关键词: KOC营销, 乡村旅游地, 消费行为, AISAS模型, 效果阶层模型

Abstract: In recent years, people have become more inclined to independently search for topics and things of interest on social media, and even complete consumption through sharing the consumption experience of others and live streaming sales. Many tourism companies choose to use social media for online marketing, achieving more convenient, rapid, and direct satisfaction of personalized needs of tourists, and achieving impressive results. Among them, KOC (Key Opinion Consumer), as a grassroots opinion leader, has become an effective means of rapid marketing and promotion of enterprise products. However, many rural tourism destinations are unable to effectively evaluate the marketing effectiveness of KOCs when exploring various marketing combinations of social media, or cannot determine which link in the KOC marketing process has led to an increase in tourists visiting rural tourism destinations. The uncertainty and contingency of this investment cannot guarantee steady sales growth. So, what kind of KOCs should rural tourism destinations choose, and what marketing strategies and steps should be formulated to significantly improve the attractiveness of rural tourism destinations?
   In this situation, analyzing the factors that affect tourist consumption behavior under the KOC marketing model will become the key for many rural tourism destinations to choose KOCs, and also an important reference for them to choose which marketing method. However, there is currently relatively little research in the academic community on KOC as a new marketing method. Therefore, this article takes the rural tourism industry as the research entry point, analyzes the impact of KOC marketing on the consumption behavior of rural tourism tourists, explores the impact of KOC marketing strategies on rural tourism revenue, and provides effective reference or guidance for rural tourism marketing managers in their marketing strategies on social media platforms. This fills the gap in KOC marketing lacking theoretical support and also in research on social media marketing strategies in rural tourism scenarios, and provides theoretical support for tourism consumption behavior based on new marketing scenarios.
Based on the network characteristics of KOC marketing, this study selects the “AISAS” model for analyzing online tourist behavior and the classic model in the field of advertising marketing—the hierarchy of effect models (HOE), as the main theoretical basis, to construct a theoretical model for the impact of KOC marketing on the consumption behavior of rural tourist destinations. The study uses SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 for data analysis and finds that in the KOC marketing process, six factors, including relevance, comments, quality, personal charm, promotion, and KOC’s online activity, can significantly and positively affect tourists’ attention and interest in rural tourism destinations. The positive emotions of tourists will significantly affect their search, purchase, and sharing behavior towards rural tourism destinations. However, the interaction between KOCs and tourists does not significantly enhance their positive emotions, and excessive interaction may actually have a negative impact.
So, what kind of interaction can promote tourists to generate positive emotions? In this study, 10 consumers who have purchased products through KOC marketing are interviewed, and the results show that the intimacy between consumers and KOCs determines what kind of interaction frequency or method KOCs should choose. The intimacy of relationships can be divided into three categories: strong relationships, moderate strength relationships, and weak relationships. Under strong relationships, KOCs and fans have strong stickiness, and frequent interactions can bring very stable and positive emotions. Under moderate intensity relationships, KOCs need to focus on the product itself, reduce unnecessary interactions, and directly promote consumption by cutting to the theme. Under weak relationships, KOCs can make passersby feel cared for at all times through patient and meticulous explanations, timely and warm replies, etc., thereby generating a sense of goodwill and trust, and thereby amplifying their purchase intention.
Finally, for the limitations and prospects of the research, the theoretical model of this study is constructed in the order of “cognition emotion behavior”, which may not necessarily cover real consumption scenarios. In the future, this study can exchange cognitive and emotional variables for analysis, which may lead to more comprehensive and convincing results. Moreover, the questionnaire will be distributed to more online samples in the future to obtain more representative and reliable data.

Key words: KOC marketing, rural tourism destinations, consumer behavior, AISAS model, effect hierarchy model