The Mediating Role of Trust between Message Clarity and Purchase Intent: A Cross-Sectional Study of GPS Car Tracker Advertising via Social Media
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Date
2026-11-30
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Addis ababa university
Abstract
. Ethiopia's digital market is expanding at an accelerating rate; as a result, business is turning to social media platforms to advertise complex, high-tech involvement products, including GPS car tracking devices. However, there is still ambiguity over the effectiveness of these digital strategies, particularly within an environment where consumer distrust is common. This study investigates how message clarity and consumer trust combines to influence consumers’ purchase intent, focusing specifically on the marketing strategies of Walta Technology Plc. The primary objective of the study was to examine whether trust acts as a psychological bridge connecting message clarity to a consumer's purchase intent. Adopting a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, this study collected data from 400 respondents in Ethiopia who had engaged with Walta technology’s digital advertisement. To investigate the proposed connections and mediation effects, the analysis employed multiple regression, Pearson's correlation, and Hayes' PROCESS Macro (Model 4). The results reveal a strong positive correlation between message clarity and purchase intent. Furthermore, the analysis confirms that trust serves as a significant partial mediator. While purchase intent is directly influenced by message clarity, the trust pathway accounts for about 42% of its total effect. This indicates that clear messages do not simply inform; they also function as a crucial signal of credibility in a low-trust market. Despite these strong statistical relationships, descriptive statistics indicated that current perceptions of message clarity are only moderate, suggesting considerable room for improvement in Walta's current strategies. The study concludes that for companies operating in emerging markets like Ethiopia, simply maintaining a digital presence is not enough. To be effective, businesses must improve message clarity in order to effectively create trust, which is essential to transform customers attention into actual purchase decisions. These results provide a useful insight for businesses working to manage the complex nature of digital persuasion in skeptical situation
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Keywords
Message Clarity, Trust, Purchase Intent, Mediation Analysis, GPS car Tracker, Social Media Marketing, Ethiopia