Reviewer's communication style in YouTube product-review videos: does it affect channel loyalty?

Abstract

Product-review videos can be a promising marketing method. The popularity of using videos as a medium for product reviews is evidenced by the number of channels that are used to provide product reviews on multiple platforms. Reviewers can use various strategies to attract wider audiences and make these audiences loyal to their channels. This study analyzes the effect of the reviewer's communication style on the audience's loyalty to the channels that provide product reviews, especially on the YouTube platform. Communication-style analysis is associated with hedonic and utilitarian motivation theory, which can be used to explain communication style effect on channel loyalty. This study uses a quantitative approach using questionnaire to obtain data. The data in this study are analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling in AMOS 21.0. The results show that communication styles (social-oriented and task-oriented), perceived transparency, perceived enjoyment, credibility, and channel engagement affect channel loyalty. Meanwhile, the informativeness factor does not affect channel loyalty. This paper will also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the study.

Why Do People Return to Video Platforms? Millennials and Centennials on TikTok

“…According to Hsu and Liao (2014, p. 836) "a website is considered sticky when its users spend an above-average amount of time browsing it, when they visit the site frequently." The main means of generating stickiness on a website or social platform are the content (Hu et al, 2020;Lu & Lee, 2010;Xu et al, 2018) and communication style (Fitriani et al, 2020). Lu and Lee (2010) indicate that if you know your audiences, companies from all sectors can create specific contents which give them the opportunity to increase stickiness.…”

“…Motivation seems to have a more relevant role than emotions, insomuch as motivations can explain a user's satisfaction with social network services regardless of whether the users feel positive or negative emotions (Pappas et al, 2020). From another perspective, Camilleri and Falzon (2020) indicate the importance of ritualized motivations in the use of streaming technologies, and Fitriani et al (2020) show that the utilitarian motivation (credibility) influences channel engagement. As a consequence, it can be said that motivation is an extension of demand, which will lead to the emergence of behaviour (Bi & Tang, 2017).…”

Factors Influencing Students’ Continuous Intentions for Using Micro-Lectures in the Post-COVID-19 Period: A Modification of the UTAUT-2 Approach

“…The pleasure obtained when using a new technology affects the intention to utilize digital media [40,64]. This is because some previous studies confirmed that hedonic motivation (HM) predicted behavioral intention (BI) towards using online learning media [40,65,66]. It is also observed to have influential abilities on teachers and students regarding the utilization of mobile learning technology [62,67].…”

“…The pleasure obtained when using a new technology affects the intention to utilize digital media [40,64]. This is because some previous studies confirmed that hedonic motivation (HM) predicted behavioral intention (BI) towards using online learning media [40,65,66].…”

“…When students do not understand the teacher's in-class explanation, this learning media helped them in reviewing important points [31,34]. Many platforms were also used before and during the COVID-19 pandemic as the sources of micro-lectures, such as Moodle [37,38], YouTube [39,40], and others. Due to the convenience of this media, teachers created their educational sources according to the learning circumstances and needs.…”