Effect of YouTube Marketing Communication on Converting Brand Liking into Preference among Millennials Regarding Brands in General and Sustainable Offers in Particular. Evidence from South Africa and Romania

Abstract

The omnipresent role of online information and communication technology (ICT) channels in the lives of Millennial consumers is universally recognised in industry and academia. The persistent usage of ICT platforms such as social media, especially digital video sharing conduits (e.g., YouTube), among the Millennial cohort has become an important marketing communication platform for organisations to reach this evasive target market. The extensive use of YouTube has generated billions of dollars in marketing communication income, but there is limited academic inquiry in terms of in developing economies, particularly regarding the effect of online usage and demographic factors among Millennials. This paper examines the effect of YouTube marketing communication on affective (attitudinal) responses, meaning brand liking and the impact on brand preference, among Millennials in two developing economies, Romania and South Africa, as well as the influence of usage and demographic factors on the affective (attitudinal) association. A survey was conducted among 400 Romanian and 400 South African respondents, and the hypothesised associations were evaluated via structural equation modelling (SEM) and multigroup SEM. The results of this paper reveal a favourable connection between brand liking and brand preference as a result of YouTube marketing communication, making a notable contribution to the limited YouTube inquiry on attitude-to-advertising theory in developing economies regarding brands in general and sustainable offers in particular. A number of the online usage and demographic factors were also found to have an effect on the brand liking and preference association, supporting in the reduction of the academic–practitioner gap, and assisting organisations in better understanding Millennials in the development of effective marketing communication campaigns on video sharing platforms.

Antecedents of Entrepreneurial Intention among Young People: Model and Regional Evidence

“…This may be due to the homogenizing weight inherent in a generational approach according to which young people of Generation Y share global similar perceptions, attitudes and values [30,147]. This is important because there is a certain divergence in the literature on the question of the full homogeneity of Generation Y in all contexts and with respect to all variables [88,89].…”

“…Despite the conducted studies and the obtained findings, there is a number of reasons that suggest the need to deepen the study of entrepreneurial intention, particularly in the case of young people because there is consensus in the literature regarding personal factors that influence their entrepreneurial intention, as well as divergence from other factors in different contexts (e.g., marketing) [88,89]. In the first place, some researchers consider it necessary to enrich the theoretical framework on the entrepreneurial intention [8,61].…”

YouTube marketing communication demographic and usage variables influence on Gen Y's cognitive attitudes in South Africa and Romania

“…This study used two developing countries, viz, SA and RO, and Edu, Lotter, Negricea, and Avram () ascertained that these African and Eastern European Gen Y cohort members displayed comparable behavior in terms of voice and data communication. However, Duffett et al () established that Romanian Millennials displayed more positive affective attitudinal associations owing to YMC than South African Millennials. Accordingly, the divergent discourse results in the following hypothesis:H1b Awareness has a greater favorable influence on knowledge on Romanian Gen Y than South African Gen Y owing to YMC.…”

“…The primary MC objective for a number of organizations is to generate positive attitude‐to‐advertising, which increases behavioral responses; therefore, favorable cognitive attitudinal responses (awareness and knowledge) to MC are an apt gauge of effective advertising (Barry, ; Belch & Belch, ; Yoo, Kim, & Stout, ). Consequently, various studies have examined different aspects of consumer attitudes and YMC‐related elements (Araújo et al, ; Baramidze, ; Bartozik‐Purgat & Filimon, ; Bi, Zhang, & Ha, ; Chiang & Hsiao, ; Duffett, Petroșanu, Negricea, & Edu, ; Evans, Hoy, & Childers, ; Hansson & Stanic, ; Li & Lo, ; Rasmussen, ; Rodriguez, ; Roma & Aloini, ; Tan, Hoe Ng, Omar, & Karupaiah, ; Viertola, ; Wang, ; Westenberg, ), and several studies have also investigated different aspects of cognitive attitudinal responses (Chungviwatanant, Prasongsukarn, & Chungviwatanant, ; Dehghani, Niaki, Ramezani, & Sali, ; Feng & Xie, ; Hor'akov'a, ; Mansour, ; Marthinus, Sobotker, & Duffett, ; Yang, Huang, Yang, & Yang, ; Zaitceva, ; Zhang & Mao, ). However, a majority of the abovementioned studies used demographic and usage variables to describe the sample but did not consider the aforementioned independent variables influence on the cognitive attitudinal relationship.…”

Eficácia e atenção visual em anúncios in-stream

“…Por fim, devido ao caráter de ineditismo do experimento realizado, esse estudo é plausível de repetição, já que futuras comparações, incluindo divergências e semelhanças com o que aqui foi apresentado, só irão trazer riqueza intelectual para a literatura. Ainda, é encorajada a sua realização em outros países, já que diferença culturais podem influenciar a eficácia de anúncios no YouTube (DUFFETT et al, 2019).…”