Estrategias de Marketing y Decisión de Compra: el Rol Moderador de las Preferencias Comunicativas en la Generación Z

In an increasingly dynamic digital environment, Generation Z stands out for its active presence on social media and its preference for interactive and personalized formats. However, in the Ecuadorian context, research on this demographic segment remains scarce, making it essential to understand their communication styles and how these influence their purchase decisions in order for brands to effectively connect with and retain this group. This study aims to determine the mediating role of Generation Z's communication preferences in the impact of digital marketing strategies on purchase decisions in Ecuador. Employing a quantitative approach with a non-experimental design, a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework was applied to a sample of 104 young residents in Guayaquil, assessing the relationships between social media marketing strategies, communicative preferences, and consumption behavior. The results revealed that social media marketing strategies have a significant positive relationship with communicative preferences (β = 0.713, p < .001). The direct relationship between marketing strategies and purchase decisions was not significant (β = -0.039, p = .773), suggesting that these strategies, in isolation, do not directly influence the purchase decisions of the surveyed youth. However, upon incorporating communicative preferences as a mediating variable, a slight improvement in this relationship was identified (β = -0.185, p = .063). These findings underscore the necessity of adapting advertising messages to the formats and communicative styles inherent to this generation, thereby enhancing engagement and the effectiveness of campaigns in digital environments.