Characters’ persuasion effects in advergaming

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore advergaming to identify how users respond to characters in terms of forming brand trust and purchase intentions. The study shows that users will tend to trust brands when characters are congruent with product type and trust propensity. Design/methodology/approach In a 2×2×2 factorial design, the character presence/absence condition and product type (high vs low involvement) are between-subject, manipulated and dichotomous variables. Trust propensity is a measured, continuous variable. Findings Findings indicate that character presence contributes to brand trust, leading to higher purchase intentions. Character presence is more effective for promoting products of low involvement; character absence is more effective for promoting products of high involvement. Moreover, in the low-involvement product condition, consumers who have low-trust propensity are more persuaded by characters. In the high-involvement product condition, consumers who have high or low-trust propensity respond similarly to both character presence and absence. Originality/value Although characters potentially affect how gamers react to online gaming, surprisingly few studies have attempted to identify how the characters and their interactions influence consumers’ emotions and behaviors in advergaming contexts. The current study fills the gap by focusing on the effects of characters and the interactions among other influences related to characters. This study makes new theoretical and practical contributions to the literature by showing that brand trust plays a mediating role and demonstrates that game characters can stimulate purchase intentions more persuasively depending on gamers’ trust propensity and involvement in the advertised products. The findings contribute to theory regarding congruency effects of game characters and the theory of brand trust.

Trust barriers to online shopping: Investigating and prioritizing trust barriers in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment

“…According to Table 1, the factors B1, B2 and B3 are related to the consumer’s propensity to distrust, which shows a general reluctance to be vulnerable to others and represents an individual’s belief that others are not benevolent and trustworthy (Chang & Fang, 2013). People with low‐trust propensity are doubtful of others’ behaviour facing unfamiliar situations and new people (Choi, 2019). Besides, the barrier B8, social risk, is the possibility that consumer’s acquaintances do not support online shopping behaviour (Wu et al., 2015).…”

What is in a game? The impact of advergame design and reward elements on gamers' brand patronage

“…Brand trust is a key component of cold BRQ (Nyffenegger et al ., 2015). Prior research shows that including realistic social cues in advergames enhances brand trust (Choi, 2019). Hence, it is anticipated that a realistic advergame experience will lead to BP intention via strongly impacting cold BRQ, and the trust component of cold BRQ will largely drive the BP intention.…”

The Mediating Role of Customer Trust on the Relationships of Celebrity Endorsement and E-WOM to Instagram Purchase Intention

“…Credibility, in this case, refers to the beliefs that celebrities convey to the public or their followers, such as; Expertise related to the knowledge and experience possessed by a supporter of a particular subject; and attractiveness is associated with the physical appearance, beauty, and sympathetic nature that exist in celebrity. When consumers believe that endorsers reflect their ideal self-concept and self-image, advertising evaluation can be positive, which can undoubtedly increase purchasing consumer products (Choi, 2019). In addition to these positive ratings, celebrity endorsements can also make these consumers more likely to show loyalty to a brand or product.…”

“…The effect of celebrity support on product evaluation, showing it affects celebrities' fans, has also been studied (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995). The researchers found that much of this effect resulted from consumer associations between stars and supported objects (Choi, 2019). Based on this explanation, the hypothesis is as follows:…”