Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to address the pressing question: among university students in the United States, whether or not do increased consumption of influencer contents indeed lead to more active actions such as purchasing decisions? Being the latest marketing apparatus, scholarships from both academia and industries are genuinely intrigued and fascinated by influencer marketing. Yet, due to factors such as inconsistent analytical approaches across platforms, unreliable/poor data, and immature measurement capabilities, the true effectiveness level of influencer marketing has on consumer remained an unsolved puzzle. Thereby, this paper utilized a survey and its findings to elucidate the point that increased consumption of influencer contents do not generate more related transactions of the products/services.

Keywords: influencer, influencer marketing, digital marketing, social media marketing

Consumption of Influencer Contents and Actions

Ever since the explosive proliferation of a series of online platforms in the late 1990s (among which social media or Social Networking Sites are the most pervasive and prominent), the digital sphere has deeply embedded in and intertwined with our life. The rapid expansion and swift development have overwhelmed us and altered our life. Within the framework of the digital ecosystem, the practices of marketing have evolved exceptionally and exponentially. This is mainly because we as audiences are not easily convinced nor manipulated as before since the Internet streamlined information gathering processes and consequently broaden our knowledge.

Consequently, a new phenomenon in the E-marketing scene has emerged, known as Influencer marketing. In the social media context, Influencer marketing refers to the practices of partnering with influencers, who have the ability to generate interest in something by posting relative contents on social media particularly given their specific knowledge, skills, experiences, and characteristics, to attract and convert the influencer’s loyal audiences. This new form of marketing has been argued to be the most influential and effective in today’s environment. Therefore, more and more agencies and companies quickly adapted to this reality by utilizing increasing percentages of their marketing budget on sponsoring influencer content. Nowadays, influencer marketing has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Nevertheless, unlike conventional marketing methods and practices, the effectiveness of influencer marketing has been proved to be challenging to measure with over 65% of marketers reported having difficulties measuring campaign Return on Investment (ROI). This is mainly due to factors such as inconsistent analytical approaches across platforms, unreliable/poor data, immature measurement capabilities because of the sheer scale of social media.

In more common terms, marketers and social media strategist are facing challenges of delivering measurable ROIs with influencer contents. Thereby, this paper aims at exploring and testing the true correlation between influencer marketing and consumer behavior. More specifically, we will be inspecting that among university students in the United States, whether or not do increased consumption of influencer contents indeed lead to more active actions such as purchasing decisions.

Literature Review

Without a doubt, influencer marketing is the fastest-growing tactic and strategy within the realm of digital marketing (aka E-marketing). Over the last several years, the utilization of such methods as the major force of their marketing endeavors has become prevailing for companies in all industries. By the same token, scholars are intrigued by such proliferation and began to institute investigations into studying it extensively.

One definitive vital attribute of being an influencer is its ability to generate trust, which is typically achieved through one’s proficiency in certain fields that will correspondingly attract and accumulate audiences who trust the influencer as if they are personal friends (Kemp, Mcdougal, & Syrdal, 2018). Trust is an arduous thing to come by in today’s atmosphere.

Relevance is yet another distinct quality that molded influencer marketing’s prevalence over other methods. Brand’s top priority when seeking prospective influencers to partner up with is to find someone whose expertise and audience are in alignment with the products they are trying to promote. In other words, only through the credibility of the influencer’s areas of expertise that are complementing to marketing campaigns, the model would function as desired (Kietzmann, Hermkens, Mccarthy, & Silvestre, 2011).

All of the above studies are instances where scholars and experts are actively establishing a discourse in an attempt to not only comprehend the knowledge but also more importantly, establish training and encourage learning of such marketing skills as it is particularly in demand for all industries regardless of domains and sizes. Moreover, it is also an attempt to truly assess and evaluate the effectiveness and affordances of such practices.

For instance, in his study of the impact of influencer marketing on consumer behavior, the author conducted a survey with a sample size of 200 and concluded that though influencer contents have minimal measurable effects on consumer’s purchasing decisions, nonetheless, it is still surprising efficient at reaching a large audience that extends beyond the influencer’s audience for they tend to share and recommend (Bognar Z.B. et al, 2019).

In addition, platforms on which the contents are being uploaded and disseminated plays an important role too. The effectiveness level of influencer marketing is largely depending on the platforms which in terms is determined by the product types. Beauty and fashion products/services contents have deluged on Instagram while technology and business-related content flourished on YouTube (Kemp, Mcdougal, & Syrdal, 2018).

Methods

Participants

Participants in this study included 103 currently enrolled or recently graduated university students in the United States, with their classification ranging from freshmen to graduate students. Though it should be noted that the vast majority (84%) of participants are currently attending or recently graduated from universities located in the state of California. Participants included 36 males and 65 females between the ages of 18 and 30. Two entrant did not input data with regard to their gender. 80 % of the total participants reported being Asian or Asian Americans (excluding native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander). All participants in this study were volunteers who were given the link to the survey. Participants who did not complete the entirety of the survey or did not agree on the consent form (n=22) were excluded.

Materials

Informed consent forms clearly outlined the benefits, risks, and the procedures of the survey were given to each participant. In addition, the purpose of the study and contact information of the researcher were also available. Participants responded to survey questions using a variety of semantic differential scale (e.g. from 1= “Daily” to 5= “Never”, 1= “Definitely Yes” to 5= “Definitely Not”, 1= “Less than half an hour” to 4= “Two hours one minutes and more”, 1= “Always” to 5= “Never”) and Likert scale (e.g. from 1= “Strongly agree” to 7= “Strongly disagree”, 1= “Prefer a great deal” to 5= “Do not prefer”).

Design and Procedure

The research design of this study was non-experimental and correlational as it studied the relationship between increased consumption of influencer contents and consumer actions. The dependable variable in the study was consumer’s post-consumption of influencer contents such as performing information searches, recognizing needs, and purchasing decisions. Upon clicking on the anonymous link to the online survey which the researcher distributed via multiple channels such as Facebook groups, personal chats, group chats and so on; the participants were asked to carefully read the consent form followed by selecting whether or not they agree to proceed. Afterwards, the participants were asked about their basic demographic questions such as their sex, age, race, education level, and their school. Then, the research briefly illustrated the concept of influencer in the context of social media followed by the core of the survey, which was a series of 11 questions asking the participants to reflect upon their daily consumption of influencer contents on social media platforms and then chose the options that best describes their actions and/or feelings as openly and truthfully as possible. Finally, the researcher asked the participants to list some of their favorite influencers on social media should they desire to do so. After the surveys were completed, the participants were greeted with a thank-you note which listed the researcher’s contact yet again and also the researcher’s personal website where the research will be posted once it is completed.

Qualtrics was used to generate, distribute, and record the survey while IBM SPSS Statistics software was used to further process and analyzed the data. Statistical analysis chosen to analyzed the data includes one-sample T-test, bivariate correlation test, and calculations of indicators such as mean and standard deviation.

Findings

Based on the sample (n=99), when asked in regard to after consuming influencer contents, participants reported their likelihood of purchasing the products/services promoted or mentioned by the influencer on a Likert scale of 1= “Always”, 2= “Most of the time”, 3= “Half the time”, 4= “Sometimes”, and 5= “Never”. The mean of the sample was M=3.78 with a standard deviation of SD=0.84. While a histogram of such sample distribution revealed that it has a negative skew (Figure 1). In addition, a one-sample T-test was conducted to determine if a statistically significant difference existed between purchasing decisions after watching influencer contents from the sample used in this study and the general population. Sample university students in the study reported similar frequency of purchasing perspective products promoted by influencer contents (M=3.78, SD=0.84) compared to university students in the United States in general, t (98) = [44.76], p= [0.00]. (Figure 2)

By the same token, when the same sample was asked if they prefer the product promoted/mentioned by the influencer when deciding between two or more similar products using a Likert scale of 1= “Strongly agree”, 2= “Agree”, 3= “Somewhat agree”, 4= “Neither agree nor disagree”, 5= “Somewhat disagree”, 6= “Disagree”, and 7= “Strongly disagree”. The observed mean was M=2.9 with a standard deviation of SD=1.27 (See figure 3)

A bivariate correlation test was computed to assess the relationship between consumption time of influencer contents and purchasing decisions of relative products/services promoted or mentioned by the influencer. There was a negative correlation between the two variables [r= -0.046, n= 99, p= 0.677] (Figure 4). Similarly, a bivariate correlation test was calculated to determine the relationships between consumption time of influencer contents and preferences towards the ones that has been endorsed by influencers when deciding between two or more similar products. There was a negative correlation between the two variables [r= -0.126, n=99, p= 0.047] (Figure 5).

Another two Pearson correlation tests were instituted to determine the relationships between demographic variables and the independent variable of influencer contents consumption time. The results were there are negative correlations for both the Age demographic variable [r= -1.000, n=101, p= 0.360] (Figure 6) and the Race demographic variable [r= -0.093, n=91, p=0.393] (Figure 7).

Discussion

Based on the results which are based on the sample that I gathered, it can be concluded that increased consumption of influencer contents do not lead to more consumer actions. More specifically, there was a negative correlation of r= -0.046 exists. That is to say, according to participant’s self-reported behaviors, it is not the quantity (i.e. the amount of the time spent on consuming contents) that are affecting one’s purchasing decisions. Such results are in alignment with the biggest challenge in the realm of influencer marketing currently: delivering measurable ROI. Nevertheless, according to the calculations listed above, among the sample students, a vast majority of them did report purchasing products that has been promoted by influencer more than half the time but less than sometimes (M= 3.78). What that entailed is the fact that from a marketing perspective, such tactics and methods are among the most effective since the content itself does stimulate transactions more than what conventional means could ever imagine.

Furthermore, an interesting insight derived from this research was the fragmentation of time among the sample. 61% of the participants reported that they consume influencer content on a daily basis while over 70% of the overall participants stated that they spend less than an hour consuming influencer contents in a typical day (Figure 8). This demonstrated that even though influencer contents are so pervasive that it constitutes a portion of the participant’s daily life, they only spend a small fragment of their time to consume. Thus, in order to plan and execute strategic, efficient and effective influencer marketing campaigns, one should post relative contents as frequent as possible while having the capacity to attract audience’s attention in the least amount of time possible and the overall length of the content should be easily digestible within half an hour.

Additionally, another significant indicator can be drawn from the sample. As listed above, when asked regarding preference between the product that has been endorsed by influencers and other products, participants’ preferences generally lean towards influencers (M= 2.9). Such findings revealed social media influencer’s strategic advantages over celebrities. As I elucidated before, because of relevance and knowledge, audiences are extremely loyal towards and particularly trust in influencers.

Conclusion

The research was carried out in an attempt to answer the question of among university students in the United States, whether or not do increased consumption of influencer contents indeed leads to more active actions such as purchasing decisions. Based on the survey findings, we can conclude that the consumption time of influencer contents have insignificant impacts on consumers/audience’s purchasing decisions. In other words, increased consumption of such contents do not generate more related transactions of the products/services. However, the findings also suggested that influencers still have a noteworthy level of efficacy towards consumer’s behaviors and actions.

Nevertheless, some confounding variables might exert influence on the study. Namely, the sample size of 103 is not adequate and sufficient enough while 65% of participants being female signified that the results were heavily biased towards their perspectives.

Lastly, for future studies of the same or similar subject, a larger and more diverse sample is strongly suggested in order to generate more impactful and valid results. Unless one were to conduct studies on specific target audience groups in order to form more strategic marketing plans leveraging the power of influencers. Such study and observation also manifested a rapidly maturing industry which in terms signified that scholarly researches like this are vital.

References:

Bognar, Z. B., Puljic, N. P., Kadezabek, D. (2018). Impact of Influencer marketing on consumer behavior. 42nd International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development.

Kemp, A., Mcdougal, E. R., & Syrdal, H. (2018). The Matchmaking Activity: An Experiential Learning Exercise on Influencer Marketing for the Digital Marketing Classroom. Journal of Marketing Education, 41 (2), 141-153. doi: 10.1177/027347531880341

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., Mccarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241–251. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005