When Virtual Influencers are Used as Endorsers: Will Match-Up and Attractiveness Affect Consumer Purchase Intention?

In the domain of social media marketing, the influences of virtual influencers on social media have gradually risen and they received widespread attention. The virtual influencers sometimes have similar size of the number of followers with the celebrities. Crises that bring losses to the brand and the company due to the negative news of celebrities often occur. The virtual influencers provide new opportunities for social media marketing, and using virtual influencers as endorsers for advertising to influence consumer behavior has becoming popular in marketing. However, this advertising effect of virtual influencers needs further investigation. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the product-virtual endorsers match and the attractiveness of virtual influencers have an impact on consumers' purchase intention, and to explore whether consumers' familiarity with virtual influencers has a moderating effect on this impact. The results show that the matching of products and virtual endorsers and the attractiveness of virtual endorsers have positive impacts on consumers' purchase intention, while the familiarity of consumers with virtual people negatively regulates this impact.