The role of sexual desire on advertising attractiveness and online purchase intention: evidence from fragrance video commercials

Purpose- This study was conducted to examine the relationship between signs used in voluptuous video commercials, customer perceived attractiveness, and online purchase intention. Additionally, this study analyzed the role of individual sexual desire as a moderator in hypothesized relationships. Methodology- The data were collected in two phases using convenience sampling technique and judgmental sampling technique. In total, 373 valid data, collected from respondents with previous online purchasing experiences, were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings- The results revealed that signs positively influenced the customers’ perception of advertisement attractiveness (β = 0.412, p< 0.001). Furthermore, the outcomes demonstrated the positive effect of perceived advertisement attractiveness on online intention to purchase (β = 0.126, p< 0.05). In addition, the indices indicated the positive moderating role of self-sexual desire on the relationships between signs-perceived advertisement attractiveness and perceived advertisement attractiveness-online purchase intention (β = 0.751, p <0.001; β = 0.218, p<0.05). Conclusion- Despite the limitations in this study, the findings provide suggestions to practitioners and commercial designers in the perfume industry on how to create attractive advertisements to have the desired impact on customers, focusing on the customers’ emotions and sexual desires. The outcomes of this study contribute to the literature on advertising and online customer purchase intention