Does Influencer Marketing Lead to Purchase? – a Study from the Consumer’S Perspective
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DOES INFLUENCER MARKETING LEAD TO PURCHASE? – A STUDY FROM THE CONSUMER’S PERSPECTIVE Examensarbete – Civilekonom Företagsekonomi Sharon Arzaghi Madeleine Holm 2020: VT2020CE12 Acknowledgments It has been very interesting to study this subject especially since influencer marketing is an expanding marketing strategy in today’s society. We would like to thank our supervisor Magnus Roos for guiding us through the entire process and always being available when needed. We would not have been able to do this without his commitment and encouragement. Furthermore, we would also like to thank our friends and family for their support throughout this entire process. Borås 2020-06-07 _________________________ _________________________ Sharon Arzaghi Madeleine Holm II Svensk titel: Leder influencer marketing till köp? En studie från konsumentens perspektiv Engelsk titel: Does influencer marketing lead to purchase? A study from the consumer’s perspective Utgivningsår: 2020 Författare: Sharon Arzaghi och Madeleine Holm Handledare: Magnus Roos Abstract Since the increased popularity of social media, new marketing strategies have been developed by companies and marketers in order to advertise more effectively. This has concluded in a new marketing strategy originated from celebrity endorsement, called influencer marketing, which is implied by various brands today and often used on the social media platform Instagram. Influencer marketing is a strategy where a brand invests in an individual who has a big influence over its followers, with the purpose to recommend a brand or a product. The issue however is that there are thousands of influencers, and companies have to be selective when choosing who to collaborate with. Furthermore, there are studies examining factors which have an effect on attitudes and purchase intention, but very few study purchase behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to study which factors of an influencer have an effect on consumers’ purchase behaviour. This will be done by examining commerciality, entertainment and factors included in source credibility towards purchase. There was also an interest to investigate if certain personality types of consumers were more prone to make a purchase. Because of this, extraversion and self-monitoring were also included in relation to purchase behaviour. Furthermore, two types of exposure will also be examined to see their effect on purchase. For this study a quantitative approach was applied with the use of a survey questionnaire which resulted in 524 valid answers. The results showed that commerciality, attractivity and similarity had a significant effect on purchase, whereas trustworthiness, knowledge and entertainment did not. Furthermore, personality traits are also a determinant factor as high levels of extraversion and self-monitoring show to have an impact on purchase. Lastly, purchase seems to increase if an individual spends more time on Instagram or follows more influencers, meaning exposure also had a significant effect. In conclusion, our results show clear differences in the dominating factors which have been previously researched towards purchase intention. Attractivity is the factor which has most influence over purchase, closely followed by commerciality. Keywords: Social media, influencer marketing, Instagram, Source credibility, purchase behaviour, entertainment, extraversion, commerciality, Self-monitoring III Sammanfattning Uppkomsten av sociala medier har förändrat människors sätt att söka och samla information. Detta har påverkat företags val av strategi för att nå ut till sina kunder på bästa möjliga sätt. Den strategi som kommit att bli dominerande bland företag på den sociala plattformen Instagram är influencer marketing. Denna strategi innebär att företag investerar i en individ som har stort inflytande över sina följare för att marknadsföra en viss produkt eller tjänst. Detta görs i syfte att påverka individens medvetenhet och uppfattning om företag men även dess köpintention för att potentiellt utföra ett köp. Influencer marketing innebär dock att en vanlig person utan att behöva vara känd kan ha ett stort inflytande över sina följare vilket resulterat i tusentals olika influensers. På grund av detta måste företag vara selektiva vid valet av influenser för att marknadsföringsstrategin ska vara effektiv. Tidigare studier har undersökt vilka faktorer som har en inverkan på individens attityd och köpintention men endast ett fåtal undersöker köpbeteende. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka faktorer av en influenser som påverkar konsumenters köpbeteende. Detta kommer att göras genom att studera faktorerna kommersialitet, underhållning och de faktorer som ingår i modellen source credibility gentemot köp. Studien syftar även till att undersöka om individer med en viss personlighet är mer benägna att utföra ett köp, därav inkluderades extraversion och self-monitoring i relation till köpbeteende. Vidare undersöks effekten av två typer av exponering i förhållande till köp. För studien användes en kvantitativ insamlingsmetod som bestod av en enkät där 524 giltiga svar samlades in. Resultaten visade att faktorerna kommersialitet, attraktivitet och likhet hade en signifikant effekt på köp. Däremot visade faktorerna trovärdighet, kunskap och underhållning ingen signifikant effekt. Från resultaten framgick det även att personlighetstyp är en avgörande faktor där hög grad av extraversion och self-monitoring har inverkan på köp. Dessutom uppvisar resultaten att köp ökar om en individ spenderar mer tid på Instagram eller om hen följer fler influensers, vilket innebär att exponering har en betydande effekt. Slutligen visar våra resultat tydliga skillnader avseende de dominerande faktorer som tidigare undersökts i relation till köp. Faktorn attraktivitet har störst inflytande över köp följt av kommersialitet. Nyckelord: Social media, influencer marketing, Instagram, Source credibility, köpbeteende, underhållning, extraversion, kommersialitet, Self-monitoring IV Table of content 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. - 1 - 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................ - 1 - 1.2 Problem formulation .......................................................................................................... - 1 - 1.3 Purpose ............................................................................................................................... - 2 - 1.4 Research questions and hypotheses .................................................................................... - 2 - 1.5 Delimitations ...................................................................................................................... - 3 - 1.6 Relevance of the subject ..................................................................................................... - 3 - 1.7 Thesis outline ..................................................................................................................... - 3 - 2 Previous research ........................................................................................................................ - 4 - 2.1 Social media ....................................................................................................................... - 4 - 2.2 Endorsement ....................................................................................................................... - 4 - 2.3 Influencer marketing .......................................................................................................... - 4 - 3 Theoretical framework ................................................................................................................ - 6 - 3.1 Source credibility ............................................................................................................... - 6 - 3.2 Advertising entertainment value ........................................................................................ - 6 - 3.3 Extraversion ....................................................................................................................... - 7 - 3.4 Self-monitoring .................................................................................................................. - 8 - 3.5 Exposure and context ......................................................................................................... - 8 - 4 Method ........................................................................................................................................ - 9 - 4.1 Research approach .............................................................................................................. - 9 - 4.2 Research method ................................................................................................................ - 9 - 4.3 Research design ................................................................................................................ - 10 - 4.4 Data collection .................................................................................................................. - 10 - 4.4.1 Primary & secondary data ............................................................................................ - 10 - 4.4.2 Sampling ...................................................................................................................... - 11 - 4.4.3 Survey .........................................................................................................................