Exploring the disseminating behaviors of eWOM marketing

Electron Commer Res(2012)12:201–224DOI10.1007/s10660-012-9091-yExploring the disseminating behaviors of eWOM marketing:persuasion in online videoJung-Kuei Hsieh·Yi-Ching Hsieh·Yu-Chien TangPublished online:17March2012©Springer Science+Business Media,LLC2012Abstract The effectiveness of electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM)communication has attracted increasing attention from marketing practitioners,but relatively few studies focus on the dissemination of eWOM communication from a message per-spective.Online video is a prominent form of marketing promotion,yet again,little is known about which factors make online video engaging or how they influence recip-ients’forwarding intentions.This study adopts Lasswell’s communication model to investigate the persuasiveness of online video and uses the source,content,and chan-nel dimensions to examine three potentially influential factors:awareness of persua-sive intent,perceived humor,and multimedia effect.Awareness of persuasive intent exerts a negative influence,whereas the humor and multimedia effects have positive influences on both attitude toward a received online video and forwarding intentions. Therefore,e-marketers should reshape video clips to be humorous,use multimedia effects,and disguise their commercial intent to attract recipients’attention and per-suade them to disseminate an online video.Keywords Online video·Viral marketing·eWOM·Humor·Multimedia effect·Persuasive intentJ.-K.Hsieh()·Y.-C.Hsieh·Y.-C.TangDepartment of Information Management,National Central University,No.300,Jhongda Rd.,Jhongli City,Taoyuan County,Taiwan,ROCe-mail:hsiehjk@Y.-C.Hsiehe-mail:ychsieh@.twY.-C.Tange-mail:jay700924@202J.-K.Hsieh et al. 1IntroductionIn marketing,the rapid proliferation of the Internet has brought about a transi-tion in customer-to-customer communication,away from traditional word-of-mouth (WOM)networks and toward digital networks,a form of communication called elec-tronic word of mouth(eWOM)[1].This phenomenon refers to any positive or nega-tive comments made by customers about a product,service,or company that then be-come available to many other people via the Internet[2].Capitalizing on the eWOM phenomenon,e-marketers send out marketing information in the hope that it will spread though viral marketing[3,4].Even as viral marketing becomes increasingly popular though,the factors that influence this marketing tool remain largely uninves-tigated[5].The most recent form of viral marketing relies on the evolution of streaming video technology and the popularity of video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Google Video[6].As an implementation of Web2.0,online video often appears amateurish and without commercial intent;anyone with a digital camera can shoot videos to pub-lish online.E-marketers have exploited this trend as an opportunity for viral market-ing;for example,MerlynDHZ shot digital videos of himself and his friends perform-ing skateboard stunts in Heelys and published the videos on YouTube.MerlynDHZ’s fans viewed the videos and forwarded them to others,probably without knowing that MerlynDHZ and his skater friends work for Heeling Sports Limited,the company that makes Heelys[7].Such netizen-shot clips appear to be non-commercial videos intended for viewing by friends,which lessens viewer resistance,but in actuality, they are commercial videos.According to a report by the Online Publishers Associa-tion[8],52%of viewers take action in response to such online video advertisements, including visiting the company website,sharing the video with others,or purchas-ing.Thus,marketing practitioners and scholars are interested in online video and its potentially prominent role for Internet marketing.As a vehicle for viral marketing,online video still critically relies on recipients’forwarding behavior[9].The process of dissemination starts when people receive the online video with a company’s advertising information.If each person who re-ceives the video sends it to more than one person,the reiterative procedure creates exponential growth in the number of recipients.If the online video does not persuade recipients to forward it though,the spreading process halts.Thus,it is essential to in-vestigate different factors that influence,whether positively or negatively,recipients’decision to forward online video.Because viral marketing occurs when one communicator sends a message to re-cipients to affect their behavior[1],it is reasonable to consider the message the core of the dissemination process.The importance of message factors in the success of viral marketing campaigns has been widely noted[3,10,11],but limited empirical research has recognized the relationship between message factors and recipients’in-tentions to forward.Tofill this gap,we need studies that adopt a message perspective. Therefore,we borrow useful models from communication,because viral marketing dissemination is similar to the communication process:One person forwards stim-uli to influence the behavior of others[12].Accordingly,the aim of this study is to use communication researchfindings to explore how message factors might influence recipients’intentions to forward an online video.Exploring the disseminating behaviors of eWOM marketing203 Specifically,we adopt several dimensions of the communication model to study factors that underlie online video disseminating behavior.In the following sections, we summarize prior literature related to these factors and four dimensions of the communication model.After we develop eight hypotheses,we report the results of our experimental study.Finally,we conclude by discussing implications,limitations, and future research directions.2Literature review2.1From WOM to eWOM communicationMore effective than conventional advertising and mass media for influencing con-sumers’attitudes and purchase decisions,WOM implies person-to-person communi-cation about a brand,product,or service[1].Its strong impact derives from process of transmission;the prevalence of Internet use has expanded WOM to non-oral modes as well in computer-mediated communication(CMC)environments[1].However,as an advanced form of WOM,eWOM communication still relies on disseminating be-haviors by message recipients,and eWOM communication studies focus on how to persuade recipients to forward[4,5,13].2.2Factors that facilitate the dissemination of viral marketingSuccessful viral marketing requires turning recipients into a marketing force.The success of viral marketing thus reflects two perspectives:the recipient perspective and the message perspective[10].From the recipients’perspective,Chiu et al.[9]find that people who score low on the conscientiousness scales and high on extraver-sion and openness personality scales are more willing to forward e-mails to others. Huang et al.[10]adopt social cognition and social capital theories to explore viral ad-vertising;recipient factors,such as social interaction ties,affective outcome expecta-tions,and self-efficacy,exert significant influences on e-mail transmission intentions. Furthermore,Ho and Dempsey’s[5]conceptual model,based on the fundamental interpersonal relations orientation(FIRO)theory,considers various motivations that might underlie forwarding behaviors;they identify three significant ones:individual-ism,altruism,and personal growth.However,e-marketers can only regard disseminators of viral marketing as anony-mous,unknown consumers,who are difficult to recognize or influence during the dissemination process.Despite the importance of the recipients’perspective,e-marketers can do little to affect their characteristics and resources,whereas they can fully control the message content.Thus,adopting a message perspective might be more helpful for e-marketers;an appealing message can facilitate viral marketing campaign success[3].In addition,this message-centered viewpoint assumes that the message is the real core of persuasive communication,even if the persuasion set-ting also has an impact[14].Furthermore,considerable attention has centered on recipients’perspective,but comparatively few studies inspect the dissemination of viral marketing and provide a comprehensive understanding from the message per-spective,as our summary of studies related to the dissemination of viral marketing204J.-K.Hsieh et al. Table1Studies for the dissemination of viral marketingAuthors Study content Identified factorsChiu et al.[9]Explores the determinants of recipients’spreading behaviors for advertisingemails of cell phone Types of sender Utilitarian/hedonic contents Recipients’personality Ways of accessing InternetDobele et al.[13]Selects nine viral marketing campaignsand twenty consumers to observe theemotional response of recipients Six emotions are elicited from the viral marketing campaignsHinz et al.[3]Empirical comparison of differentseeding strategies of viral marketingcampaign Hubs type of seeds Bridges type of seedsHo and Dempsey[5]Conceptual model based on thefundamental interpersonal relationsorientation(FIRO)theory to explain thatpeople forward online content for threeinterpersonal needs IndividuationAltruismPersonal growth Consumption of online contentHuang et al.[10]Research model,based on social capitaland social cognitive theories,toinvestigate factors affecting pass-alonge-mail intentions through e-mail surveys Social interaction tie Message passing self-efficacy Affection outcome expectationPhelps et al.[4]Focus groups explore consumerresponses and motivations to pass alonge-mails Enjoyment and entertainment Help others Communicate caringin Table1shows.Phelps et al.[4]use focus groups to explore consumer motiva-tions andfind that people prefer to forward messages that provide enjoyment and entertainment;Chiu et al.[9]assume that a message with utilitarian or hedonic value positively influences recipients to forward it.Although these two studies thus con-firm that message content affects recipients’disseminating behavior,it remains un-clear how that influence works.Finally,psychology research has demonstrated that attitude entails a liking or disliking tendency toward an entity,which strongly af-fects people’s behaviors[15],so we include attitude toward message as a mediator to provide more insight into recipients’disseminating behavior in a viral marketing setting.2.3The lens of Lasswell’s model for viral marketingAs the process by which a message gets transmitted from a communicator to receivers to affect those receivers’behavior[1],viral marketing entails a communication pro-cess among individuals[12,p.12].Lasswell’s[16]classic formula of communication theory—“who says what,how,and to whom”or“who says what in which channel to whom”—also may apply to viral marketing;its dimensions more formally can be called source,content,channel,and receiver,respectively[12,14].This model con-tains the primary elements of communication and offers a framework for a schematicExploring the disseminating behaviors of eWOM marketing205representation of communication activities[17].Communication research projects thus combine elements from Lasswell’s communication model,and otherfields(e.g., marketing)adopt it as a theoretical foundation[18].Thus,it appears appropriate to apply Lasswell’s model to the phenomenon of viral marketing too.2.3.1Source dimensionThe message source entails observed or inferred characteristics of the communicator, such as the communicator’s credibility,the most frequently studied source factor[14]. Viral marketing literature also considers the credibility of the message sender a vital factor,in that messages from people with close relationships(e.g.,friends,family) are more persuasive[4,9].When recipients believe that the message source has noth-ing to gain from encouraging their subsequent behaviors,the message tends to be more persuasive.From a message perspective,source credibility depends on the per-ceived intention of the message creator,as inferred from the message that recipients receive.When people receive information,they undergo a deliberate process to review the information,interpret it,and draw inferences that go beyond the information re-ceived[14,19].People thus make inferences about the characteristics and motivations of a person based on very limited information[14,20].Similar inferences might oc-cur for online videos.Referring back to the MerlynDHZ case,netizens might work to interpret the online video according to the cues it provides.If they perceive commer-cial motives,they should treat it as advertising,rather than an amateur clip,and their attitudes toward MerlynDHZ’s videos,as well as their subsequent behaviors,should be influenced accordingly.We focus on this message perspective and the intention of the advertiser(i.e., message creator).Because an online video message operates at different levels and in different forms,the recipients of the online video interpret embedded information and develop their own inferences about the creator’s intention.These interpretations then should influence their attitudes toward the online video and their subsequent behaviors.Awareness of the intention of the online video,derived from the source dimension,thus constitutes one factor in our research model.2.3.2Content dimensionThe content dimension refers to the information communicated to receivers[14].In a CMC setting,message emotionality is an important determinant of communication competence[21].Dobele et al.[13]find that using emotions in viral messages can increase the chances of dissemination and the success of viral marketing.As the vi-ral marketing vehicle in CMC,the content of online video might be associated with emotion.A report by the Pew Research Center for the Pew Internet&American Life Project has shown that comedic or humorous video is the most frequently viewed type of online video[22,23].The theoretical and practical viewpoints thus both sug-gest that emotion,and especially humor,should influence the attractiveness of online video.Perceived humor in the content dimension provides another factor in the re-search model.206J.-K.Hsieh et al.2.3.3Channel dimensionThe channel is the means used to communicate information[14].The prevalence of the Internet has brought traditional WOM into a CMC setting,thus extending the methods available for people to disseminate information.In CMC,different meth-ods of information transmission might lead to different effects on message receivers. According to dual-coding theory[24],human comprehension of messages differs in verbal versus nonverbal systems.Jiang and Benbasat’s[25]empirical study shows that different presentation formats for webpages influence consumers’product un-derstanding,so media richness is a critical factor for CMC[21].As a CMC vehicle, online video represents information in various formats and might rely on media rich-ness as well.In general,videos that present information more vividly should hold people’s attention and excite their imaginations.Because the way the information is communicated or presented at different levels in online videos might influence recip-ients’feelings and interpretation of the information,we include how the information is presented as a factor in our research model.2.3.4Receiver dimensionThe receiver’s gender,personality,and other characteristics likely influence the ef-fects of information communication and diffusion[14].Studies addressing such in-dividual characteristics belong to the recipient perspective[10].Furthermore,a re-cipient’s social position could affect the diffusion of viral marketing and e-marketers thus might use analyses of sociometric data to develop a seeding strategy for a vi-ral marketing campaign[3].Although studies related to the receiver dimension have contributed to a better understanding of the diffusion of viral marketing,it is not easy for e-marketers to influence or control the recipient’s individual characteristics. However,the message can be created to be attractive and persuasive to recipients, including people who act as seeds,and e-marketers can control this content.There-fore,to provide managerial implications for e-marketers,we focus on the message factors rather than the receiver dimension,which instead serves as a control fac-tor.Compared with other streams,research with a message perspective is sparse,so we address this perspective tofill an academic gap and adopt an experimental design or statistical analysis to control for the factors related to the receiver dimension.In summary,four communication dimensions[12,16]—source,content,channel,and receiver—frame existing literature related to viral marketing and also provide the foundation for our independent and control factors.3Hypotheses developmentIn line with our definition of viral marketing as the process by which the market-ing message is transmitted from sender(s)to receiver(s)online to affect receivers’behavior[1],[12,p.12],we adopted the source,content,channel,and receiver di-mensions of Lasswell’s[16]communication model to develop the research model.Exploring the disseminating behaviors of eWOM marketing207 First,awareness of persuasive intent comes from the source dimension,pertaining to the intent of the message creator that represents the source of the online video.Sec-ond,humor is an important content factor,as highlighted in extant literature related to viral marketing and practical surveys for online video.Third,because recipients’perception and understanding might be influenced by the different ways of commu-nicating information,the multimedia effect,a channel dimension factor,reflects how online video can be presented differently and with varying media richness.Fourth, the receiver dimension refers to recipients’personal characteristics,operationalized as control factors for this study,because e-marketers cannot effectively influence the individual differences of recipients.3.1Awareness of persuasive intentA viral marketing campaign’s ultimate intent is to promote the company’s offer-ings through forwarding behavior[5,26],so e-marketers design advertisements with plenty of commercial information,but they must carefully consider consumers’awareness of the persuasive intent.Prominent product or brand placement may in-crease consumers’awareness of the persuasive intent[27],whereas most online videos mention the product or brand only unobtrusively to hide their persuasive in-tent.We define the level of prominence as“the extent to which the product placement possess[es]characteristics designed to make it a central focus of audience attention”[28,p.49]and estimate it by the size of the product or brand logo,its centrality in the screen,duration on screen,and strength[27,28].Prominent placements likely facilitate consumers’brand memory[28],but excessive prominence might cause con-sumers to become irritated,reject the advertisement,or develop a negative attitude to-ward the brand[29].When consumers develop knowledge about persuasion tactics, they also can more easily identify how,when,and why e-marketers try to influence them,which influences their responses to persuasive efforts.Friestad and Wright[30]suggest the persuasion knowledge model(PKM)to de-scribe persuasion intent in advertisements and people’s responses to ing PKM, Cowley and Barron[27]find that an obvious persuasive intent with a prominent prod-uct placement activates viewers’persuasion knowledge but causes neither positive nor negative shifts in their brand attitude.When viewers perceive the persuasive in-tent of a message,they apply a change of meaning principle,which influences how they interpret the actions of persuasive agents.A change of meaning also may cause viewers to disengage from the interaction.That is,if viewers recognize a persuasive tactic in an online video,they may reject the advertisement through a detachment effect[30].Because creators of online videos want to encourage recipients to disseminate the videos,e-marketers must disguise their persuasive intent to prevent this de-tachment effect.Internet users do not want to feel used,so a successful cam-paign must provide value to recipients who forward the message to others[10, 26].If the persuasive intent is overwhelming,recipients perceive themselves sim-ply as free channels for companies to use in promoting their commercial products or brands,which likely prompts their negative attitudes toward the received online video.208J.-K.Hsieh et al.The PKM also indicates that consumers consider other people’s impressions of them in persuasion settings[30].Because consumers’reactions to advertising thus may depend on the views of their friends and family,recipients of online videos likely attempt to predict significant others’responses before distributing an online video.If the video contains too much product or brand information,the message may appear to be spam,which annoys and distracts users[31].People avoid any negative impression created by spreading such online videos;accordingly,we predict:H1:High awareness of persuasive intent in an online video will negatively influence attitude toward received online video.H2:High awareness of persuasive intent in an online video will negatively influence intention to forward the online video.3.2Perceived humorThe use of humor in advertising is widespread;Beard[32]calculates that the pro-portion of U.S.television advertising that uses humor ranges from11%to50%. Humor can induce desirable responses by generating audience attention and making the advertisement seem more likeable and memorable[33].Although it is difficult to achieve a consistent definition of humor,because of its various forms,the most widely accepted mechanism for understanding it uses a typology with three types:arousal-safety,disparagement,and incongruity[34].Humor of thefirst type reflects the phys-iological drive for an equilibrium level of arousal,because it provides an escape or relief from some constraint.Disparagement humor instead is based on hostility,supe-riority,malice,aggression,or derision in a social or interpersonal context[34].Incon-gruity provides perhaps the most popular strategy for humorous advertisements,be-cause when information in a humorous advertisement is incongruent with consumers’predictions,they transform it into a laughable,congruous situation[35].Young,well-educated people have good cognitive abilities to comprehend incongruent humor,so practitioners believe that humor works best among this audience[35].Scholars generally agree that the effect of humor on attitude derives from its affec-tive sensation,such that humor initiates viewers’affective responses and attracts more attention to the advertisement.Several researchers note a direct correlation between perceived humor and attitude toward the advertisement,such that funny advertise-ments earn the most favor[33].Similarly,perceived humor in online videos should create affective responses in audiences and positively influence attitudes toward the online video.Viral marketing represents a form of peer-to-peer communication through the In-ternet.People often send online videos to their friends,family,or colleagues to share the experienced emotion[13].Forwarding an online video therefore involves the so-cial sharing of emotions,because people who experience an emotion exhibit a marked need to seek opportunities to talk about it with members of their social network and provide information about their feelings and sensations[36].Two arguments support our use of social sharing of emotions as a tool to interpret the phenomenon of on-line video forwarding.First,Riméet al.[36]demonstrate that members of the social environment with whom people want to share emotions include family,friends,andExploring the disseminating behaviors of eWOM marketing209 partners.These same members represent targets of the spread of viral marketing.Sec-ond,emotion is an important element in viral marketing,because thefirst motive for dissemination in viral marketing is to have fun[4,26].Thus,we presume that humor influences the intention to forward and propose the following hypotheses:H3:Perceived humor will positively influence attitude toward received online video. H4:Perceived humor will positively influence intention to forward an online video.3.3Multimedia effectCommunication media may involve different degrees of richness[37].Media with relatively more capacity,such as video,are rich and exert a greater multimedia ef-fect.An online video therefore attains a greater multimedia effect than plain text or a picture in an e-mail.Cue-summation theory posits that more available cues or stimuli lead to more effective learning[38],and dual-coding theory asserts that information can be processed through both verbal and nonverbal systems,with additive effects on human comprehension[24].By applying these two theories to thefield of online learning,empirical research demonstrates that computer-based multimedia instruc-tion has significant potential to improve learning[39].In a multimedia environment, more information can be transmitted through multiple channels,and multiple sensory cues lead to more efficient communication and better learning performance,including the formation of mental representations of objects[40].Multimedia information also has a similar effect on users’evaluations of web-sites.Vividness,video,music,and animation make websites more attractive for peo-ple[41].In an advertising context,the combined effects of video,text,and sound should significantly influence the processing of online ads,especially for low or mod-erate involvement[42].Furthermore,people rate a site and product more favorably when the site contains audiovisual testimonials rather than just text or picture com-mentaries[43].Different levels of media relate positively to satisfaction,both directly and indirectly through richness[44].Messages in online videos convey information through verbal and nonverbal chan-nels,including text,audio,and video.Following cue-summation theory,dual-coding theory,andfindings from prior literature,we argue that an online video with more multimedia effects provides more cues or stimuli for recipients,so it should induce more positive attitudes toward the received online video and increase intentions to forward it.Thus,we propose:H5:The multimedia effect will positively influence attitude toward received online video.H6:The multimedia effect will positively influence intention to forward the online video.3.4Mediating effect of attitudes toward the received online videoAttitude represents a psychological tendency,expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor[15].In advertising,attitude toward the advertisement indicates a predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable210J.-K.Hsieh et al. manner to a particular advertising stimulus during an exposure circumstance[45]. Considerable research shows that consumers’attitudes toward an advertisement af-fect their behavioral intentions(e.g.,[46]).Information in various forms can be embedded in an online video,including text, image,and sound.The recipient’s attitude toward the online video likely influences his or her forwarding intentions.According to Phelps et al.[4],when people receive a viral marketing e-mail,they enter a four-stage process:receipt,decision to open, reading the message,and decision to forward.A key motive that prompts recipients to forward a message is their enjoyment of that message.Similarly,we argue that recipients should evaluate online videos after they open and view them.Their attitude toward the online video then affects their intention to forward it.In other words, liking the information transmitted or having a positive attitude toward the received video should facilitate recipients’forwarding behavior.Thus,H7:Attitude toward received online video will positively influence intention to for-ward the online video.Several studies confirm that different messages or stimuli in advertisements lead to different viewer attitudes and thus influence their behavior(e.g.,[46]).That is, attitude plays a mediating role in advertising studies.We have proposed that three factors determine attitude toward received online video(H1,H3,and H5)and that attitude is positively associated with intention(H7);therefore,it is reasonable to treat attitude toward the received online video as a mediator.We propose the following hypothesis:H8:Attitude toward received online video mediates the effects of awareness of per-suasive intent,perceived humor,and multimedia effect on intention to forward the online video.4MethodologyThe main purpose of this study is to examine whether the message factors influence recipients’intentions to forward an online video.With this research,we therefore investigate the causal relationships between independent factors(i.e.,awareness of persuasive intent,perceived humor,and multimedia effect)and dependent factors (i.e.,attitude and intention)proposed in our hypotheses.We adopt an experimental method to manipulate the independent factors,measure the dependent factors,and control for other relevant factors[47].4.1Experimental stimuliWe produced eight videos about beer,1using a2perceived humor:high/low)×2(multimedia effect:high/low)×2(awareness of persuasive intent:high/low) between-subject design.Beer represented an appropriate study topic because it is1The experimental stimuli can be accessed through the following link:https:///site/ reserachplatofrm/.。