Research on the Path of Short‑Video Content Narratives Shaping User Mental Models for DTC Health‑Consumption Brands

Abstract

Cross‑border DTC health‑consumption brands achieve global reach via short‑video platforms. Nevertheless, existing research prioritizes short‑term conversion, with scarce quantitative empirical studies examining how content narratives hierarchically shape brand mental models within the health‑product category. Integrating Narrative Transportation, S‑O‑R and multimodal semiotics theories, this paper constructs a chained mediation model: “short‑video narrative elements — narrative transportation — multi‑dimensional brand mental models”. Health self‑efficacy and cultural distance are introduced as moderators. Scenario‑based experiments, LDA text mining and PLS‑SEM are adopted for hypothesis testing based on 486 samples and 297 TikTok/Ins short‑video datasets of health‑focused DTC brands (Liu, L., & Deng, W. G., 2025). The results show that first‑person experience perspective, problem‑solution narrative structure and empirical‑evidence modality enhance narrative transportation, which plays a mediating role. Brand mental models are divided into three dimensions: cognition, affection and belonging, with distinct driving effects across narrative elements. Health self‑efficacy positively strengthens the path, while cultural distance exerts a negative moderating effect. Evidence‑based narratives reduce risk perception by 41.3% more significantly for dietary‑health products than for hedonic consumer goods; sensational‑emotion‑driven narratives aggravate product skepticism. This research fills theoretical gaps and delivers quantitative evidence for short‑video narrative design for cross‑border health brands.