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The following scenario is not uncommon:
Ashmita, a program writer in a software company and an amateur photographer, planned for a solo trip to Keoladeo national park in Rajasthan, India during the Christmas holiday. Before the trip, she decided to replace her old DSLR camera, that ceased to work properly, with a new one. Ashmita narrowed down her choices to two camera models, Canon EOS 80D and Nikon D7500, but could not decide which one to buy. She gathered more information about these models by watching some PRVs posted by experts and product users on YouTube. During this activity, she enjoyed watching a couple of videos and shared one of them on her social media page. Eventually, she made up her mind and bought herself a new Canon EOS 80D for the forthcoming trip.
Although hypothetical, this is not an isolated incident experienced by few individuals. Similar situations might arise for many consumers who plan to purchase a product after reading and/or watching user-generated content (UGC) such as product reviews. In fact, increased proliferation of the Internet has ushered a tremendous growth in social intelligence and different types of UGCs (Susarla et al., 2012). UGC comprises of a wide range of contents developed and disseminated by users “outside of professional routines and practices” (Valette-Florence, 1998, pp. 61). It is not limited to textual product reviews and blogs but includes PRVs posted on sites like YouTube and Vimeo (Hautz et al., 2014). The propensity to watch PRVs before making purchases has steadily increased in recent times. According to a UK-based survey, 42% consumers believe that PRVs available on YouTube are the most trustworthy sources of information about products and services (Morrison, 2015). This statistic reflects a paradigm shift in the overall process of creation and dissemination of brand-related content from a traditional, one-way communication process such as television advertisements to an interactive user-to-user communication process (Berthon et al., 2008). A large number of content creators are reaping benefits from this changing scenario. They have started their YouTube channels that facilitate the content creators to disseminate product-related information and earn money from sponsors and product manufacturers.
A plethora of studies exist which reveal the effects of UGC on cognitive, affective, conative, and behavioural reactions of the consumers (e.g., Bianchi et al., 2017; Duan et al., 2008; Goes et al., 2014; Purnawirawan et al., 2015; Zehrer et al., 2011). However, majority of these studies consider only written formats of UGC such as textual reviews posted on retail and third-party websites, social media posts, and blogs. In comparison, very less is known about the effects of product reviews in the form of videos. Particularly, till date no study is conducted to inquire whether PRVs are characterized by some important attributes that make them effective and help generate favourable perceptions among the consumers. Such an investigation is extremely critical for content creators and product manufacturers for several reasons. For a content creator, an effective PRV would ensure that the viewers are able to learn and acquire knowledge about the products which, in turn, might increase the usefulness of her YouTube channel. Second, manipulation of the important PRV attributes might increase PRV effectiveness in terms of ‘views’, ‘likes’ and ‘shares’, and overall popularity of the channel. Eventually, this results in higher monitory gains for the content creator from YouTube – a website “where only a handful of videos acquire Internet superstar status while most languish in obscurity” (Susarla et al., 2012, pp. 2). An investigation of this sort would also be beneficial for the product manufacturers who often recruit experts to review new products on YouTube. In recent times companies are investing a lot of money in expanding their brand awareness and reach by identifying influencers on various types of social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. This enhanced focus on social media is expected to grab consumers’ attention and eventually augment the level of e-commerce activities on their website. Specifically, if a positive relationship is established between the PRV attributes and consumers’ perception, increased product awareness and diffusion of new product knowledge would occur among the potential consumers. This leads to enhanced trial and acceptance of the product in the market.