Impact of use & gratification theory and user generated content on purchase intention

Abstract

Content Marketing is a marketing strategy which attracts, engages and retains an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts and other media. It also creates, publishes and distributes content for customers through online channel in order to induce their purchase intention. The major focus is on the content created by the marketer to attract the customers. This study uses ‘Use and Gratification Theory’ and ‘User Generated content’ to determine ‘Customer Engagement’ and ‘Purchase Intention’ of customers. The objectives of the study are to analyze the relationship among Use and Gratification factors, User Generated Content, Customer Engagement and Purchase Intention and to test whether Customer Engagement has a mediating effect between Use and gratification factors and User Generated Content (Independent Variable) and Purchase Intention (Dependent Variable). This study uses primary data to collect the information about digital content marketing through a standardized questionnaire focusing on Use and Gratification factors, User Generated Content, Customer Engagement and Purchase Intention.