Abstract
The proliferation of Internet has accelerated the dissemination of information, which has given birth to the term “Internet meme”. Social network is one of the pivotal media in spreading an Internet meme. Marketers utilize Internet memes to carry out marketing activities to significantly improve their Internet exposure. We thus verify whether consumers generate purchase intention after being attracted to an Internet meme, as no such research prevails. We employ the value–attitude–behavior model as its theoretical core and discuss how the values formed by consumers under the impact of an Internet meme influence their purchasing behaviors through their attitudes. The participants of the study are Internet users who are habitual to checking Facebook. We adopted convenience sampling and developed 380 valid questionnaires. Structural equation modeling is applied to verify the study’s hypotheses. The research results reveal that utilitarian and hedonic values influence the Purchase Intention through utilitarian and hedonic attitudes. In light of the aforementioned findings, it is suggested that marketers and relevant participants focus on the hedonic value brought by an Internet meme and design fun and witty Internet memes to attract consumers.
Highlights
The proliferation of Internet has accelerated the dissemination of information, thereby creating the term “Internet meme”
Facebook (FB) ranks first among the social network applications downloaded in Taiwan, with a weekly active penetration rate of 69.77%, weekly opening counts per person of 169.93, compared to Instagram, which ranks second, with a weekly active penetration rate of 21.03% and weekly opening counts per person of 77.03
We aim to discuss how utilitarian and hedonic values generated by Internet memes affect utilitarian and hedonic attitudes and purchase intention (Table 1)
Summary
The proliferation of Internet has accelerated the dissemination of information, thereby creating the term “Internet meme”. Shifman defined Internet meme as digital content with common features—such as online images and videos—that are created by Internet users and spread, mimicked, and modified through the Internet instantly. Social network is one of the pivotal media that rapidly spread Internet meme, according to the statistics provided [5] by Libra and Cheetah Lab, the big data platform of Cheetah Data. Some companies that use online groups generate enormous revenues by selling meme-related products to millions of users on the websites [7]. The study defines consumers attracted by Internet memes as those who notice Internet memes on social network and like, share, and comment on such posts, as well as purchase relevant items
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