Sensory communication in YouTube reviews: The interactional construction of products

Abstract

This study draws on interactionist frameworks of sensorial communication to analyse product reviews on YouTube. Existing studies of YouTube review work have focused on how vloggers manage conflicting neoliberal identity discourses such as ‘authenticity’, ‘being entertaining’ and ‘selling’. I argue that this focus has been at the expense of the communicative work involved in constructing products in reviews, and I suggest that identity issues should be conceptually expanded through a much broader focus on communicative action and conventions of practice. In order to achieve a first step in this expansion, my analysis focusses on reviewers’ sensorial engagement with objects and explores the communicative processes through which they symbolically transform products into enlivened, sensorially rich phenomena. I argue that these communicative strategies are important for situating neoliberal discourses within ‘mundane’ actions of description and in broader cultural practices of reviewing.

Understanding How Product Reviews on YouTube Affect Consumers’ Purchase Behaviors in Indonesia: An Exploration Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response Paradigm

“…The results could provide a better idea of how consumers act when they watch YouTube product reviews in the context of social commerce. 13 Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies Second, sensory marketing is an essential component of consumer behavior research, because it can provide insight for scholars to understand consumers' perceptions, judgments, and behaviors [30]. In this study, sensory marketing was used to explore how visual and auditory cues in You-Tube product reviews may impact parasocial interactions with YouTubers.…”

“…However, this study focused on the visual and auditory cues within product review videos. Previous studies have revealed numerous details regarding the visual and auditory cues in YouTube product reviews, including those related to product appearance, design, colour, YouTuber gestures, background music, and descriptive language [3,13,15]. Consequently, through the sensory cues for the products demonstrated by YouTubers, consumers gain experience with the product, which will bring them into evaluation development of the product's virtual sensory experience and convert sensory information into decision-making stages.…”

“…Numerous studies have attempted to investigate the importance of product reviews on YouTube in the marketing and consumer behavior fields. Previous studies explored various aspects YouTube product reviews, including parasocial interactions [9], YouTubers' communication styles (i.e., social and task-oriented, product type, and experience) [12], seeking and sharing for electronic word of mouth [5], and sensory aspects [13]. However, there are limited studies focusing on YouTube product reviews as social commerce channels, and there is also a lack of studies explaining this phenomenon in Indonesia.…”

“…Consumer perceptions can be influenced by YouTubers who communicate information about a product and demonstrate its use and wear. The YouTuber justifies the use of sensory marketing based on product review videos on YouTube, as they provide a variety of sensory stimuli [13,15]. The investigation of the parasocial interactions on YouTube could contribute to understanding the psychological state of the virtual face-to-face illusion relationship that consumers have with YouTubers.…”