Relationships between brand awareness and online word of mouth: an example of online gaming community
With the increasing popularity of broadband networks, the online game market is becoming more mature. One of the most popular online games, World of WarCraft, has more than ten million global members, making it the largest massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) Many researchers have widely explored online communities. However, online entertainment community has seldom been addressed; especially in the investigation of online communities marketing factors and consumer behaviour. An issue of particular interest in this study is in determining whether there are some relationships in online game consumer model between marketing factors and behaviour, and if there are relationships, in understanding the reasons for these relationships. Thus, this study explores the relationships among brand awareness, customer value, repurchase intention, and online word of mouth based on 280 questionnaires from players of World of WarCraft in Taiwan and using structural equation modelling. The results show that brand awareness affects repurchase intention and online word of mouth through customer value. In addition, customer value is a completely mediated variable in our model. Finally, this study shows that if online game firms can satisfy the core values of their players, the players will be willing to recommend and share this with others on the net.
Int. J. Web Based Communities