The Viral Effect: Unpacking the Influence of Viral Marketing Campaigns on Generation Z’s Purchase Intentions

Prakash Singh, Lokesh Arora, Vimal Bhatt, Prabhat Kumar and Binod Sinha

SAGE Open, 2025, vol. 15, issue 2, 21582440251346110

Abstract: The present study aims to investigate the impact of viral marketing messages on Generation Z customers’ attitudes and purchase intentions and identify the critical components of a successful viral marketing campaign. The study highlights the influence of Viral Content Informativeness (VCI), Viral Content Credibility (VCC), and Viral Content Usefulness (VCU) on the Attitudes of Generation Z (ATT). Further, it highlights the influence of Attitudes of Generation Z (ATT) on their Purchase Intentions (PI). The study’s identification of the critical factors of viral message informativeness, credibility, and usefulness can help businesses tailor their campaigns to resonate with their target audience and enhance their brand awareness, credibility, and customer loyalty. The primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire. The survey items were adopted from the literature and were further improved as per the needs of the study. For data collection, a total of 950 questionnaires were distributed. While investigating incomplete responses and multivariate outliers, a total of 652 valid responses were considered for data analysis. For data analysis, researchers employed IBM ® SPSS ® and IBM ® Amos ® software, which are generally employed for CB-SEM. Present study primarily highlights the effect of viral marketing messages on the attitudes and purchase intentions of Generation Z customers. Furthermore, this study contributes as there is scant literature available discussing Indian and Asian perspective. This research adds to the existing body of knowledge and contributes to the practice.

Keywords: attitudes; consumer behavior; generation Z; messages; purchase intentions; viral marketing campaigns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:21582440251346110

DOI: 10.1177/21582440251346110

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