IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/joinma/v12y2020i3p117-140n6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

YouTube Vloggers as Brand Influencers on Consumer Purchase Behaviour

Author

Listed:
  • Rybaczewska Maria

    (University of Stirling Stirling,Scotland, UK)

  • Chesire Betty Jebet

    (University of Stirling Stirling,Scotland, UK)

  • Sparks Leigh

    (University of Stirling Stirling,Scotland, UK)

Abstract

Objective: The increasing influence of YouTube vloggers on consumer purchase behaviour and the specificity of the vloggers _ viewers/subscribers relationship are under-researched. Addressing this gap in knowledge, this paper explores the role of vloggers as brand influencers on consumer (their viewers) purchase behaviour. It aims to investigate the interaction between vloggers and viewers/subscribers in terms of brand awareness and consumers’ purchase behaviour.Methodology: A mixed-method approach (often connected with netnography) incorporated non-participant observation of vloggers’ activities and vloggers-viewers interactions within selected popular vlogs, supported by an online survey with both vloggers and viewers.Findings: We have observed specific brand endorsements and experiences, depending on the vloggers’ context, leading to both positive and negative feedback. This interaction and the consistently positive perception of reasons behind the vloggers’ choice of the endorsed brands underpin the credibility of the vloggers – viewers/subscribers relationship.Value added: Our results show not only the significance of vloggers as brand influencers, providing their audiences information perceived as trustworthy and convincing in terms of purchase recommendations but also explore the factors affecting this process.Recommendations: This research directed our attention into the viewer-viewer interaction on the vlogs platforms. It is a very dynamic and challenging (difficult to control) part of vlog marketing activities (including various eWOM aspects) which can be very influential in the analysed context and stays a task for the future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Rybaczewska Maria & Chesire Betty Jebet & Sparks Leigh, 2020. "YouTube Vloggers as Brand Influencers on Consumer Purchase Behaviour," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 12(3), pages 117-140, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:vrs:joinma:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:117-140:n:6
    DOI: 10.2478/joim-2020-0047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/joim-2020-0047
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/joim-2020-0047?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shirley Leitch & Elizabeth Merlot, 2018. "Power relations within brand management: the challenge of social media," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(2), pages 85-92, March.
    2. Lee, Jung Eun & Watkins, Brandi, 2016. "YouTube vloggers' influence on consumer luxury brand perceptions and intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5753-5760.
    3. Rybaczewska, Maria & Sparks, Leigh & Sułkowski, Šukasz, 2020. "Consumers’ purchase decisions and employer image," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    4. Swoboda, Bernhard & Berg, Bettina & Schramm-Klein, Hanna & Foscht, Thomas, 2013. "The importance of retail brand equity and store accessibility for store loyalty in local competition," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 251-262.
    5. Cleveland, Mark & Bartikowski, Boris, 2018. "Cultural and identity antecedents of market mavenism: Comparing Chinese at home and abroad," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 354-363.
    6. Thakur, Rakhi, 2018. "Customer engagement and online reviews," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 48-59.
    7. Ling Zhang & Manman Luo & Robert J. Boncella, 2020. "Product information diffusion in a social network," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 3-19, March.
    8. Duncan J. Watts & Peter Sheridan Dodds, 2007. "Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(4), pages 441-458, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Weismueller, Jason & Harrigan, Paul & Wang, Shasha & Soutar, Geoffrey N., 2020. "Influencer endorsements: How advertising disclosure and source credibility affect consumer purchase intention on social media," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 160-170.
    2. Simona VINEREAN & Alin OPREANA, 2019. "Social Media Marketing Efforts of Luxury Brands on Instagram," Expert Journal of Marketing, Sprint Investify, vol. 7(2), pages 144-152.
    3. Anselmsson, Johan & Burt, Steve & Tunca, Burak, 2017. "An integrated retailer image and brand equity framework: Re-examining, extending, and restructuring retailer brand equity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 194-203.
    4. Ali, Maged & Azab, Nahed & Sorour, M. Karim & Dora, Manoj, 2019. "Integration v. polarisation among social media users: Perspectives through social capital theory on the recent Egyptian political landscape," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 461-473.
    5. M. Narciso, 2022. "The Unreliability of Online Review Mechanisms," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 349-368, September.
    6. Silvio Vismara, 2018. "Information Cascades among Investors in Equity Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(3), pages 467-497, May.
    7. Inyoung Chae & Andrew T. Stephen & Yakov Bart & Dai Yao, 2017. "Spillover Effects in Seeded Word-of-Mouth Marketing Campaigns," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 89-104, January.
    8. Bag, Sujoy & Tiwari, Manoj Kumar & Chan, Felix T.S., 2019. "Predicting the consumer's purchase intention of durable goods: An attribute-level analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 408-419.
    9. Peres, Renana & Muller, Eitan & Mahajan, Vijay, 2010. "Innovation diffusion and new product growth models: A critical review and research directions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 91-106.
    10. Vincent Labatut & Jean-Michel Balasque, 2010. "Business-oriented Analysis of a Social Network of University Students," Post-Print hal-00633643, HAL.
    11. Antoine Loeper & Jakub Steiner & Colin Stewart, 2014. "Influential Opinion Leaders," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(581), pages 1147-1167, December.
    12. Singh, Jaywant & Crisafulli, Benedetta & Quamina, La Toya & Xue, Melanie Tao, 2020. "‘To trust or not to trust’: The impact of social media influencers on the reputation of corporate brands in crisis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 464-480.
    13. Kreindler, Gabriel E. & Young, H. Peyton, 2013. "Fast convergence in evolutionary equilibrium selection," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 39-67.
    14. Juan Shi & Kin Keung Lai & Ping Hu & Gang Chen, 2018. "Factors dominating individual information disseminating behavior on social networking sites," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 121-139, June.
    15. Natalia Levina & Manuel Arriaga, 2014. "Distinction and Status Production on User-Generated Content Platforms: Using Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Production to Understand Social Dynamics in Online Fields," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 468-488, September.
    16. Michael Foley & Rory Smead & Patrick Forber & Christoph Riedl, 2021. "Avoiding the bullies: The resilience of cooperation among unequals," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, April.
    17. Trischler, Jakob & Johnson, Mikael & Kristensson, Per, 2020. "A service ecosystem perspective on the diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 552-560.
    18. Bhukya, Ramulu & Paul, Justin, 2023. "Social influence research in consumer behavior: What we learned and what we need to learn? – A hybrid systematic literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    19. Hiroaki Sandoh & Risa Suzuki, 2015. "Large-Scaled Chain Stores versus Small-Scaled Local Stores of the Local Production for Local Consumption," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 15-16-Rev.3, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics, revised Sep 2015.
    20. Xuzhen Zhu & Jinming Ma & Xin Su & Hui Tian & Wei Wang & Shimin Cai, 2019. "Information Spreading on Weighted Multiplex Social Network," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-15, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    YouTube vloggers; vlog; brand; consumer behaviour; purchase behaviour;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:joinma:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:117-140:n:6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.