Pratik Nagre
The fruit-based beverage (FBB) segment is a fast-growing sector of the non-alcoholic beverage market, as driven by the soaring consumer demand in the market. Online promotional cues are very important in assessing the authenticity, nutritional value and brand credibility of the product in digitally mediated retail settings, which makes digital marketing a particularly effective influence in this category. Nevertheless, the current literature on digital promotional practices is not unified, but rather fragmented and often generalized across the food and FMCG industries, without a focused and theory-integrated understanding of consumer buying behaviour in the specific context of fruit-based beverages. To fill this gap, the current study is a systematic literature review, with evidence synthesized based on the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, including 47 peer-reviewed studies. The results indicate that the digital promotional practices, such as social media marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing, and electronic word-of-mouth, are interactive stimuli of retail service, which influence consumer decision making through thinking and feeling processes. Attitudes, brand trust, perceived usefulness, and emotional engagement are the key mediating constructs, with brand trust appearing to be especially crucial in the context of health-sensitive beverages. Based on these insights, the study constructs a sector-specific conceptual framework built around the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model, which is supported by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Hierarchy of Effects Model (HEM). The research will make its contribution to the multi-theoretical analysis of digital consumer behaviour, which is context-specific, and present practical implications to marketers and policymakers.