Interrelationships between Viral Marketing and Purchase Intention via Customer-Based Brand Equity

Hsiang-Hsi Liu^1, and Yu-Ning Wang²

¹Distinguished Professor, Graduate Institute of International Business, National Taipei University, Taiwan

²2Master, Graduate Institute of International Business, National Taipei University, Taiwan

Cite this paper

Hsiang-Hsi Liu and Yu-Ning Wang. Interrelationships between Viral Marketing and Purchase Intention via Customer-Based Brand Equity. Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2019; 7(2):72-83. doi: 10.12691/JBMS-7-2-3

Abstract

The advent of the Internet has presented several challenges as well as opportunities for marketers. Marketers have found more innovative methods of communicating effectively with their target market, and viral marketing is one of these methods. This study tries to explore interrelationships between viral marketing and purchase intention via customer-based brand equity. The empirical results reveal that viral marketing is made up of interesting, useful and informative subjects; message interaction; message reception; and offensive content, in which each had differing effects on customer-based brand equity and purchase intention. Additionally, we also find that the interaction with viral marketing messages is extremely important in order to positively influence either brand equity or purchase intentions, because mere message reception have detrimental effects on brand equity and purchase intention. Furthermore, by including brand equity as a mediator, the negative effect of message reception on consumer purchase intentions can be transformed into a positive effect.

Keywords

viral marketing, customer-based brand equity, purchase intention, advertising

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]	Cobb-Walgren, C.J., Ruble, C. A. and Donthu, N. (1995). Brand equity, brand preference, and purchase intent,” Journal of Advertising, 24(3), 25-40.
[2]	Christodoulides, G., Cadogan, J. W. and Veloutsou, C. (2015). Consumer-based brand equity measurement: lessons learned from an international study. International Marketing Review, 32(3/4), 307-328.
[3]	Petrescu, M., Korgaonkar, P. and Gironda, J. (2015). Viral advertising: A field experiment on viral intentions and purchase intentions. Journal of Internet Commerce, 14(3), 384-405.
[4]	Hayes, J. L., King, K. W. and Ramirez Jr, A. (2016). Brands, friends and viral advertising: A social exchange perspective on the ad referral processes. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 36, 31-45.
[5]	Miniwatts Marketing Group (2017). “Taiwan Internet Usage Stats and Marketing Report.” Retrieved from the World Wide Web: http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/tw.htm. Accessed on 10/16/2017.
[6]	Gallaugher, J. (1999). Challenging the new conventional wisdom of net commerce strategies. Communications of the ACM, 42(7), pp. 27-29.
[7]	Helm, S. (2000). Viral marketing: Establishing customer relationships by ‘word-of-mouse’. Electronic Markets, 10(3), 158-161.
[8]	Christodoulides, G. and De Chernatony, L. (2010). Consumer-based brand equity conceptualization and measurement: A literature review. International journal of research in marketing, 52(1), 43-66.
[9]	Coleman, D. A., de Chernatony, L. and Christodoulides, G. (2015). B2B service brand identity and brand performance: an empirical investigation in the UK’s B2B IT services sector. European Journal of Marketing, 49(7/8), 1139-1162.
[10]	Fishbein, M., and Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior. Reading, MA Addison-Wesley.
[11]	Bagozzi, R.P. and Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 16(1), 74-94.
[12]	Bagozzi, R. P. (1992). The self-regulation of attitudes, intentions, and behavior. Social psychology quarterly, 178-204.
[13]	Ajzen, I., Joyce, N., Sheikh, S. and Cote, N. G. (2011). Knowledge and the prediction of behavior: The role of information accuracy in the theory of planned behavior. Basic and applied social psychology, 33(2), 101-117.
[14]	Lekhanya, L. M. (2014). The impact of viral marketing on corporate brand reputation. International Business and Economics Research Journal, 13(2), 213-230.
[15]	Lindgreen, A., Dobele, A. and Vanhamme, J. (2013). Word-of-mouth and viral marketing referrals: what do we know? and what should we know. European Journal of Marketing, 47(7), 1028-1033.
[16]	Wang, W. and Street, W. N. (2018). Modeling and maximizing influence diffusion in social networks for viral marketing. Applied Network Science, 3(1), 6-21.
[17]	Dobele, A., D. Toleman and Beverland, M. (2005). Controlled infection! spreading the brand message through viral marketing. Business Horizons, 48, 143-149.
[18]	Porter, L. and Golan, G. J. (2006). From subservient chickens to brawny men: A comparison of viral advertising to television advertising. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 6(2), 30-38.
[19]	Koch, O. F. and Benlian, A. (2015). Promotional tactics for online viral marketing campaigns: how scarcity and personalization affect seed stage referrals. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 32, 37-52.
[20]	Dobele, A., Lindgreen, A., Beverland, M., Vanhamme, J. and van Wijk, R. (2007). “Why pass on viral messages? because they connect emotionally,” Business Horizons, 50, 291-304.
[21]	Eckler, P. and Bolls, P. (2011). Spreading the virus: Emotional tone of viral advertising and its effect on forwarding intentions and attitudes. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 11(2), 1-11.
[22]	Luna-Nevarez, C. and Torres, I. M. (2015). Consumer attitudes toward social network advertising. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 36(1), 1-19.
[23]	Helm, J., Su, S., Zhou, L. and Liu, X. (2013). Attitude toward the viral ad: Expanding traditional advertising models to interactive advertising. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(1), 36-46.
[24]	Sobhanifard, Y. and Balighi, G. A. (2018). Emotional modeling of the green purchase intention improvement using the viral marketing in the social networks. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 8(1), 55-80.
[25]	Keller, K.L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring and managing customer-based brand equity, Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1-22.
[26]	Srivastava, R., and Shocker, A. (1991). Brand equity: A perspective on its meaning and measurement. MSI Report 91-124. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.
[27]	Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M. G. and Jacob, I. (2011). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India.
[28]	Buil, I., De Chernatony, L. and Martinez, E. (2013). Examining the role of advertising and sales promotions in brand equity creation. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), 115-122.
[29]	Aaker, D. A.and Biel, A. L. (2013). Brand equity and advertising: advertising's role in building strong brands. New York: Psychology Press.
[30]	Yazdanparast, A., Joseph, M. and Muniz, F. (2016). Consumer based brand equity in the 21st century: an examination of the role of social media marketing. Young Consumers, 17(3), 243-255.
[31]	Singh, P. K. and Pattanayak, J. K. (2016). Study of the relationship among the factors of brand equity: A study on fast-food brands. Global Business Review, 17(5), 1227-1239.
[32]	Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R. (2016). Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), 5833-5841.
[33]	Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perc. Journal of retailing, 64(1), 12.
[34]	Netemeyer, R. G., Krishnan, B., Pullig, C., Wang, G., Yagci, M., Dean, D. and Wirth, F. (2004). Developing and validating measures of facets of customer-based brand equity. Journal of business research, 57(2), 209-224.
[35]	Porral, C. C., Bourgault, N. and Dopico, D. C. (2013). Brewing the recipe for beer brand equity. European Research Studies, 16(2), 85-100.
[36]	Martesen, A. and Grønholdt, L. (2015). The role of social ties in word-of-mouth effectiveness: a segmentation approach. Innovative Marketing, 11(1), 7-16.
[37]	Leckie, C., Nyadzayo, M. W. and Johnson, L. W. (2016). Antecedents of consumer brand engagement and brand loyalty. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(5-6), 558-578.
[38]	Mascarenhas, O.A., Kesavan, R. and Bernacchi, M. (2006). Lasting customer loyalty: A total customer experience approach. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 23(7), 397-405.
[39]	Baalbaki, S. and Guzmán, F. (2016). A consumer-perceived consumer-based brand equity scale. Journal of Brand Management, 23(3), 229-251.
[40]	Tellis, G.J. (1988). “Advertising Exposure, Loyalty, and Brand Purchase: A two-stage model of choice.” Journal of Marketing Research, 25(2), 134-144.
[41]	Rahim, A. G. (2016). Perceived service quality and customer loyalty: The mediating effect of passenger satisfaction in the Nigerian Airline Industry. International journal of management and economics, 52(1), 94-117.
[42]	Fornell, C. and Wernerfelt, B. (1987). Defensive marketing strategy by customer complaint management: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Marketing Research, 24(4), 337-346.
[43]	Kudeshia, C. and Kumar, A. (2017). Social eWOM: does it affect the brand attitude and purchase intention of brands? Management Research Review, 40(3), 310-330.
[44]	Mittal, V. and Kamakura, W. A. (2001). Satisfaction, repurchase intent, and pepurchase behavior: Investigating the moderating effect of customer characteristics. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(1), 131-142.
[45]	Tsai, Y. C., Chang, H. C. and Ho, K. C. (2015). A study of the relationship among brand experiences, self-concept congruence, customer satisfaction, and brand preference. Contemporary Management Research, 11(2), 97-116.
[46]	Martesen, A. and Grønholdt, L. (2004). Building brand equity: A customer-based modelling approach,” Journal of Management Systems, 16(3), pp. 37-51.
[47]	Severi, E. and Ling, K. C. (2013). The mediating effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand image and perceived quality on brand equity. Asian Social Science, 9(3), 125-137.
[48]	Murali, S., Pugazhendhi, S. and Muralidharan, C. (2016). Modelling and investigating the relationship of after sales service quality with customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty: A case study of home appliances business. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 30, 67-83.
[49]	Zaltman, G. and Burger, P. (1975). Marketing research: Fundamentals and dynamics. Dryden Press.
[50]	Fornell, C. and Bookstein, F. L. (1982). Two structural equations models: LISREL and PLS applied to consumer exit-voice theory,” Journal of Marketing Research, 19, 440-452.
[51]	Phelps, J. E., Lewis, R., Mobilio, L., Perry, D. and Raman, N. (2004). Viral marketing or electronic word-of-mouth advertising: Examining consumer responses and motivations to pass along email. Journal of advertising research, 44(4), 333-348.