image. Furthermore, the brand image will stimulate consumers to make purchases. This finding explains that food blogger promotion shows its influence on purchasing decisions in stages, namely through brand image. From the research results, food blogger promotion and brand image simultaneously have more influence on purchasing decisions. This research's theoretical implication is that food blogger promotion becomes a source of information that consumers trust. It affects the brand image and purchasing decisions of culinary products, in this case, the Delapan Gram coffee shop. Emerging new theories may have to be reviewed in further research, namely testing the effect of food blogger promotion on purchasing decisions and the variable brand image as a mediator variable. Besides, it is necessary to reanalyze other factors that may significantly influence purchasing decisions. Practical implications, these findings can be applied to culinary business actors to