Watching it motivates me to become stronger: Virtual influencers' impact on consumer self-improvement product preferences

Meng, Lu (Monroe), Yongyue Bie, Mengya Yang and Yijie Wang

Journal of Business Research, 2024, vol. 178, issue C

Abstract: We explore the effectiveness of virtual influencers in promoting self-improvement products. Four studies demonstrate that compared with human influencers, virtual influencers can increase consumers’ self-improvement product preferences because of the realistic threats depicted by virtual influences. Moreover, this effect weakens or disappears when consumers and influencers are in a cooperative relationship, or when consumers are self-affirmed. By innovatively exploring virtual influencers’ impact on consumers’ perceptions of realistic threats, we enrich the antecedents of self-improvement product preferences, and provide implications for research and marketing practices.

Keywords: Virtual influencer; Realistic threat; Self-improvement product; Influencer marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:178:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324001589

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114654

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