Research On The Influence Of Avatars’ Verbal And Nonverbal Communication Cues On Online Consumers’ Purchase Intention

More and more enterprises use avatars instead of employees to communicate with consumers and provide consumers with real-time services 24 hours a day.The use of avatars significantly reduces the workload of manual customer service personnel,reduces human costs,and improves the overall operational efficiency of the enterprise.At the same time,avatar is an important channel for online consumers to communicate with brands.The communication experience between online consumers and avatars may affect brand attitudes and purchase intentions.Therefore,it is of great value to study whether and how the communication cues of avatars affect the brand attitude and purchase intention of online consumers for strengthening the effect of brand marketing activities and improving the brand service experience of online consumers.Using the Computers-Are-Social-Actors theory and associative network theory,this study constructs a conceptual model of the influence of avatar verbal and nonverbal communication cues on online consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions and examines the impact of avatars’ verbal(conversational style)and nonverbal communication(dress)on consumer attitudes and behaviors,with perceived fit as a mediator and product type as a moderator.In this study,the relevant variables were manipulated by the experimental scenarios,and data were collected by questionnaires.The empirical test results showed show that avatars in corporate attire increase perceived fit,which in turn enhances consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions.Consumers shopping for experience goods are more likely to be influenced by an avatar’s dress than those shopping for search goods.In addition,an avatar’s conversational style has no significant effect on consumer perception or behavior,but it enhances the effect of its dress on perceived fit,that is,appropriate conversational style will enhance the positive effect of avatar clothing on perceived fit.In order to further verify the influence rule of the verbal and nonverbal communication cues of avatar on the purchase intention of online consumers through perceived fit,using Anylogic8.8.1 build the system dynamics simulation model of online consumers’ purchase intention,and empirical analysis results as parameters to simulate the change law of the total number of online consumers.The simulation results show that the effect of avatars’ dress can increase the total number of online consumers through perceived fit.The conversational style of avatars can enhance or weaken the effect of avatars’ dress on the total number of online consumers through perceived fit.Conversational style consistent with brand positioning will enhance the effect of avatar dressing on the total number of online consumers through perceived fit,while conversational style inconsistent with brand positioning will weaken the effect of avatar dressing on the total number of online consumers through perceived fit.The research results expand the research in the field of avatar marketing and enrich the empirical research on the relationship between avatars’ verbal and nonverbal communication clues and consumer-brand relationship;It enriches the literature on the impact of service staff’s clothing in brand service,expands the research scope of clothing impact from human employees to avatars,and provides guidance for the brand to build and use avatars reasonably and effectively.