Purpose

Avatars have become increasingly prevalent on brand websites, yet their impact on consumers' use of these sites remains underexplored. The current study focuses on avatars, which are three-dimensional animated graphical web interfaces that verbally aid the brand stakeholders (e.g. customers, employees and suppliers). Avatars provide administrative and technical information through the brand website. Drawing upon the stimuli–organism–response (S-O-R) paradigm, this research examines the impact of avatars as an information provision and interacting tool (vs a traditional format) on consumers' perceptions, attitudes and behaviors toward a brand. It also investigates the roles of familiarity with avatar use and the language used by an avatar in shaping consumers' responses.

Design/methodology/approach

Across two laboratory experiments, the authors examined and confirmed causal relationships between the use of avatars (vs a traditional format) on a website and attitudinal and behavioral constructs.

Findings

We show that avatars (vs written information) had a significant effect on controlling information. The users in our experiments had greater control over the information provided when it was presented as text on a website compared to the case of avatars “telling” the information. Different languages and familiarity with avatar use also affected the consumers' hedonism in terms of website use.

Originality/value

We advance the understanding of avatar use in website design, particularly avatars' verbal interaction, in shaping consumers' cognitive, affective, attitudinal and behavioral responses and add important empirical evidence to the growing body of research and practices involving avatar use in interactive marketing.

中文翻译：

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通过化身加强消费者与品牌的关系

目的

化身在品牌网站上变得越来越普遍，但它们对消费者使用这些网站的影响仍未得到充分研究。目前的研究重点是化身，这是一种三维动画图形网络界面，可以在口头上帮助品牌利益相关者（例如客户、员工和供应商）。头像通过品牌网站提供管理和技术信息。借鉴刺激-有机体-反应 (SOR) 范式，本研究考察了化身作为信息提供和交互工具（相对于传统格式）对消费者对品牌的看法、态度和行为的影响。它还调查了对化身使用的熟悉程度以及化身使用的语言在塑造消费者反应中的作用。

设计/方法/途径

在两个实验室实验中，作者检查并确认了在网站上使用化身（与传统格式相比）与态度和行为结构之间的因果关系。

发现

我们表明化身（与书面信息相比）对控制信息有显着影响。与化身“讲述”信息的情况相比，我们实验中的用户可以更好地控制在网站上以文本形式呈现的信息。不同的语言和对头像使用的熟悉程度也影响了消费者在网站使用方面的享乐主义。

原创性/价值

我们推进对网站设计中化身使用的理解，特别是化身的语言互动，塑造消费者的认知、情感、态度和行为反应，并为越来越多的涉及化身在互动营销中使用的研究和实践添加重要的经验证据。