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

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.