Research on the Reasons for Viral Marketing Being a Commonly Adopted Marketing Method in Chinese Milk Tea Shops

In the development of marketing strategies based on consumer tastes and dynamism in China's milk tea industry, viral marketing approaches are emerging in this process, as brands start to diversify their business models to offer more diverse consumer experiences. Although viral marketing enables brands to position themselves as trendy, innovative, and community-oriented, their scaling up is influenced by consumer perceptions and attitude-behaviour gaps. Thus, this study investigates why the Chinese milk tea industry is fond of applying viral marketing, exploring how Chinese milk tea stores can utilise viral marketing to refine their brand image and consumer perceptions. Employing a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 participants who are frequent or returning consumers of those Chinese milk tea brands. The result revealed that viral marketing characters had a significant impact on consumer perceptions and brand images by enhancing emotional engagement and creating symbolic values. This study extends the existing literature on viral marketing and the narrative paradigm by providing empirical evidence supporting the importance of emotional connection and symbolic values in social media hype. The current study's limitations and future research directions are discussed, underscoring the need for ongoing exploration and refinement of our understanding of narratives and narrative-extended theoretical frameworks in a constantly evolving market landscape.