The Impact of Buzz Marketing on Customer E-WOM Intention: An Empirical Study in Vietnam

Customers’ perceptions of information about a company’s products or services have altered as a result of the development of ICT and social networks. This gives rise to a fact that buzz marketing, which is a marketing technique employed commonly in today’s business and communication, has a significant impact on customers’ electronic word of mouth intention (e-WOM). However, very few studies about this issue have been conducted so far, which reveal a gap in understanding buzz marketing from an academic perspective. Based on the results of a cross-sectional survey in Binh Duong city, this study investigates the efficiency and effect of buzz marketing on customers’ e-WOM intention through mediating variables of message credibility. Data from 367 time-lagged individual samples were collected and analyzed by the structural equation modeling method (SEM). Results showed that creativity, clarity, and humor variables have a positive relationship with message credibility and then impact the intention to conduct e-WOM of social networks’ users. Marketing campaigns employing the buzz technique should be launched with easy-to-understand and entertainable messages. Findings from this study also provide managers with a scientific understanding of buzz marketing and the effectiveness of this technique as well as reveal the potential for future studies to explore further in this area.