Abstract

This paper examines one type of marketing practice that has a strong positive effect in traditional media and a growing internet presence; the spokes-character. In this study, we tried to understand the effect of using an interactive spokes-character in communications with potential customers. The conceptual model of Garretson and Niedrich (2004) was used to develop an experiment to examine how the spokes-character affect consumer’s attitude toward brand. The results of the study indicated that the Garretson and Niedrich model explained the effect of spokes-character in a traditional setting. But when the spokes-character was used as the interactive agent, the model was inadequate in explaining the effect of the spokes-character. Therefore, we have concluded that a new theoretical framework might be needed to explain the effect of those interactive spokes-characters to the company or their products.

Key words: Spokes-characters, interactive agent, internet marketing.