Impact of meme marketing on consumer purchase intention: Examining the mediating role of consumer engagement

  • Received September 6, 2023;
    Accepted December 11, 2023;
    Published December 26, 2023
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.20(1).2024.01
  • Article Info
    Volume 20 2024, Issue #1, pp. 1-16
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

This paper analyzes an emerging form of social media marketing, meme marketing, which has gained attention for its ability to entertain and engage users. Marketers and companies are recognizing the value of using memes as a tool to connect with consumers. To understand the effects of meme marketing activities, this paper aims to examine the impact of meme marketing activities on consumer purchase intentions and concurrently assess the mediating role of consumer engagement. The study encompassed 452 Indian social media users with active social media accounts and familiarity with memes and meme marketing concepts. It employed a quantitative methodology backed by robust statistical techniques. The method used for analysis was Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software. The results found that meme marketing activities have a direct and significant positive impact (β = 0.257, p < 0.05) on consumer purchase intentions. It further shows that meme marketing has a direct and significant positive impact (β = 0.745, p < 0.05) on consumer engagement. It shows that consumer engagement has a direct and significant positive effect (β = 0.651, p < 0.05) on consumer purchase intention. However, the indirect impact of meme marketing activities on consumer purchase intentions is also significant, resulting in partial mediation. The study findings hold value for marketing managers, agencies, and companies that interact and engage consumers with memes and undertake meme marketing activities.

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    • Figure 1. Conceptual model
    • Figure 2. Direct relationship between meme as a marketing activity and consumer engagement
    • Figure 3. Direct relationship between consumer engagement and consumer purchase intention
    • Figure 4. Mediation of consumer engagement between meme marketing and consumer purchase intention
    • Figure 5. Mediation of consumer engagement between meme marketing and consumer purchase intention
    • Table 1. Respondents’ demographic data
    • Table 2. Reliability and item loadings of variables
    • Table 3. Normality and collinearity test results by item wise for data
    • Table 4. Standardized regression weights for a direct relationship
    • Table 5. Test for mediation effect of consumer engagement between meme marketing and consumer purchase intention
    • Table 6. Summary of the results of all the hypotheses
    • Table A1. Questionnaire
    • Conceptualization
      Navrang Rathi
    • Formal Analysis
      Navrang Rathi
    • Investigation
      Navrang Rathi
    • Methodology
      Navrang Rathi
    • Writing – original draft
      Navrang Rathi
    • Data curation
      Pooja Jain
    • Resources
      Pooja Jain
    • Supervision
      Pooja Jain
    • Writing – review & editing
      Pooja Jain