Purpose
Digitalization in marketing activities has made it easier for people to make purchase decision. This platform encourages every firm to optimize digitalization as part of its marketing ...strategy. Optimization of attractive digital marketing involves advertising attractiveness, influencer marketing and online customer reviews. This study aims to investigate advertising attractiveness, influencer marketing and online customer reviews on purchase decision.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted with a quantitative approach. A total of 120 respondents were involved in this study by using convenience sampling techniques in data collection. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results of the study show that influencer marketing and online customer reviews have an impact on online purchase decision. Meanwhile, advertising attractiveness does not show any influence on purchase decision.
Practical implications
Despite the start-ups have modified the website by increasing the content to make it more informative, it seems that customers are not interested in making a purchase. Therefore, notwithstanding the role of website attractiveness, the use of physical attractiveness is still considered an effective way to encourage customers to make purchasing decisions. In this way, a firm needs to make adjustments between the customers' personality, lifestyle and attitudes and endorsers.
Originality/value
This study developed previous empirical studies which a positive relationship between advertising attractiveness, influencer marketing, online customer reviews and purchase decision. The development of the model was carried out by elaborating variable indicators. In addition, the source of increasing credibility was not based on physical attractiveness, but rather emphasizes the website quality.
Despite marketers increasing interest in influencer marketing, selecting the right influencer(s) for such campaigns remain a challenge. The success of any marketing strategy can simply be attributed ...to its ability to achieve desired objectives. Hence, to advise brands, the present study examines the role of influencer credibility and influencer-brand congruence in impacting the brand's two main goals of conducting influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram, i.e., brand attitude and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention. This research intends to recommend which factors brands should consider while selecting influencer(s) for their marketing campaigns on Instagram. A survey using a self-administered questionnaire was performed on 383 Instagram users. Data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. The findings indicate that expertise, similarity, and congruence have a positive relationship with brand attitude. While expertise, trustworthiness, and similarity have a positive relationship with users' intention to engage in eWOM. The current study also offers theoretical and managerial implications.
Fueled by the rise of social media, internet celebrities (or influencers) are a subgroup of public figures who have gained extreme public attention in recent years. In this study, we examined the ...qualities of finance knowledge influencers to elucidate the impact that investment discussions or tutorials posted by influencers have on followers' and audiences' investment willingness. We adopted attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness as the independent variables, followers' risk tolerance as the moderator, and followers' investment willingness as the dependent variable. For data collection, respondents were instructed to watch three different influencer videos and complete a questionnaire. A total of 327 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The questionnaire survey results showed that influencers' attractiveness expertise, and trustworthiness positively affected followers' investment willingness. Furthermore, followers' risk tolerance negatively moderates the relationship between influencer attractiveness and investment willingness, but it positively moderates the relationship between influencer trustworthiness and investment willingness. The empirical findings of this study theoretically contribute to academics and have practical implications in the real world. We propose several suggestions for future research.
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the process of virtual influencer stickiness in the age of influencer marketing, which has received little attention in the literature. This is ...essential because the research creates a theoretical model of follower loyalty/stickiness to virtual influencer techniques from the standpoint of influencer marketing, which has a substantial effect on the evolution of the global marketing world.Design/methodology/approachIn 2022, 302 people who currently follow an Instafamous virtual influencer took part in an Instagram self-administered online survey.FindingsThe findings show that both expertise and trustworthiness have a positive and significant influence on parasocial interaction, which in turn has a significant influence on virtual engagement and stickiness.Originality/valueThis research will specifically assist international readers in understanding how to harness and increase the efficiency and efficacy of interactive marketing strategies and methods to engage and retain followers of Instafamous virtual influencer. Moreover, the findings will be beneficial to opinion leaders, brand managers, company investors, entrepreneurs and service designers.HighlightsThe study pioneers a holistic virtual follower stickiness mechanism that comprises the role of source credibility, parasocial interaction, informational influence and virtual follower’s engagement and their interrelationship to each other.This study is based on parasocial interaction theory and source credibility theory to understand the relationship between virtual followers and influencers stickiness process at social media platforms.In addition, the study examined the subsequent effects of sources of credibility components on parasocial interaction; as well as, on virtual follower engagement and stickiness.This study also categorized and examined the moderating effects exerted by the genres of informative influence of virtual influencer.
In June 2020, millions of Instagram users shared black squares along with hashtags including #BlackOutTuesday and #BlackLivesMatter before pausing their social media content for the day. At first in ...solidarity with the music industry, the black squares were co-opted by uninformed users hoping to show their support of Black Lives Matter in the wake of the murder of George Floyd while in police custody. Through 20 interviews with social media influencers about the #BlackLivesMatter discourse occurring on Instagram in the summer of 2020, I argue that for many influencers, the posting of black squares was performative allyship utilized strategically to build and maintain credibility with followers. Influencers were unable to genuinely merge their existing brand image with the Black Lives Matter movement long-term, resulting in the memeification of social justice activism and no substantial progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion within the wellness creator industry on Instagram.
The influencer industry follows a paradigm of letting go of control, which assumes that collaborations with influencers will only be effective if marketers grant influencers substantial autonomy in ...their conduct. However, yielding control constitutes a risk to marketers, because influencers might act differently than desired. This article assumes that, rather than letting go of control, marketers are developing a set of control techniques that are compatible with the paradigm. Grounded in multiple data sources (a secondary analysis of data from two interview studies, ethnographic field data, and member check interviews), it draws on organizational control theory to identify 11 control techniques that marketers employ when collaborating with influencers. In doing so, this article contributes to emerging research on the power structures in the influencer industry. In particular, it adds to the body of knowledge by systematically accounting for marketers’ set of control techniques and identifying hitherto undescribed techniques. On a broader level, this article reconstructs the paradigm of letting go of control in the influencer industry, while simultaneously providing a critical scrutiny of this paradigm.
Singapore has completely banned e-cigarettes and the government's cautious stance against vaping has been consistent. Despite this, vaping appears to have gained popularity in Singapore, especially ...among younger people. With the heavy marketing of vaping products on social media, it is possible that such marketing, due to its cross-border nature, is reaching younger Singaporeans and driving changes in vaping-related perceptions or behaviours. This study examines their exposure to vaping-related content on social media, and whether such exposure is associated with more positive perceptions of vaping or e-cigarette ever use.
Analysis of cross-sectional survey data of 550 adult (age 21-40 years) Singaporeans recruited via convenience methods in May 2022, using descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, and multiple linear and logistic regression models.
16.9% of participants reported they had ever used e-cigarettes. 18.5% of those who used social media recalled seeing vaping-related content on a social media platform in the past 6 months, mostly from influencers or friends, and on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and/or YouTube. Reporting exposure to such content was not associated with e-cigarette ever use. It was associated with having a more positive overall perception of vaping (β=1.47; 95% CI: 0.17 to 2.78), although no significant difference was observed when examining only health-related perceptions.
Even in a heavily regulated environment such as Singapore's, people appear to be exposed to vaping-related content on social media platforms and this exposure is, in turn, associated with more positive perceptions of vaping, but not e-cigarette ever use.
To combat climate change, it is of vital importance that people change their behaviors. This study explores how influencers, or so-called greenfluencers, on Instagram could be utilized to stimulate ...pro-environmental behavior. We examine the effects of influencer-message congruence on influencer credibility (i.e. trustworthiness and expertise) and pro-environmental intentions, and compare the effects of influencer-message congruence between micro- (1000-10,000 followers) and meso- (10,000-1 million followers) influencers. Results of a 2 (influencer-message: incongruence vs. congruence) × 2 (influencer type: micro- vs. meso-influencer) online experiment amongst 201 Instagram users revealed that influencer-message congruence increased influencer credibility and pro-environmental intentions. Influencer credibility did not appear to be the underlying mechanism of the effect of congruence on pro-environmental intentions. Moreover, influencer type did not moderate the effect of influencer-message congruence. Our results imply that choosing an influencer whose image aligns with the pro-environmental message is important to stimulate Instagram users' pro-environmental behavior.
Due to the unique nature of wine as a consumer product, wine bloggers and influencers have a high degree of influence among wine consumers. This has led to many wine aficionados and experts creating ...wine blogs. In order to build their followings and influence, these wine bloggers often need to drive engagement on their posts across multiple social media platforms. In this paper, we set out to find the factors that most increase Twitter engagement among wine bloggers. We describe a study that considers a sample of wine bloggers and using a textual analysis tool (LIWC), with the objective of identifying three key factors that can help wine bloggers increase engagement. The factors include avoiding full-text numbers and interrogatives and increasing the use of personal pronouns. We then conclude by discussing limitations and avenues for future research.
PDF
