Explaining the Effect of Viral Advertising on Consumer Purchasing Behavior

In today's competitive business world, several factors influence consumers’ purchasing behavior. In recent years, viral advertising has emerged as one of the most effective and efficient methods that can create awareness and interest as well as enhance testing and product acceptance. Viral advertising operates through the voluntary transfer of a provocative message of a brand from one person to another via the Internet in order to influence or persuade the message receiver to transfer it to others. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of messages with emotional contents (i.e. anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise) and the credibility of viral advertising (i.e. trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness) on consumers’ shopping behavior. The study population consisted of 320 Internet users in the city of Ahvaz selected by the accessible sampling method. The data were collected through valid and reliable questionnaires sent to the Internet users by e-mail along with a short advertising video. The results of the data analysis conducted by using the structural equation model and the Amos software showed that the emotional content and the credibility of the viral advertising messages in all the three advertised products has a positive and significant impact on the purchasing behavior of the customers. Also, the results showed the negative and significant effect of emotional contents on the consumer purchasing behavior in two other products, namely life insurance and electrical insecticides.