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IMPACT OF INFLUENCER MARKETING

ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Project Guide: Prof. Vandana Bharadi

Submitted by: Manan Agarwal- G025

Submission Date: 8th April 2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The completion of this research paper would not have been possible without the participation,
guidance and assistance of so many people whose names have not been enumerated. Their
contributions are sincerely appreciated and gratefully acknowledged. However, we would like to
express our deep appreciation and indebtedness particularly to Ms. Vandana Bharadi who guided
us throughout the making of this research paper.

We would also like to express our gratitude to all our relatives, friends and others who in one
way or another helped us during the formulation of the report.

Thank You.
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ABSTRACT

A specific type of social media marketing, called influencer marketing, has gained traction in
recent years. In contrast to traditional marketing which focuses on the target market as a
whole, influencer marketing focuses on reaching influencers, individuals that have a strong
impact on potential buyers. Due to the digitalization consumers are becoming more educated as
media users and more critical of commercial messages. It is getting nearly impossible for brands
to stand out among the crowd of advertisers, why many turn into influencers. We are everyday
exposed to influencer marketing due to the digitalization, whether if we are aware of it or not.
Influencer marketing is an interesting phenomenon and both a very powerful and leading tool to
use when marketing.

This research has been conducted to study the influencer marketing effect on the purchase
behaviour of consumers. The main topics studied in this research are the most frequently visited
websites by consumers, the sites on which they are subscribed to and the perception about
influencers among the consumers. The research has been conducted by a close-ended, formalized
and unconcealed questionnaire. The questionnaire was an online survey, which was sent out to
the target population via Whatsapp and E-mail. There were a total of 48 respondents. Both
genders were taken into account for the purpose of analysis. 25 of the total respondents were
males and 23 were females. The respondents were between the age group of 16-24 years of age.

While males preferred Youtube as the most frequently visited site, females visited Instagram and
Youtube equally. Majority of male respondents were subscribed to some or the other page on
Instagram while the number of female respondents subscribed to Youtube and Instagram pages
were equal. From the research it can be inferred that males generally find out about new trends
on social media and majority of them agree that they sought online reviews before purchasing a
product. Same was the inference in the other gender too wherein the maximum number of
respondents agreed to finding about new trends on social media and purchasing a product after
finding online reviews for the same. Amongst the respondents quite a few strongly believed that
the reviews of peers are more trustworthy than those of influencer marketeers.
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INDEX

CHAPTER TOPIC PAGE

NUMBER NUMBER
Acknowledgement i

Executive Summary ii

1 Background
1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Literature Review 3

2 Research Methodology
2.1 Research Objectives 7

2.2 Research Design 7

2.3 Sampling Design

2.3.1 Target Population
8
2.3.2 Sample Method
8
2.3.3 Sample Size
9
2.4 Data Collection Method
2.4.1 Secondary Data 9
2.4.2 Primary Data 9
3 Findings 9

4 Limitation
5 Scope
6 Conclusion
7 References
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CHAPTER TABLE TITLE PAGE

NUMBER NUMBER
3 Table 3.1- Number of respondents

CHAPTER CHART TITLE PAGE

NUMBER NUMBER

3 Figure 3.1- Percentage of male and female

respondents
Figure 3.2- Age of respondents
Figure 3.3- Most frequently visited sites
Figure 3.4- Subscription of various sites
Figure 3.5- Respondents finding about new
trends on social media
Figure 3.6- Respondents seeking online
reviews before purchase
Figure 3.7- Respondents making decisions
based on online recommendations
Figure 3.8- Likeliness of trying a product
on recommendation of blogger
Figure 3.9- Peer Reviews v/s Company
Controlled Reviews
Figure 3.10- Do influencers have the
consumer’s best interests at heart
Figure 3.11- Influencers endorse a brand
that can harm consumers
Figure 3.12- Impact of influencer being paid
for endorsement on perception of
consumers
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CHAPTER 1- BACKGROUND

1.1 INTRODUCTION

In marketing there is always a new trendy buzz word and “influencer marketing” is a popular one
right now. Popular with good reason, as if done right, influencer marketing can have unparalleled
sales, growth and equity results for brands and generate unmatched ROI for marketing budgets.
Influencer marketing is simply the action of promoting and selling products or services through
people (influencers) who have the capacity to have an effect on the character of a brand.

Influencer marketing emphasises the use of influencers to drive a brand’s message to reach the
target segment (Smart Insights 2017). In the age of ubiquitous Internet, social media influencers
have emerged as a dynamic third party endorser (Freberg et al. 2011). Leveraging on a plethora
of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube, social media
influencers are aptly used to publicise product information and latest promotions to online
followers (Markethub 2016). Social media influencers typically engage with their followers by
regularly updating them with the latest information (Liu et al. 2012). This research aims to study
the consumer behaviour due to influencer marketing.

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individuals, groups and organisations select, buy, use
and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants (Kotler and
Keller, 2006).

Countless brands have engaged influencers in their attempts to reach out more consumers and
influence their purchasing behavior. These brands vary from small and not so famous ones, to
Gucci, Canon, KLM (Abidin, 2016). Multinational corporations (MNCs), government and
nongovernment (NGOs) organizations, education and political entities have realized the
extensive popularity and fame bloggers are gaining, and invite them for promoting causes or
raise publicity to their projects. Bloglovin' found that 63 percent of marketers have increased
their budgets for influencer marketing in 2017. This increase in budgets suggests that brands
understand the value of influencer marketing and how they can leverage it to boost their
performance.
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Influencer marketing has umpteen number of advantages. Influencers engage your target
audience through authentic storytelling. According to TapInfluence, 71.2 percent of influencers
feel that their honesty and sense of humor is what keeps their audience engaged. This is perhaps
why influencers are so good at creating authentic content about the brand they promote. An
engaged audience is much easier for brands to win over and convert to paying customers.

Brands always strive to win the hearts of consumers and create a positive brand image. So it's no
wonder they work with influencers to promote their brands because influencers can increase
positive brand sentiment. According to a RhythmOne study, influencer marketing programs that
lasted for two or more weeks resulted in an 8.73 percent lift in positive brand sentiment.
Another major benefit of influencer marketing is the return on investment it is able to yield. 71
percent of marketers in the study felt that influencer marketing helps them raise brand awareness
on social media. 67 percent have stated that it helps them reach a more targeted audience.
Influencer marketing helped advertisers generate $11.69 in EMV for every dollar they spend.

A survey conducted found that 39% of marketers will increase influencer marketing budgets
in 2018, with the majority planning to spend between $25,000 and $50,000, and most
reported plans to leverage a multi-faceted influencer strategy, a press release noted. The big
trends for 2018 include creating an integrated strategy where brands partner with influencers
to create content along with their in-house creatives, influencers creating their own brands,
localizing content, and brands using influencers as a boost for specific campaigns.The new
Linqia report highlights some of these trends: 52% of marketers reported plans to leverage
several different types of influencers in 2018, 44% plan to use influencer content to enhance
other digital channels’ performance, and 35% report plans to integrate influencer content
with e-commerce.

Influencer marketing is not a new concept. Since the past few years, it has become a hot topic for
marketers as they are eventually realizing how powerful influencer marketing is as compared to
traditional advertising which is quite expensive and inefficient. Thus, this topic has been chosen
for the research paper as influencer marketing is becoming an integral part of day to day business
operations.
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1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Title- The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Purchase Intention and the Mediation Effect of
Customer Attitude
Authors- Xin Jean Lim, Aifa Rozaini bt Mohd Radzol, Jun-Hwa Cheah (Jacky), Mun Wai Wong

Summary-
Social media influencers are first explored in the advertising field, particularly to
Create buzz in the younger markets and further expand social media coverage in
businesses. This study is designed to investigate the effectiveness of social media
Influencers, focusing on source credibility, source attractiveness, product match-up, and meaning
transfer. Consumer attitude is proposed to mediate between both the exogenous and endogenous
relationships.
Survey questionnaires were distributed to respondents for data collection. In this study, the
purposive sampling technique was adopted by selecting current public university students in
Malaysia. G-Power software calculated that the minimum sample size required for this study was
129 samples (Faul et al. 2007). Yet, in order to minimise errors in completing the questionnaires,
a total of 200 questionnaires were distributed. Respondents in this study comprised of 56.5%
females and 43.5% males, predominantly millennial (90%) whose ages werebetween 21-30 years
old. In terms of education level, 85.5% of the respondents possessed a basic degree, 8.0% with a
master education, and 4.50% currently had phd qualifications. The least in the distribution
accounted for a mere 2% which consisted students at diploma level.

Findings-
This study revealed the effects of source credibility, source attractiveness, product
Match-up, and meaning transfer on consumer’s attitude and purchase intention. Firstly, source
credibility of social media influencers was found to have an insignificant relationship with
attitude and purchase intention (h1and H2 were rejected). In this study, respondents
acknowledged social media influencers' lack of credibility towards the product that they
endorsed. The main reason was identified as social media influencers' inadequate expertise
knowledge about the endorsed product. Similarly, Evans (2013) discovered that endorsers who
were beyond their respective expertise fields could indirectly impair consumers’ perceived
images, causing 30ultimate negative purchase intentions. From consumers' perspectives, it was
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challenging for them to exert positive attitude towards social media influencers' credibility,
especially with unsocial media influencers who were completely unaffiliated with the
information that they shared.
Secondly, source attractiveness of social media influencers failed to influence consumers'
purchase intention (H3 was rejected). The result was consistent with a prior study by Ohanian
(1991), which revealed that source of attractiveness did not have any impact on consumers'
purchase intention. Parallel to Obanian's study, Till and Busler (1998) also argued that
attractiveness is not a powerful dimension to generate purchase behavior due to a substantially
weak logical link between an attractive endorser and purchasing intention. Despite the failure of
social media influencers' attractiveness to influence purchase intention, the influencers
Remained significant to stimulate respondents' positive attitude (H4).

Title- The Impact of Influencers on Online Purchase Intent

Authors- Lisichkova, Nadezhda Othman, Zeina

Summary-

By incorporating social network information into influence strategies and marketing design, the
brands and marketers make it possible to diminish unused resources and simultaneously achieve
bigger sales (Galeotti & Goyal, 2009). One of the places where such strategy is used are the
blogs- places on the internet, where different people publish and share experiences, stories, 3
pictures, opinions on products and services, with their popularity grown rapidly in the last
yearsdue to them actually offering information in a synthesized and quite well functional form
(Akritidis, Katsaros & Bozanis, 2011).

The purpose of this study was to research the features that an influencer possesses or should
possess and their impact on online purchase intent for consumers. The reason for this exploration
was to identify and gain understanding into how influencers are managing to affect the online
purchasing intent of the consumers. Therefore, this thesis by combining influencers marketing
and online purchase intent in one framework aims at answering the following research question:
What are the main features of influencers that have an impact on consumers’ online purchase
intent?
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The thesis blends two areas, influencers in influencer contemporary marketing, and online
purchase intent. But understanding if there is a connection between influencers and the online
purchase intent of the consumers appears to be connected with what actual features these
influencers have, and how they are perceived by their peers.

For this thesis the researchers will begin with a pre-study using an inductive approach to obtain
knowledge as basic foundation to the theoretical selection. After addressing the theories, new
empirical data will be gathered in an abductive manner through conducting focus group
interviews.

Findings-
There are many reasons to why the participants follow influencers. The participants listed
inspiration, motivation, entertainment, keeping up with the latest news, or because of interest in
the products the influencers use and advertise, and the content produced, as well as the potential
future lifestyle that some consumers want to have and resemble to.

The majority of the interviewees care about the values and the principles of the influencers, this
is a reason as to why they like them and follow them. Probably this is due to the fact that the
consumers want to follow people who resemble them, or who they might want to be in the
future, as they said are acting as inspiration. Both personal and focus group interviews revealed
that online purchasing intent is influenced by various factors. Whenever the influencer
recommends a product that highly fits with the consumer need, purpose and interest, the higher is
the purchasing intention for buying that product.

Title- youtubers’ impact on viewers’ buying behavior

Author(s)- Lepistö, Emmi-Julia Vähäjylkkä, Miina

Summary-

The research aims to understand youtubers' influence on their viewers' buying behavior. In
addition to answering the research questions, the study aimed to provide dignified information
for youtubers themselves by exploring viewers' recommendations for them. To find explanations
and reasons for viewers' buying behavior, the study carried out qualitative approach by
conducting eight interviews with the most influential target group, 16 to 23-year-olds.
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Findings-

Although the results provided valuable information, the respondents partly struggled with
identifying youtubers' true influence as some of it works on a subconscious level, which is often
unknown to the viewer. Freud explains that it is because of not knowing their motivation for the
purchases (Armstrong & Kotler 2003, 202). As can be seen in the results, majority (75 percent)
of the respondents had purchased a product recommended by a youtuber. Even though the
sample in the research was small, the percentage indicates that youtubers do have an impact
when it comes to their viewers’ buying behavior and on a large scale. These purchases had been
made based on the youtuber’s own marketing rather than commercialized content, which is a
valuable information for youtubers due to its effectiveness. Reason to this finding may be that
viewers do not trust commercialized content and that they value the youtuber’s own opinion
more, which again indicates to the trust they have in the youtuber. Youtubers’ influence can be
seen not only in their videos but in other social media channels as the findings showed.
Instagram turned out to be one of the popular channel within the respondents as Instagram is
popular amongst younger generation. Instagram is also a source for different type of inspiration
that the viewers can get through shared pictures and video clips.

Title- Influencer Marketing as a Marketing Tool

Author- Sofie Biaudet

Summary-

Due to the digitalization consumers are becoming more educated as media users and more
critical of commercial messages. It is getting nearly impossible for brands to stand out among the
crowd of advertisers, why many turn into Influencer marketing. It is the most important new
approach to marketing in a decade for those professionals at the leading edge of purchasing
decision-making, because the built in level of trust between influencer and reader is essentially
impossible for a brand to build alone with the customer. The purpose of this study is to
understand why companies should use influencer marketing as a marketing tool and to know the
process of creating an influencer marketing campaign on Instagram. The qualitative study is
based on a semi-structured interview with the Co-founder and CEO of the Finnish influencer
marketing agency Monochrome to get a deeper understanding in the subject. The discussed
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themes were influencer marketing in general and the process of influencer marketing campaigns.
The research is mainly based on existing data that is found on the Internet in forms of articles
and online books, but there will also be data from textbooks regarding the topic. In addition to
the findings of the literature study, the researcher gains qualitative data by arranging a semi-
structured interview with the Finnish social media Influencer Marketing agency Monochrome.

Findings-

The results indicate that influencer marketing on Instagram can be described as a logical process,
and that the built in level of trust between influencer and reader is essentially impossible for a
brand to build alone with the consumer, which is a very strong argument for answering why a
company should use influencer marketing as a marketing tool. Parts of the result are
demonstrated with a diagram, to show the steps of the campaign process. This completed thesis,
along with the theoretical framework, can be used as a practical guide for companies that want to
implement influencer marketing into their marketing strategy.

CHAPTER 2- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

2.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

Research design provides an overall direction for the collection and analysis of data of a study
(Churchill 1979).

A descriptive research has been conducted where detailed information about whether influencer
marketing affects consumer’s purchase behavior. This has been analyzed by quantitative
technique through a web-page survey. The main focus is on the consumer behavior regarding the
various influencer marketing techniques in the market and deals with the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of
research, rather than the ‘why’ of research. It answers the characteristics of the problem.
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Quantitative Research has been used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical
data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics. The inferences made, are on the basis
of conclusions from the primary data. This research will quantify the behavior of the consumers
and will enumerate the reasons as to how does influencer marketing affect them.

Primary data is also backed up with secondary data collected from various sources like research
papers, articles.

Under descriptive design, single cross-sectional study was used for collecting primary data from
the respondents. Single cross sectional design refers to collection of data from only one segment
of the population only once at a particular period of time. Further, a formalized and unconcealed
questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument and was distributed to the customers of
the smartphone industry. A formalized questionnaire refers to a structured questionnaire where
same questions are asked in the same order and most questions are close ended. An unconcealed
questionnaire is one in which the purpose of the research is known to the respondent. Social
media platforms like Whatsapp and E-mails, were used to circulate the questionnaire.

2.3 SAMPLING DESIGN

2.3.1 TARGET POPULATION

Target population is the group of individuals that the researcher is interested in collecting the
information from. In this research, the targeted population is ranging from 16 to 24 years of age
in Mumbai

2.3.2 SAMPLE METHOD

A sample is defined as a subset of the population, which comprises of some elements of the
population that represents the population and is selected to collect the information in the
research.

This research uses Non Probability Sampling Method. Under this, convenience sampling has
been used. Convenience sampling is used to obtain information quickly and inexpensively.
Under this, samples are chosen at random without giving equal chances to all the individuals of
being selected.
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2.3.3 SAMPLE SIZE

A total of 48 respondents have been surveyed out of which 25 were males and 23 females. All
respondents were in the age group of 16-24 years of age.

2.4 DATA COLLECTION METHOD

2.4.1 SECONDARY DATA

Secondary data is that information which is not topical or research specific and has been
collected and compiled by some other researcher for the purpose other than the research work in
hand.

The secondary data referred to in this research comprises of reports, newspaper articles and
business magazine articles. The secondary data has been used for the background, literature
review and conclusion.

2.4.2 PRIMARY DATA

Primary data is original, problem or project specific and collected for the specific objectives and
needs to be spelt out by the researcher.

The primary data collected in this research uses Quantitative data collection instrument, which is
collected through the help of a survey. An online survey was conducted for this research with all
closed ended questions. The questionnaire was distributed among the respondents via a social
networking app- Whatsapp and E-mail.
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CHAPTER 3- FINDINGS

DEMOGRAPHICS-

Out of the 48 respondents who use social media regularly

Figure 3.1- Percentage of male and female respondents

Gender Male Female

Number of Respondents 25 23

Table 3.1- Number of respondents

Out of all the 48 respondents, majority were male i.e. 25 in number while the others were all
females i.e. 23.

Age of respondents-
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Figure 3.2- Age of respondents

In this research, the targeted population is ranging from 17 to 23 years of age in Mumbai
including both males and females.

ANALYSIS-

People were asked to choose the most frequently visited websites by them

Figure 3.3- Most frequently visited sites

Most of the male respondents that is 22 marked YouTube as the most frequently visited website
while the female respondents marked YouTube and Instagram equal in terms of frequently
visited website, that is 19 of them agreed to this. Male respondents gave second preference to
Instagram followed by Facebook and a minority of them agreed to be frequently visiting some
blogs as well. In case of females, they also preferred Facebook after Instagram and YouTube.
Minority of them also marked blogs and other websites like Netflix as frequently visited. This
shows that majority of people visit YouTube and Instagram.

Subscription to celebrity accounts

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On which of the following sites are you subscribed to or follow a celebrity or other popular
accounts

Figure 3.4- Subscription of various sites

Even though the male respondents marked Youtube as the most frequently visited website,
Majority of them, that is 20 of them agreed to be following more number of celebrities and
influencers on Instagram. 14 out of the 25 followed influencers on YouTube too, while very few
of them that is 7 agreed to be subscribed to celebrity accounts on Facebook and only 1 and 5
follow blogs and twitter celebs respectively. While in the case of females, they were again
indifferent to subscription of celebrities on Youtube and Instagram that is 17 of them agreed to
have subscribed on both the sites. Their next preference for following influencers was Facebook
that is almost 9 of them followed influencers on Facebook. While minority of them that is 2 and
3 of them follow influencers through blogs and twitter respectively.
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Respondent’s view on following statements

Finding new trends on social media

Figure 3.5- Respondents finding about new trends on social media

14 of the 25 males agreed that they find new trends on social media while 7 of them strongly
agreed to this.

A few of them didn’t agree or disagree on this statement while of a minority of 3 males disagreed
to finding new trends on social media. Female respondents also had almost the same reviews for
the statement. 15 of 23 agreed to finding about new trends on social media. While a minority of
them that is 1 strongly disagreed to the above statement while 5 of them strongly agreed on it.
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Seeking out online reviews before purchasing

Figure 3.6- Respondents seeking online reviews before purchase

Most of the male respondents, 13 in number, agreed to checking online reviews before making a
purchase decision while 7 of them strongly agreed that they checked online reviews before
making any purchase. 2 of the male respondents disagreed along with 2 others who strongly
disagreed to the statement. In the case of females, they also showed familiar behavior, that is 11
of them agreed while 4 of them strongly agreed to seeking online reviews before making any
purchase decision. Only 3 of 23 females neither disagreed nor disagreed about seeking reviews
before making a purchase.
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Considering online recommendations

Figure 3.7- Respondents making decisions based on online recommendations

Majority of males, 11 in number agreed while around 4 strongly agreed to making purchases
based on online recommendations. 5 out of 25 were not sure and neither agreed nor disagreed to
that. Very few, 3 and 2 respondents disagreed and strongly disagreed respectively, to making
purchases based on online recommendations. Females had a bit different point of view with most
of them that is 9 of them neither agreed nor disagreed, while 8 and 1 agreed and strongly agreed
respectively to the above statement. Minority of total 5 disagreed and strongly disagreed to
buying based on online recommendations.
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Influence of bloggers/online personalities

Figure 3.8- Likeliness of trying a product on recommendation of blogger

Most of the males agreed to trying brands recommended by favorite bloggers that is 7 of them
agreed to it while 4 strongly agreed to it. Some of them, that is 6 of them didn’t agree or
disagree. While 5 of them disagreed and 3 of them strongly disagreed to the statement. In case of
females, majority of them agreed, that is15 of 23 out of the total respondents, to trying the brand
suggested by their favorite blogger, While 7 of them disagreed and 3 of them strongly disagreed
to trying out products suggested even by their favorite bloggers.

If we assign values to strongly disagree as 1, disagree to 2, neither agree nor disagree as 3, agree
as 4 and strongly agree as 5-

From the above statements, we have found that the mean of people finding new trends on social
media is 4.02, that is majority agrees to finding new trends on social media. Both male and
female have shown almost similar behavior and have agreed to finding all the new trends on
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social media. In case of seeking reviews, the mean of respondents is 3.7 that is most of them
agree to actively seeking online reviews before purchasing while a lot of them are not sure and
neither agree nor disagree to seeking online reviews. Both male and female showed almost
similar behavior although females disagreed more compared to males. In case of purchases based
on online recommendations, the mean is 3.33 that is most of the people have neither agreed nor
disagreed on making purchases based on online recommendations but the number of people who
agreed is more than disagreed overall. In this case males agreed more to making purchases based
on online recommendations than females. The mean is 3.02 when asked if they would try a brand
recommended by their favorite bloggers, which shows that respondents could agree or disagree
on this statement, although it can be seen that women agree more when it comes to trying brand
suggested by their favorite influencers.

Perceptions about online influencers-

Figure 3.9- Peer Reviews v/s Company Controlled Reviews

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Figure 3.10- Do influencers have the consumer’s best interests at heart

Figure 3.11- Influencers endorse a brand that can harm consumers

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Figure 3.12- Impact of influencer being paid for endorsement on perception of consumers
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CHAPTER 4- LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY

1. The findings are based entirely upon the research conducted in Mumbai and hence may not be
applicable to other cities.

2. Due to time and resource constraints only 48 respondents were surveyed- which might not be
an exact representation of the population.

3. There are many other factors in digital and social media which affects consumer behavior but
due to time constraints only one aspect has been covered.

4. The data collected is from the people in the age group of 16-24 years hence other segments of
the population have not been studied.

CHAPTER 5- SCOPE

The research entitled Impact of Influencer Marketing on Consumer Behavior is in the literal
sense about how influencer marketing is used by brands to influence the purchase behavior,
patterns of buying and what factors induce them to take those decisions. Marketeers look for
someone with a lot of followers and pay them to advertise a product.

Tools used for the research are majorly surveys and analysis based on the secondary data
collected from various certified papers and journals.

This research is done to find quantitatively, the impact of influencer marketing on the buying
behavior of individuals and the general perception people hold about influencers.

CHAPTER 6- CONCLUSION
Influencer marketing is slowly but steadily replacing the conventional concepts of
advertising. Online bloggers, YouTubers these days serve as excellent influencers. From small
business establishments to multinational companies nowadays intelligently make use of bloggers
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and Youtubers to market their products. What the advertisers want here is not a sales boom, but a
positive online presence.

Brands are recognizing that influencers help in leveraging the exposure of the company’s
product and can increase brand recognition as a result of consumers leaning on these reviews to
make their purchasing decisions. The continued widespread adoption of influencer marketing
shows that the channel is becoming an integral part of the marketing mix. Currently, Instagram
and Facebook are the preferred social channels for influencer marketing.

The most frequently visited site amongst the people is Youtube and Instagram with the
percentage of females using Instagram regularly is more than men. Amongst the male gender,
88% of them visited Youtube most often, while 83% of the females visited Youtube and
Instagram each. The respondents subscribed to Instagram pages the most with 80% males and
74% females doing the same.

Majority of the respondents agreed that they found out about new trends on social media and
sought for online reviews before buying a product. The respondents of the survey agreed that the
peer reviews are more trustworthy. Only a handful of the respondents agreed to the fact that
influencers always have the consumer’s best interests at heart.
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CHAPTER 7- REFERENCES

Emmi-Julia Lepistö et al., YouTubers’ impact on viewers’ buying behavior, 2017

Lisichkova et al., The Impact of Influencers on Online Purchase Intent, 2017

Sofie Biaudet, Influencer Marketing as a Marketing Tool, 2017

Xin Jean Lim et al., The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Purchase Intention and the
Mediation Effect of Customer Attitude, Asian Journal of Business Research, 2017

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/global-yodel/what-is-influcner-marketing_b_10778128.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/11/14/what-is-influencer-
marketing-and-how-can-marketers-use-it-effectively/#77ff424323d1

https://www.inc.com/shane-barker/why-influencer-marketing-has-become-a-powerful-weapon-
for-brands.html

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/study-39-of-marketers-will-increase-influencer-
marketing-budgets-in-2018/512178/